Youth Design Against Crime

Youth Design Against Crime encourages young people to come up with design-led ideas to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour in their own neighbourhoods.

The project was developed by Catch22 using the Youth Action Group approach. It gives the young people a chance to be part of the solution as opposed to being perceived as the problem in some cases.

Working with the University of Salford and the local police, four groups piloted the programme and all of their ideas were put into action. Since the pilot project, other projects have taken place in Salford and also in London in Lambeth and Southwark through Catch22 Kickstart, funded and supported by J.P.Morgan.
 

Youth Design Against Crime in action

The young people work in groups to develop a design idea on their chosen community safety issue, collect feedback and record their journey with the support of youth workers and police mentors.

At the end of the project the young people have the opportunity to present their idea and journey to a judging panel. Panel members have included senior police officers, leading councillors, representatives from Government departments, community safety specialists and leading figures in youth services.
 

The results

The Youth Design Against Crime Partnership was one of five winners in the 'Established Partnership' category of the Manchester Beacon Summit Awards 2011.

You can find out more about the winning ideas by downloading a casestudy:

Albion High School - A safer subway (pdf)

St Michael and All Angels Academy - Passion 4 Change (pdf)

Lilian Baylis Technology School - The Tunnel Transformers (pdf)

vinvolved Salford's Youth Action Team (pdf)
 

 Taking the ideas forward  

The young people we have worked with have been consistently praised for their creativity, innovation and their ability to come up with practical and achievable designs that can make a genuine difference to crime and anti-social behaviour.

We don’t want these just to be ideas, we want to see them become a reality. We are working with local decision makers to take the ideas forward and we are interested in working with others to make this happen. If this is something that you could help us with, please contact Norman Lloyd - National Programme Manager.

Contact us

Catch22 wants to replicate this successful project in other areas. For more information, please contact Norman Lloyd – National Programme Manager.