Nearly 500 young people across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent have taken part in an innovative Virtual Reality (VR) in education programme that is helping to support thousands nationally who are at …
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About Us
Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent's Violence Reduction Alliance (VRA) is taking a partnership approach to prevent violence and violence against women & girls (VAWG).
Our Aim
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent’s Violence Reduction Alliance (VRA) is a multi-agency partnership aiming to work together to strengthen the visibility, early identification and partnership response to prevent violence and its associated harms.
Overall crime rates within Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent are well below national and regional averages; however, to improve our position through early intervention and prevention the Staffordshire Police, Fire & Rescue and Crime Commissioner formed the VRA in March 2021.
The VRA works in partnership with a broad range of agencies to understand the causes and consequences of violence, focusing on early intervention and prevention and informed by evidence and evaluation of interventions.
You can find out more about our plans and initiatives in our Violence Reduction Strategy below:
Our Approach
The VRA takes a public health approach to tackling violence by working with a range of agencies, with no professional boundaries, to address its root causes.
We use data to understand violent crimes better and take an evidence-based approach to ensure the interventions we use are likely to work. By understanding the root causes of violence both short- and long-term solutions are generated. To deliver our strategy, we foster robust partnership work to deliver five priority areas:
Watch this short video, created by South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit, to learn more about the Public Health Approach.
Serious Violence Duty
Introduced as part of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, the Serious Violence Duty is a key part of the Government’s wider programme of work to prevent and reduce serious violence. In 2022/23 the VRA Board became the accountable body for the delivery of the new Serious Violence Duty across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
The Duty requires specified authorities to work together to plan, share data, intelligence and knowledge, to generate evidence-based analysis of the problem and solutions to prevent and reduce serious violence in local areas.
The specified authorities are: Police, Fire and Rescue, Integrated Care Board, Youth Offending Services, Probation and Local Authorities.
Since the VRA Board became the accountable body, partners have attended workshops with Crest Advisory (commissioned by the Home Office to deliver bespoke support and ensure each area is ready to comply with the Duty) to discuss the partnership work already being undertaken locally to help prevent and reduce violence. Following these workshops Crest Advisory have assessed the VRA as ‘ready‘ to deliver the Duty.
Help and Support available to you
Visit our Support page for further information and advice on where to go for support.
Campaigns
We are taking a partnership and inclusion approach to bringing about positive changes in communities throughout Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent. These projects are created or selected based on understanding and needs of local communities, brought by those who are living and working within them.
Latest News
The public is being urged to surrender any so-called ‘zombie’ knives to designated police stations across Staffordshire as the government looks to launch its national amnesty compensation scheme next week. …
Staffordshire Police officers across Staffordshire will be raising awareness of drink-spiking and the work we do to support victims, as part of a national campaign to help people stay safe …
The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Violence Reduction Alliance (VRA) has funded two online workshops for parents and carers on gangs, exploitation and knife crime which will be delivered by the Ben …
