The Therapeutic Intervention for Peace (TIP) Programme provides one-to-one support and bespoke therapeutic group workshops to young people at risk of youth violence. The programme, which is co-produced and delivered by the charity Power The Fight, takes a preventative, whole systems approach, offering a range of consultancy, training, workshops, supervision and reflective practice. The TIP team includes psychologists, youth practitioners and an art therapist, who all bring their own creative approaches and expertise to the programme and ensure that young people from diverse backgrounds feel able to access the support. One key focus of the project is on tackling school exclusion, and support and guidance is also offered to teachers, staff, parents and carers as part of the programme, including, for example, cultural sensitivity training for teachers and staff. It seeks to embed a longer-term therapeutic approach across the system. An evaluation of the delivery of the approach in two schools and one alternative provision setting in South London over a 12 month period highlighted positive findings of the approach. TIP was also innovative in its approach to data collection, adapting assessments to individual children and their needs, with one approach being for a child to kick a football in a direction to indicate their answer to a question! Findings include improvements in wellbeing scores, better understanding of mental health, coping mechanisms and self-regulation and better engagement in school or alternative provision and prevention of exclusion. Improvements were also noted in staff wellbeing, as well as evidence increased cultural sensitivity and inclusivity and better partnerships.
From September 2023, TIP will be delivered in three secondary schools that are all part of the same school trust which will enable the programme to be tested at a trust wide level, with more opportunity to develop the system change aspects of the work. Power The Fight continue to share their learning with the youth, education and therapeutic sectors through regular research reports that are available on the website and it is hoped that, in the future, this learning element will become more embedded through partnerships with other organisations who might want to take a similar approach to addressing youth violence and increasing access to culturally sensitive, therapeutic support.