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Humankind’s Community Diversion Service host Connor Brown’s Trust for Knife Crime Awareness Week

Jasmine Rocks

Stacey Taylor from Humankind’s Community Diversion service writes about their recent experience meeting with Tanya and Simon Brown, who lost their son Connor due to knife crime.

As part of Knife Crime Awareness Week, we were privileged to be able to host Connor Brown’s parents, Tanya and Simon. They gave a talk about knife crime and the impact it has had on them personally after they lost their son. They shared the devastating story of how their son was taken away from them in 2019, due to being stabbed multiple times on a night out after trying to diffuse a fight.

Tanya and Simon spoke further about the work they do alongside Samantha’s Legacy, another trust set up in memory of a young person who tragically lost her life to knife crime. While the charities are in two different locations – Connor Brown’s Trust in Sunderland and Samantha’s Legacy in Newcastle – they stand as united organisations.

Connor Brown’s Trust delivers workshops to young people, to show the personal impact that knife crime has on people. They put the word ‘impact’ into a completely different perspective for people by asking who the first person is we think of in the situation of a knife crime attack. The first answer is normally ‘the victim’ and the second answer is normally ‘the victim’s family and friends’.

During the workshops, however, they explain that there is also the perpetrator, the perpetrator’s family and friends, witnesses, witnesses’ families, the police, and emergency services. This completely broadens everyone’s perspective on how many people can be affected by a singular incident and the subsequent ripple effect.

Connor Brown’s Trust also details what they believe to be the main factors that influence young people to carry knives, such as peer pressure and social media influence. Tanya and Simon shared that one of the main questions they ask young people during the workshops is ‘What do you do if you find a knife?’ and follow up by explaining the right procedure to follow.

Tanya and Simon also educate young people about what can constitute as a weapon. This helps to open young people’s eyes to the wide range of items that are classed as an offensive weapon – not just knives. Things such as scissors, screwdrivers, and broken bottles.

Tanya and Simon also raise awareness of an anonymous reporting website, Fearless, where anyone can report a crime without being identified or contacted for further information. This website is a great resource for us to educate people who attend our Community Diversion service, allowing them to feel more comfortable reporting something they are worried about.

Tanya and Simon shared information about the community hub they are currently building in Pennywell as part of their trust. They also described a scheme they piloted with 17 young people where, through virtual reality, they were able to observe the actual crime scene where their son Connor was attacked, as well as visit the courts and cells and meet with a vascular surgeon. They provided guidance on how to treat wounds and raised awareness of where the nearest bleed kits are in their communities, while also allowing the young people to meet police officers, inspectors and sergeants. Tanya and Simon have also created a map where you can locate your nearest bleed kit in the area.

Our Community Diversion Service team found Simon and Tanya’s work truly inspirational, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the room as they told their story. The work and messages they share will inform the team’s work. It is admirable how they have taken such a devasting and tragic event and used it to power them to change so many other people’s lives.

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Knife Crime Awareness Week

Jasmine Rocks

Monday 20 May – Sunday 26 May 2024 marks Knife Crime Awareness Week.

The campaign is hosted by the Ben Kinsella Trust to shine a spotlight on the devastating ripple effects knife crime has on families and communities. It’s an annual week of advocacy to raise awareness, educate and take action to stop knife crime

This week, Humankind’s Community Diversion Service, which is funded by the Northumbria Violence Reduction Unit, will be raising awareness of the impacts of knife crime, and the work they are doing across the North East.

Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, Susan Dungworth, said: “I fully support the #StopKnifeCrime initiative spearheaded by The Ben Kinsella Trust. We all must take responsibility and work together to prevent further devastation for families and communities impacted by knife crime.

“Throughout this awareness week, the Violence Reduction Unit is delivering crucial education to hundreds of young people in schools and community settings. Alongside a range of partners, we are ensuring additional support is available through our Community Diversion Service. This vital intervention sees us identifying young people vulnerable to serious violence, working with them to address their needs and change their behaviour, as well as providing wider support to their families.

“I want to make sure we are reaching young people before they ever consider picking up a knife, which is why it is all the more important that initiatives such as this exist. The more we continue to raise awareness, provide our young people with the knowledge and tools they need to stay safe and carry out a range of targeted activities, the more we can collectively tackle knife crime head-on.”

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Humankind publishes Impact Report for 2022/23

Jack Keery

We are proud to publish our annual report detailing the impact Humankind had on people and communities across England throughout 2022/23.

Last year, we supported 106,558 people to achieve their goals and fulfil their potential.

Every five minutes, an individual accesses one of our services located across our regional footprint of the North East, Bradford, Leeds and North Yorkshire, the North West, South Yorkshire, Calderdale and the Midlands, London and the South, or the South West.

Our workforce – comprised of 2,200 employees and 250 volunteers – is central to our aim of reducing deprivation and exclusion through a range of specialist services provided to young people, families, and adults. These specialist services work across health and wellbeing, drug and alcohol recovery, criminal justice services, housing and independent living, and education and employment.

The Impact Report shares a selection of the many accomplishments from our organisation over the year, including reflections from our working together survey, that 3,750 people who access our services took part in:

  • 97% of people who access our services said they feel respected by our staff.
  • 95% of people said they receive the support they need from us.
  • 95% of people believe our staff have the right skills to support them to meet their goals.

We also surveyed people who work for Humankind, providing vital support every day:

  • 97% felt that they understood the aims of Humankind.
  • 95% understood how what they do contributes to our organisation’s goals.
  • 94% felt supported by their colleagues.
  • 92% found their work interesting and rewarding with 89% stating that the purpose of the organisation made them feel good about their work.

Paul Townsley, Chief Executive Officer at Humankind, said: “It’s the privilege of my career to lead our charity – and it’s the shared stories of the 106,000 people we supported in 2022/23 and our workforce that tell the whole tale.

“I’m proud to share our Impact Report 2022/23 and would like to thank my colleagues for their hard work and dedication, and promise the people we serve we’ll always strive to support and enable them as best we can. We are, and will remain, all about people. We are Humankind.”

Read the Humankind Impact Report 22/23

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Northumberland Recovery Partnership joins Humankind

Jasmine Rocks

We are delighted to welcome the Northumberland Recovery Partnership (NRP) service into Humankind from 1 October 2023. Northumberland Recovery Partnership is a dedicated service for anyone in Northumberland aged 18+ who is experiencing problems with drugs and/or alcohol.

The service offers a range of support provided by medical staff, nurses, and dedicated Recovery Navigators. This includes community-based recovery programmes, help to stay physically healthy, and support with people’s next steps into employment, housing and better health. Twenty three staff and 4 volunteers are transferring to Humankind.

The lead provider for the Northumberland Recovery Partnership continues to be the Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW) which, from October onwards will be working in partnership with Humankind.

Christine Hutchinson, Director of Community Substance Misuse Services with Humankind said “We are really looking forward to working with CNTW to deliver high quality services to the people of Northumberland”

The service will continue to provide the same range of effective, evidence-based support and wherever possible, people will continue to be supported by the same staff. The main change is to the non-residential rehabilitation service, currently the Oaktrees program / building. Going forward, this will be delivered using Humankind’s Recovery Academy, a bespoke recovery programme tailored to offer a range of recovery options. This will build on the existing recovery services, ensuring recovery is open and accessible to all from the start of peoples’ recovery journey.

Find out more about the Northumberland Recovery Partnership

 

 

Remodelling our alcohol support

Jack Keery

A blog post detailing our review and subsequent remodelling of the support we provide to people accessing our services for alcohol related issues, by Stacey Smith, Director of Nursing, and Oliver Standing, Director of Communications & External Affairs.

Dame Carol Black’s recent Independent Review of Drugs shone a welcome light on services for people struggling with their drug use. Happily, it led to a new Drug Strategy and much-needed increase in resourcing for our treatment and recovery systems (albeit during a cost of living crisis). Whilst these changes have benefited some people with alcohol support needs due to the integrated nature of many services, alcohol in and of itself was not including in the scope of the review.

When it comes to supporting people with alcohol problems, as a society, we have never got it right. Alcohol harm has been frustratingly over-looked by successive governments. Over four in five people in England drinking at dependent levels remain outside our support systems. Alcohol related deaths have tragically rocketed in recent years, increasing 27.4% from 2019 to 2021.

At Humankind we are proud of our work in response to this challenge, but we aren’t complacent about the levels of need that still exist. Our DrinkCoach online support platform has delivered almost 1,000 coaching sessions in the last year, with over 21,000 people receiving identification and brief advice (IBA) in the same period through its online test. Our All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) last week brought together parliamentarians in Westminster to hear from the Association of Directors of Public Health’s drug and alcohol lead Alice Wiseman and other speakers on reducing alcohol related harms.

For Alcohol Awareness Week this year, we are proud to say that we have taken the next step in our organisational response.

Alarmed by the increasing number of alcohol related deaths, low numbers of community detoxifications and increasing complexity in the support needs of older people accessing services, we brought together a multi-disciplinary team within Humankind to discuss and review our alcohol support options.

The group recommended greater focus on the full complexity of physical and mental health needs, as well as those of our diverse populations, a broader focus on alcohol treatment as a specialism and a new look at how we see access and engagement particularly from the viewpoint of people using services.

As a result, we have fully redesigned our alcohol support journeys for people entering our services, incorporating evidenced based tools for assessment and a range of treatment options based on need, choice, and health. We have recognised that we need to work differently, ensuring we develop partnerships to support the varied levels of treatment options, from harm reduction advice and information to brief interventions and community detoxification. We have developed specific pathways for older people and those in the criminal justice system.

Whilst this certainly won’t ‘fix’ our support systems in one go, it does feel like an important step forward.

Our early adopter sites in Bradford, Cumbria and London are now implementing the new model and generating the real-world findings we will need to update and optimise it for the rest of our services. Haringey’s HAGA is continuing its proud tradition of innovation in response to alcohol, which has existed since 1981. As the new pathways embed and evolve throughout Humankind, we will collect and share our learning, culminating in a Year One report published in Alcohol Awareness Week 2024.

Please do get in touch if you would like to learn more about the project. By working on structures within Humankind itself we aim to model some of the changes we would like to also see at a system level. There are multiple ways to bring those about, and we are proud to advocate alongside colleagues through the Alcohol Health Alliance, as well as via our APPG.

It is our hope that the welcome recent focus on drugs can be broadened to cover alcohol and that this, and successive, governments can demonstrate the leadership necessary to develop a comprehensive and strategic approach to reducing alcohol related harm and increasing levels of effective support.

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