Two community projects in Bedford have been handed thousands of pounds in funding to help tackle serious youth violence.
Youth Time, which was set up by dance students from Wixams Academy, was awarded £10,000 and aims to create a dance based story about Isaac Stone.
Isaac was just 19 when he was stabbed to death in 2014.
Read: Sister of murdered Issac Stone helps Bedfordshire police search for knives
The group will provide free performances to schools in Kempston, Cauldwell and Kingsbrook, and also discuss the effects and consequences of knife crime with students.
They’ll be working alongside Dynamic Decisions, a group set up by Isaac’s sister Channitta Lendore which educates young people about gangs and knife crime.
The students also plan to hold a youth conference for young people, parents and members of the community discuss issues and ideas on tackling knife crime.
The remaining £5,000 was awarded to The Show, which is a a TV based community project.
They will give young people a space to discuss and debate where they live and the problems they face. They’ll use the cash to buy more equipment to produce the TV show.
The funding was donated by Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Kathryn Holloway.
Communities voted for the projects
The projects were chosen out of seven that took part in the Bid4Better Participatory Budgeting scheme, which gave seven community projects a chance to bid for the funding.
Local people saw presentations from each of them and then voted for the one they believe will have the greatest impact in helping tackle serious youth violence.
“I’d like to congratulate the winning projects”, said Chief Inspector Mo Aziz, from the Bedford community policing team.
“Both are great ideas in helping us tackle serious youth violence issues in these particular areas and I look forward to seeing the progress they make,”
“This process was a great success and to have seven brilliant projects involved was fantastic to see.
“It was really important to give people living in those areas the opportunity to choose the projects they think will have the biggest effect on helping to solve these issues.”
Bedfordshire Police has highlighted tackling serious youth violence as a priority and last year there was a nine per cent decrease in incidents of serious youth violence in the county.
For support about getting out of a gang, or information on serious youth violence, visit the Bedfordshire Violence and Exploitation Reduction Unit’s website.
