A NEW scheme to steer kids away from bad behaviour is being launched in Huddersfield.
It will help keep troubled pupils at school, rather than playing truant, and will encourage parents to take a more active role in promoting good behaviour.
The Challenge and Support Project is being run by a Youth Taskforce. This is supporting the Department of Children, Schools and Families’ drive Young People on the Path to Success.
The type of support which could be offered to counter anti-social behaviour includes anger management, literacy support, careers advice and support, positive activities, mental health support, alcohol and drugs intervention and counselling. It can also involve help for the parents.
The Challenge and Support Project will help the organisations involved in the care of a young person keep in touch with each other and aims to better address ongoing behaviour problems or the breaking of contracts by young people who are already being assisted.
It is hoped the project will achieve improved attendance at schools and higher numbers of young people being referred to organisations which can provide support for them.
Other targets include reducing the number of 16 to 18-year-olds not in education, employment or training; reducing the number frequently using drugs and alcohol or volatile substances and reducing the number of young people being involved in crime.
A Challenge and Support Conference, hosted by Kirklees Partnership for Safer Stronger Communities, will be held at Huddersfield’s Galpharm Stadium, where all the organisations involved in the project will be under one roof.
Present will be representatives of various services, including the Youth Offending Team Mentoring and Volunteering; NEET (Not in Education or Training); Rawthorpe ABC; Huddersfield Plus Point; Lifeline; NHS Kirklees; and Victim Support.
Bill Swap, Kirklees anti-social behaviour co-ordinator, said: “In Kirklees we have already developed an effective early intervention process which will be further enhanced through support from this initiative.
“The emphasis is for all services to challenge inappropriate behaviour at the earliest point as this provides greater opportunities for the individual to change and address their ways. It also helps us to work better together in increasing the support available to vulnerable young people living in Kirklees.”
Clr Shabir Pandor, a Kirklees Council Cabinet member for adults and communities, said: “This project will develop our young people and my vision is to engage them in a meaningful way that looks at areas of concerns around young people and how the system can bring out the positive elements.
“I believe all young people have skills and abilities that need nurturing and as a council we will create a springboard that will motivate and encourage youngsters to develop their full potential and unlock and focus their talents to something positive and good that will be of great value and benefit to them as they grow older”.
