Responding effectively to violence affecting young people can feel overwhelming. Dr Karla Goodman discusses the challenge of addressing violence affecting young people and introduces Your Choice, a new approach developed by LIIA, in her recent MJ commentary piece.
Your Choice, a London-based programme to tackle violence affecting young people, brings together best practice in adolescent safeguarding and emphasises a child-first approach to tackling violence.
“In the face of the forces which can appear to be stacked against progress in this critical area of practice for councils and their partners, it is important to have effective tools for the here and now, which provide a space for longer-term public health violence reduction strategies to be deployed (…) In an environment in which those who are working for change can feel helpless, [Your Choice] represents a purposeful and promising development providing much-needed hope for young people and their supporters”.
This new approach, which has been developed by the London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA) and supported by London’s Violence Reduction Unit, is being tested across London’s local authorities. The programme has shown sufficient promise in its Pilot trial for the Youth Endowment Fund to invest in a full randomised control trial over the next 18 months across the capital. This will test the potential effectiveness of Your Choice to reduce those young people at risk of violence.