Residents in Bedford and Kempston have the opportunity this Saturday to vote for the Bid4Better community project they think will have the most impact on tackling serious youth violence in our area.
Seven projects have been chosen to bid for £15,000 of funding donated by Bedfordshire Police at a virtual voting event taking place at 1pm on Saturday 17 April.
The seven projects are based in Bedford and Kempston and each has submitted a short video about what they are planning to do to tackle the issues in their area.
The virtual voting event will be held on Saturday 17 April at 1pm and will give individuals living in these communities the opportunity to vote for the project they think will have the most impact. You can register to take part in the vote here.
Last year, seven projects were showcased and around 40 people living in these communities took part in the virtual event and voted for the project they thought would have the most impact.
The winning project was Youth Time, which won its full bid of £10,011.
The project was set up by dance students from Wixams Academy to highlight knife crime from a young person’s perspective by performing a contemporary dance which depicts the story of Isaac Stone, who was stabbed to death in Bedford at the age of 19.
The second project to win the remaining funding of just under £5,000 was The Show, a TV community show which aims to ensure that young people have the chance to speak about their environment through discussion and debates.
Read: YouthTV launches The Show in Bedford
The projects
Here you can find out more about each of the seven projects ahead of Saturday’s vote.
Mastroe runs BEGraphic which aims to engage with young people in Bedford, especially those that are at risk or disadvantaged, by getting them involved in an eight-week graphic design project that can utilise and most importantly recognise their skills and abilities.
Cricket East Limited runs Cricket4Kempston which uses cricket activities and workshops to help young people channel their energy into physical, structured activity, whilst improving their self-esteem.
The Jubilation Action Group wants to return to helping homeless people in Bedford and has a trailer that needs to be fitted out so the group is able to continue the work they were doing previously.
The Youth Leadership programme is run by Faith in Queens Park and the project will help young people in the Queens Park area with their CVs and provide one to one mentoring amongst other things.
The Town Turnover is an interactive multi-faceted project that aims to address the issues raised in the “Responding to Youth Violence – National Youth Agency” report by sharing and documenting a young person’s perspective and experience on what life is like in Bedford for those who are involved with and/or affected by youth violence.
Country Days will deliver outdoor courses for around 128 children, a proportion of whom are SEND, allowing them to learn new skills in small groups so they can flourish and grow in their skill set and confidence.
Really MAD’s (Really Make A Difference) project involves looking at reducing the risk of potential ‘gang’ conflict by working with small groups of young people who are not consistently engaged in education, employment or training and who have been identified as ‘at risk’ of involvement in anti-social behaviour, offending and or violence.
The groups will meet weekly and engage in a specially developed programme designed to reduce their risk of involvement in anti- social behaviour, knife crime and violence.
How to vote
To take part, you will then need to register with this Eventbrite link, so you will receive the email which will give you the link to Zoom meeting, which is how the voting event will take place.
