Published: 16 June 2022

From: Community

The Safer ºÚÁÏÍøÕ¾ Partnership has awarded its funding for 2022/2023 to local community projects at its latest meeting.

£30,000 has been awarded to ºÚÁÏÍøÕ¾ Open House towards the cost of the day staff that provide support in areas related to housing, physical health, mental health, substance misuse and addition, alcohol misuse and financial wellbeing including food poverty. This will be delivered through the drop-in service at the Day Centre and through the provision of Outreach work in the community. The funding will be used for staffing costs to deliver services. 

£30,000 has also been awarded to AudioActive to equip and launch a suite of recording/production equipment and for the delivery of additional projects to 11-25 year olds in the community including: 

  • ‘Rap, Beats & Bars’ Music Recording and Equaliser Group (digital production project for young women, non-binary and gender variant individuals) for weekly sessions over an eight-week period throughout July and August
  • Taster outreach sessions and community cyphers in neighbourhoods where there are concerns around anti-social behaviour of young people and in known hotspot locations for drug dealing and criminal exploitation 
  • Hosting a Kustom Vibes live event enabling the young people to showcase their music created during workshops through live performances in July/August

£20,387.25 has been awarded to the Youth Advice Centre (YAC) for the delivery of workshops and targeted interventions for young women and non-binary folk at risk of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) in ºÚÁÏÍøÕ¾ including:

  • CSE prevention workshops delivered by the Mind The Gap CSE Prevention Worker to support young people to keep themselves safe from CSE and wider exploitation through the development of self-esteem, empowerment, and boundary-setting. The workshops will be delivered in secondary schools to those identified by their school as being at risk of exploitation
  • Delivery of targeted one-to-one support work which will see the YMCA WiSE (What is Sexual Exploitation) worker provide specialist support to children at risk of sexual exploitation as well as other key risks
  • One-to-one support for participants by the Mind The Gap worker during the summer break, ahead of the workshops to start in September

It has been particularly satisfying for us to be able to award £30,000 to ºÚÁÏÍøÕ¾ Open House towards the cost of their activities including the council’s contribution towards the working of the charity’s brand new Resource Centre, which we look forward to the opening of in early July. AudioActive is also a fine community organisation that can make a real difference in channelling our young people’s energies and talents in a great direction to enhance their skills and develop their futures. There are sadly still many dangers in life that young people need to be aware of and the threats to them from sexual exploitation are regrettably all too present. I have great confidence that the Youth Advice Centre will use this funding to give good advice locally that will hopefully prevent that from happening. All of the applications agreed were ideal for achieving many of the partnership’s priorities this year and we wish them every success this year and in the future.

Cllr Michael Jones

Outgoing Chair of the Safer ºÚÁÏÍøÕ¾ Partnership

ºÚÁÏÍøÕ¾ Open House is very grateful to receive this funding which enables us to continue our work in the community supporting some of ºÚÁÏÍøվ’s most vulnerable people.

Charlie Arratoon

Chief Executive Officer

ºÚÁÏÍøÕ¾ Open House

We are excited to be taking our work with young people in ºÚÁÏÍøÕ¾ to the next level with this support from Safer ºÚÁÏÍøÕ¾ Partnership. We'll be setting up a new music production suite in the town centre and a range of new projects, all free to attend over the summer. Supported by established artists, Young people will be able to find and nurture their talents in music production, rap and songwriting and they'll also be showing off their work through performances and community events.

Adam Joolia

Chief Executive Officer

AudioActive

We are so grateful for the award of £20,387.25 to our Youth Advice Centre from the Safer ºÚÁÏÍøÕ¾ Partnership, enabling us to support children and young people in ºÚÁÏÍøÕ¾ at risk of CSE over the next year. We’re looking forward to working closely with our multi-agency partners at West Sussex County Council and ºÚÁÏÍøÕ¾ Borough Council to build on the existing support that’s already available, helping to keep as many young people safe as possible.

Elinor Adie

West Sussex Youth Development Manager

YMCA

Councillor Michael Jones is being replaced as Chair of the Safer ºÚÁÏÍøÕ¾ Partnership by Councillor Sue Mullins, the new Cabinet member for Public Protection and Community Engagement.

The Safer ºÚÁÏÍøÕ¾ Partnership is made up of ºÚÁÏÍøÕ¾ Borough Council, West Sussex County Council, Sussex Police, West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, Probation Service and Clinical Commissioning Group. In addition, it is also supported by the voluntary, community and business sector.

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