National Award For EitC Youth Programme

National Award For EitC Youth Programme

Everton in the Community’s ’41 Goodison Road’ programme was recently recognised as ‘Organisation of the Year’ at the Howard League’s Community Awards.

The annual awards recognise successful community projects that reduce crime and transform lives. It also celebrates best practice in diversionary work and champion work in the community that challenges and changes people for the better whether it be with children, women, mental health programmes or restorative justice.

Open to statutory agencies and voluntary organisations that are developing diversionary schemes, the awards were presented at a national conference in London at the start of November where more than a dozen of the very best schemes in the country were recognised.

The Organisation of the Year category was won by two projects – Everton in the Community’s ’41 Goodison Road’ programme and Giroscope, a charity based in Hull.

Everton in the Community’s ’41 Goodison Road’ programme is a house that provides a unique home-like environment for young people to have a safe place where they develop their skills, access education and employment opportunities. It houses the charity’s early intervention and crime reduction programmes to provide a ‘young persons offer’ and that vital front door to knock at in a crisis.

EitC’s youth justice programme reaches into some of the most challenging and hard-to-reach groups across Merseyside and operates across the entire spectrum; helping and supporting young people in the youth justice system itself to a focus on crime prevention in areas of high anti-social behaviour and crime. All programmes offered at ’41 Goodison Road’ offer a significant importance to tackling high levels of crime and an emphasis is placed on those young people who have or are at risk of offending, in care or leaving care. 162 young people have accessed 41 Goodison in the last year for intense support and more than 2,000 young people have accessed the programme’s early intervention community activities which have reduced crime by 75-82 per cent.

'41 Goodison Road’ was nominated by Sergeant Mike Brumskill, Merseyside Police Community Relations Officer, for the charity’s ongoing work in reducing crime. The police commended Everton in the Community for its long-standing work with them through the Kicks programme which then resulted in the formation of Safe Hands, Breathing Space and more recently, Home Is Where The Heart Is.’

The Howard League for Penal Reform is the oldest penal reform charity in the world. It is a national charity working for less crime, safer communities and fewer people in prison.

For more information on the Howard League visit www.howardleague.org

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