New partnership keeps North East Lincolnshire's young people out of crime
The council and Humberside Police have joined forces with a business group
A new partnership has launched in North East Lincolnshire, in a bid to get young people involved in business and out of crime.
Humberside Police have joined forces with the borough's council, with hopes to expand the project into North Lincolnshire, Hull and the East Riding if it's successful.
The Business Hive group is the third part of the partnership, working with organisations in the area.
The club will encourage its members to provide support for vulnerable 14 to 24-year-olds, such as work experience or mentoring.
The Business Hive manager, Jo Taylor, told Greatest Hits Radio: "These young people, they maybe haven't had a great upbringing, they've fallen on hard times. There's many different reasons that these young people have not had the right start in life but that doesn't mean we should write them off. Every young person deserves a chance.
"These could be the workforce of the future. If they go into criminality, if they go into some sort of exploitation, we've lost them. If we can get them into a mentoring situation or get them some work experience, let them know that there's some hope out there, this is going to help the wider community.
"The hope in the coming weeks and months is that these young people will be motivated to go after their dreams and motivated to want a better life for themselves and for their future family and for the area that they live in. This is really for the wider community and for the future."
Humberside Police DCI Phil Booker says there are real dangers of children and teenagers getting involved in so called county lines drug operations:
"One of the tactics that the organised crime groups do is target young people and offer them gifts, money and things like that. So if they haven't got any hopes or aspirations or they 're not doing particularly well at school - they think what choice have they got so criminality is a way forward for them. If we can get young people into employment that can divert them away from criminality"