Wiltshire PCC visits Swindon youth mentor service
SMASH were visited by PCC Philip Wilkinson yesterday
Wiltshire's Police and Crime Commissioner, Philip Wilkinson, has been in Swindon this week - attending a youth club session run by SMASH, an established youth mentoring service, based in the town.
SMASH is made up of a small team of professional mentors, who all work to provide safe spaces and practical support for young people.
The organisation has been working in and around Swindon and North Wiltshire for more than two decades, and it's recently been confirmed that they are set to get thousands of pounds of funding to help them do even more for youth in the town.
Recently, SMASH was handed £5,000 - thanks to the PCC's Community Action Fund - something that's designed to provide small pots of cash to help groups in tackling local concerns.
This money will help towards a new detached youth work project that will take their mentoring expertise onto the streets.
SMASH is also set to set to receive a grant of £497,000 after a successful bid from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner to the latest round of the Home Office’s “Safer Streets Fund”, where £998,251 was secured from the £42 million pot.
Andy Malcolm, the CEO of SMASH, told us: "SMASH has been around for nearly 25 years, and throughout that time, we continue to see the impact of partnering skilled and trusted adults with young people, mentoring across all kinds of spheres of life, which can make a really profound difference.
"Hopefully this work with the PCC helps these young people stay away from crime.
"We're really grateful that the PCC prioritises young people both, in word and in action, and makes funding available for organisations like ours.
"It's a symbiotic relationship, too, because of in terms of how we operate, it's a little bit of applying for grants, and it's a little bit of us trying to make our work fit with the PCC's wider priorities in Wiltshire.
"SMASH has always been an independent organisation - and that's something that's really important to us. We do rely on funding like this, and we find with our work with young people that, by holding that independent line, they actually really do respect that. It helps us build their trust and their engagement with us.
"Hopefully, we can now work with the PCC to expand some of this street-based mentoring work, and really expand what we do in and around Swindon."
Back in October, the Police and Crime Commissioner announced almost £1 million of additional funding will be invested in Swindon and Wiltshire to support targeted community projects tackling neighbourhood crime.
These include burglary, robbery, theft and vehicle theft, as well as reducing violence against women and girls (VAWG), following a successful bid to the Home Office's Safer Streets Fund.
Andy, from SMASH, said: Andy Malcolm is the CEO of SMASH, a youth mentoring service in Swindon and Wiltshire which is set to receive a grant of £497,000:
“We’re delighted to be part of the Safer Streets Round 5 partnership with the OPCC, leading a collaboration of brilliant youth work organisations across Swindon and Wiltshire to provide Street-based mentoring and interventions.
“Working with The Bridge Project, The Rise Trust and Iprovefit, this funding will allow us to increase the presence of high quality youth workers on the streets of Swindon, Salisbury and Chippenham, as well as provide exceptional one to one mentoring for those young people most at risk of engaging in crime.
“We know this funding will not only lead to safer communities, but also create opportunities for young people to thrive across Swindon and Wiltshire."
Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson said: “The latest figures show we’ve seen a 15% increase in knife crime compared to a 3% rise nationally in Swindon and Wiltshire.
“We need to get to the root cause of these offences and engage with young people before they’re dragged into situations they find difficult to get out of.
“This latest investment will allow my office, our new Serious Violence Duty Co-ordinator, and our partners to work towards that goal through these projects.
“The projects address the issues that matter to people, such as anti-social behaviour, making the streets safer for women and girls, and burglary and robbery. This focus on prevention backs the work of Wiltshire Police as they get tough on offenders, reducing the number of innocent people becoming victims.
“By using this funding from Government efficiently and effectively, working in partnership, we will see projects that make a positive difference in these areas, delivering the priorities in my Police and Crime Plan to reduce violence and serious harm and to tackle crimes that matter to local communities.”
You can also find out more about the PCC's Community Action Fund on their website.