News
Collaborative approach is key to reducing extreme behaviours amongst young people (11/11/2009)
“A collaborative approach involving local communities is key to reducing anti-social and other extreme behaviours displayed by young people” is just one of the themes being debated at a conference being hosted by the Youth Justice Agency in Belfast today.‘Restoring Respect’ is the title of the two-day conference which will bring together delegates from the community, voluntary and statutory sectors from across the province to hear presentations from speakers on what works in Ireland, the United Kingdom and America to address prevention of behaviours such as hate crime and gang violence.
Bill Lockhart, Chief Executive of the Youth Justice Agency commented:
“We are aware of emerging evidence of a changing crime and anti-social behaviour environment for a small minority of young people who are becoming involved on the periphery of extreme behaviours and we wish to develop preventative measures to nip this in the bud.
However we recognise that the Criminal Justice system alone cannot resolve such issues and the aim of the conference is to bring together a range of community, voluntary and statutory partners to explore the issues from a community perspective and develop proposals for dealing collaboratively with a real problem that impacts significantly on certain communities and damages the prospects of too many young people”.
Alice Chapman, conference chair and Director of the Agency’s Youth Conference Service added:
“This conference comes as a result of extensive consultation with the PSNI, other criminal justice partners, statutory agencies and the voluntary and community sectors about the need to prevent young people becoming involved in extreme behaviours. It is important that the conference is not seen in isolation but rather that it acts as a springboard to a much larger goal for us all. This can be best achieved by listening to what is happening on the ground, learning about what works elsewhere, and agreeing on a collaborative and cohesive approach to dealing with the problem within Northern Ireland.”
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