The Brighton Streets project offers early relationship based interventions to teenagers in an attempt to prevent them from getting involved in youth violence. Funded by the Brighton & Hove Violence Reduction Partnership, this programme operates across the city and is run by Trust for Developing Communities, alongside community development charities, the Hangleton and Knoll Project and the Tarner Community Project. Brighton Streets is built around the idea that youth work should be detached and streetbased, and proactively brought to young people where they are, in keeping with criminological theory. It focuses on developing trusted relationships and taking a personcentred approach to create a safe space for young people and empower them as part of the community. Taking a preventative approach, detached youth workers are trained to support people across a number of issues related to mental health, sexual health, knife crime and substance misuse or provide referrals to other specialists, as well as being able to divert young people towards other positive projects.
Brighton Streets was evaluated by the Centre for Education and Youth in 2021, who emphasised the advantage and value to young people of being able to access help and support that comes to them, rather than requiring them to seek out specific services. The research suggested that the Brighton Streets approach to youth work helped young people to feel safe and to de-escalate potentially unsafe situations, as well as providing them
with someone to talk to. The evaluation also suggested that detached youth work did support a decline in crime and violence - this was due partly to the physical presence of youth workers on the street, but also because young people gained a greater understanding of the consequences of crime. The research did suggest improvements could be made in terms of youth workers advertising their location and facilitating links with other specific services, but this model of youth work appears to engage young people and help steer them away from criminality. The initiative won the 2021 CYPN Partnership Award.
trustdevcom.org.uk/what-we-do/young-people/brighton-streets-2