Levels of anti-social behaviour (ASB) are at a record low throughout Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent during the school summer holiday period.
Space, a programme of activities for young people during the summer period, ran from July to September 2019. Its aim is to reduce the level of ASB reported to Staffordshire Police, while increasing skills and improving health and general wellbeing by creating opportunities to engage with young people positively.
Staffordshire Commissioner for Police, Fire and Rescue and Crime, Matthew Ellis relaunched the scheme in 2015 and it has since gone from strength to strength, with more than 50% reduction in ASB during the summer period since 2016.
Overall, final analysis shows this year’s programme beat the record low levels of ASB seen in 2018 with some areas across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent seeing further reductions in incidents reported.
As the final numbers were counted, organisers confirmed over 15,000 individual young people attended the programme of summer events.
More than 1,400 activities were staged between July and September 2019 with over 38,000 attendances of 8-17-year-olds, almost 9,000 more attendances than 2018.
Young people came together to enjoy a wide variety of activities including sports, street dance, DJ’ing and music production, craft days and day trips.
The activities were arranged by a collaboration of public and voluntary organisations in Staffordshire including local councils and local businesses.
Speaking about the summer of events, Matthew Ellis said:
‘Since we brought the 80s Space scheme back in its new form in 2015 over 112,000 attendances have been recorded for young people between the ages of 8 and 17.
‘During that time engagement with young people has gone from strength to strength with more and more organisations and groups taking part each year.
‘Space is all about engagement with young people but the reductions in ASB during the school holidays have been beyond what we could ever have expected.
‘As always, I would like to thank everyone has been involved in growing the Space programme year after year after year.
‘Whilst I won’t be in position next year I do hope that Staffordshire will continue with this successful approach and it continues long into the future.’
