Violence Reduction Alliance

Community Engagement

The VRA aims to regularly engage with communities to better understand their views, concerns and what they would like to see locally to help them to live safe and fulfilling lives.

Between February and June 2023, the VRA consulted with children & young people and parents & carers on their perceptions around violence. The findings from the engagement exercises have helped to inform the development of the Violence Reduction Strategy, identify support required locally and help to shape future awareness campaigns. 

Children and Young People

On behalf of the VRA, Staffordshire Council of Voluntary Youth Services (SCVYS) engaged with children and young people aged 11-25 years old living across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. The consultation aimed to understand the views and concerns of young people, and how as a partnership we can work together to improve community safety across the County and City. 

There were two elements to the work; 

Online survey – Over 1,640 children and young people shared their perceptions around violence, community safety, social and digital media and violence against women and girls via an online survey. 

Targeted face to face workshops – 63 young people, who have been directly affected by violence, shared their views through face to face workshops held by a local community group. 

Key findings from the online engagement exercise include: 

  • 58% of respondents felt violence is an issue across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent;
  • 89% of young people said they do not think it is normal for young people to carry a knife in their home area; 
  • 52% said more CCTV would help them to feel safer; 
  • 88% reported they generally felt safe in their home area during the day, but this reduced to 44% during hours of darkness

Read the full report on Young People’s Perception of Violence in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. 

Parents and Carers

With support from local parent group, Chit Chat 4 U, the VRA asked parents and carers for their views around violence and the support available to them on keeping their child safe. 

There were also two elements to this engagement exercise;

Online survey – 96 parents and carers shared their views and concerns via an online survey. 

Targeted face to face workshops – 59 parents and carers, whose child(ren) had been directly affected by violence, attended face to face workshops held by Chit Chat 4 U.

Key findings from the online engagement exercise include: 

  • 46% of parents and carers stated Knife Crime/ carrying an offensive weapons was their top concern;
  • Out of 58 respondents who said they had looked for help/support on how to keep their child safe, 66% said they were not able to find help and support easily;
  • 67% said education/training on topics would help them to feel more confident in starting a conversation with their child;
  • 83% said they would like to receive up to date information on how to keep their child safe. 

Read the full report on Parents and Carers Views on Community Safety and Help and Support available to them.

Young people's perceptions of violence
Parent and carer's views

Co-Production

Where possible, the VRA aims to co-produce solutions, services and awareness campaigns with communities, including those with lived experience. The VRA adopts the co-production principles set out in Staffordshire’s Co-Production Promise and Stoke-on-Trent’s SEND Co-Production Charter. These include: 

  • Include partners and communities at each stage of design and delivery
  • We will “work with” not “do to” by valuing everyone’s strengths and contributions
  • Communicate well with partners and communities, ensuring we are able to adapt our communication to be accessible for everyone
  • Ensure everyone feels comfortable and able to contribute, creating safe spaces for people to get involved and working in a supportive way
  • Be open, honest and kind in our communication 
  • We will value and respect all contributions 

For more information and examples of co-production within Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent take a look at this padlet: Co-production in Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire (padlet.com)

We asked, you said, we will

The image below demonstrates how the findings from the consultation with children and young people have helped to inform the development of the Violence Reduction Strategy and how as a partnership we aim to make Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent a safer place for our communities. The VRA consulted with the Staffordshire Youth Union and Stoke-on-Trent Youth Council to ensure the design was suitable for children. Their views and ideas were listened to and changes were made to the design based on their feedback.

Communications and Engagement Promise

The VRA Communications and Engagement Promise sets out best practice principles when creating communications content and engaging with communities. The VRA will work by these principles and is asking all partners to make their promise and adopt these principles when creating communication content around violence and engaging with communities. 

Help and Support available to you

Visit our Support page for further information and advice on where to go for support.

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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.

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