Greenwich Youth for Christ
184-186 Westcombe Hill
Blackheath
SE3 7DH
Violence Intervention Project
The Violence Intervention Project (V.I.P) is a community based project that seeks to challenge and change the culture of violence. It seeks to enable children and their families to stay safe from crime and antisocial behaviour through developing the necessary skills and strategies to cope with and resolve conflict and aggressive behaviour non-violently. It uses a programme of therapy, parenting classes, children’s social skills groups and school support and works with children aged 5-10 and their families.
The VIP project was born out of our existing youth work which had mainly focussed on 11-19 year olds, many of whom were caught in cycles of crime and violence. It became apparent, in line with much current research, that we needed to develop work with a much younger age group if we were to be more effective in challenging a violent culture.
V.I.P. therefore seeks to make an impact on the lives of young people aged between 5-10 fostering positive community cohesion enabling participants to see that there are other options to crime, violence and anti-social behaviour.
The Vision
‘We have known members of a local gang for over 8 years and we’ve seen them develop self destructive coping strategies to survive an increasingly violent culture….’
V.I.P. aims to challenge increasing levels of criminality and violence evident in our working environment - the Ferrier Estate - and other similar urban areas. We have witnessed and experienced the stress and damage that violence causes. The young people we work with are often dangerous to themselves and their communities. There are often complex issues behind their behaviour such as: drug and alcohol misuse, low self esteem and family breakdown. These coupled with local perceptions of young people, gangs and an exaggerated fear of crime create a ‘pressure cooker environment’, Having worked with these increasingly violent and damaged children and young people over the past 8 years, we identified the need to establish a robust programme of preventative work.
