Street Team Case Study

A team of intervention workers were recently sent out to a group of young people who were causing anti-social behaviour by throwing stones at passing vehicles; causing much concern from people in the community.

The police would often be called, leading to them running and hiding in their neighbourhood. Our teams were dispatched to go and build relationships with the young people and find out what was happening from the young people’s perspective.

With cuts to services and limited access for the young people to play, they had become bored; much of the area didn’t allow ball games. Once our workers built relationships with the young people, we were able to demonstrate the risks and dangers of throwing stones at passing vehicles.

The young people expressed they didn’t really want to cause harm or injury to anybody, but were bored – so getting the police out to chase them provided them with a source of entertainment, as they were confident they wouldn’t be caught once they got onto their estate.

ACT are currently working with the young people to find new sources of entertainment. Over the last 4 years, ACT have been providing Detached Youth Intervention Services across Walsall and Birmingham.

We have engaged with groups of young people on the streets, in order to share information, discuss concerns and options, and advocate on young people’s behalf and support young people to make better decisions.

We have often operated in response to anti-social behaviour being carried out by groups of young people, where police intervention has proved to be ineffective.

Having worked with many young people and their families through schools and other projects, we have built many positive relationships with young people in many of the key areas across the West Midlands. This enables us to gain quick access to young people, build trusted relationships and support young people within their chosen spaces.

We have found in recent times, where concerns around knife crime have become more prevalent across the media – it is often communicated unfiltered and without reasonable discussions where young people can process the information properly and work out how to respond.

This can cause anxiety and fear of victimisation – and in these situations, attempts to discourage young people from carrying knives can in fact cause them to carry knives in order to increase their sense of security and protection.

Having teams of trained intervention workers armed with the right knowledge and information, along with the skills to build trusted relationships with young people can quickly dispel myths, misconceptions and misinformation, helping young people to make better decisions.

Through our Detached intervention services, we are able to map areas and gather data to establish trends and patterns and identify the services young people really need that will make a positive difference to their lives.

Our services help us to form critical relationships with young people, which help to facilitate the key relationships that help pull young people back from becoming deeply entrenched in gangs, criminal activity, anti-social behaviour and serious youth violence.

These services will become even more essential as schools become closed, leaving the many vulnerable young people open to exploitation, criminality, anti-social behaviour and serious violence.

Young people no longer in school, with the fear and increasing uncertainty, further threats to income, food supply etc, could be used as an opportunity to engage in civil disobedience, anti-social behaviour, criminality and violence – where scenes similar to that of the 2011 riots, could quickly re-emerge. The police becoming more heavy handed in seeking to maintain order will possibly only fuel existing tensions in communities where relationships are already fragile.

If you would like more information on our services please contact us on 0121 356 1944 or using the details on our contact page.