Built Environment

We helped a developer understand the unintended consequences of their regeneration plans on a large estate. Helping them understand that aesthetics and convenience created rat runs that reinforce antisocial behaviour and multiple escape routes from law enforcement. Bin stores ideal stash locations, and natural congregation areas. Our experience afforded the developers to avoid past mistakes made where built environment had unintended nagative consequences of creating the grounds by which social issues later take root. 

Housing

We supported a housing association identify and support vulnerable communities in a sink estate. Our previous lives give us a unique perspective as experts in behaviour. We made careers out of identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities and social breakdown. Our work allowed our partner to identify people being exploited or abused. To intervene in places and create offer support that avoided customers being exploited in the first place. It identified three homes where issues of cuckooing was occuring, one trap house used to stash illicit material and an elderly man's flat being used for prostitution. All of which was previously under the radar and unreported. 

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We supported another housing assiciation with an anti-gang programme. They had correctly identified substance abuse as a signficant driver of ASB, crime and vandalism. We helped them to understand that though gangs didn't live in their properties they were nonetheless impacted by the outcomes of their trade. We worked with the housing association and the adjoining local authority from which the gangs were based to prevent drug dealing to support the substance abuse programme. Directy resulting in reduction of ASB, increased sense of social cohesion and improved relationships between customer and landlord as they understood our client cared and was acting. 

Social Workers

Our work with social workers within a local authority helped give social workers a better contextual overview of the young people they supported. Working with the LA we enhanced their training around lone working, safeguarding, CSE, grooming, violence and crime by giving them a youth centric focus that they could relate to the indicators that they were trained to identify. The contexutal framework gives greater insight and responses around collaborative and cross departmental working. It helped the LA to understand that silos existed that stymied various teams from achieving a result. understanding the intersection of how their work impacted each other and working in concert achieved far greater impact than merely working on the individual. Importantly for social workers, the interactive safety of our sessions gave them the confidence to ask questions, understand cause and effect of their actions on young people through the prism of how we had reacted, circumvented or avoided their work having impact. Social workers effectiveness consequently went up as did customer satisfaction with their support. 

Police

As part of a conference we hosted indivual workshops supporting Police outreach teams engage with hard to reach and marginalised youth. Specifically we were able to fascilitate neutral and productive sessions between the police and black youth, that gave both sides the opportunity to engage in a non adverserial manner. 

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We have similarly worked directly with different borough commanders to help improve their community policing in racially charged settings by giving them hard hitting sessions in a Q&A setting. These sessions allow for police to query approaches, actions and rationalisations with our practitioners where we can stress test the reaction forces will face. It helps to break down the barriers and unforseen hurdles imposed on them and self inflicted. For example police reporting often citing the incarceration of black youth and people generally as a "positive outcome" failing to understand that language like that only reinforces the us versus them narrative. Both individuals and communities from BAME backgrounds for example taking humbridge with the police implying incarceration of their community as positive. 

schools

We have worked pan london with staff and faculty across a range of schools. Our toolkit and sessionsa re designed to raise their skill level and confidence of schools to be better able to identify and react to the indicators of crime, violence, sexual abuse and truancy. 

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As always these sessions are interactive and focused on the schools specific issues and concerns. We support staff in a judgment free setting to better understand the pressures, influences and likely goings on outside of campus that impact on campus. Empowering staff to better deal with and act earlier before issues escalate to crisis. Our sessions allow staff to identify at risk children, we give an overview of statutory and CVS support available to them locally and how to signpost or get the relevant services involved. We also help train staff on how to approach the sensitive topics with parents and the young person to ensure support is given and engagement guaranteed. 

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