Youth crime
The National Youth Agency
About The National Youth Agency
The National Youth Agency (NYA) was founded in 1991 and is based in Leicester, England. We aim to advance youth work to promote young people’s personal and social development, and their voice, influence and place in society.
The NYA works with organisations and services to improve the life chances of young people, supporting young people directly to develop their voice and influence in shaping policy and securing social justice. Our focus is on all young people aged 13 to 24 but our efforts are deepened for those who live complex and troubled lives.
Services for youth justice and community safety agencies
The National Youth Agency is an established provider of consultancy and training services to both the statutory and voluntary sector throughout England. The National Youth Agency’s Youth Justice and Community Safety team has the expertise, knowledge and experience to provide a range of services to practitioners in all children, family, youth justice and community safety agencies.
We provide:
• Bespoke Consultancy
The NYA as the national lead on youth work and youth policy issues we can offer bespoke packages of consultancy support to your organisation or service. The NYA has expert knowledge about youth work related crime reduction and can provide advice about effective practice in reducing crime and anti social behaviour.
• Advice and expertise
The NYA can provide support for Local Authorities, Police Authorities, Youth Offending Services and Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships in developing effective approaches to reducing crime and disorder, anti social behaviour and improving community safety by involving young people in planning and delivering strategic and operational priorities.
• Training
We can help you to build the voice of young people into planning and decision making, through training and consultancy on the active involvement of young people through Hear By Right and Act By Right; national standard frameworks developed by The NYA.
• Research
We can co-ordinate and facilitate your consultation with young people via surveys, focus groups or large scale consultation events. The NYA has extensive experience of undertaking consultation with young people in a variety of settings and for a variety of purposes and can deliver the research findings in a format to meet the needs of your organisation and young people.
• Monitoring and Evaluation
We can provide your organisation with independent monitoring and evaluation of youth justice and youth work projects and programmes.
• Publications
The NYA produces a wide range of youth and youth justice and community safety publications including two electronic newsletters: Crime and Youth Justice Quarterly and Positive Activities and Youth Justice Update which are available for browsing or download from the agency’s website.
Recent work
Commissioned by the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF), The National Youth Agency provides support to the 15 local authority areas (Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Trafford; and in London – Croydon, Greenwich, Hackney, Haringey, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark) involved in the extended PAYP programme during 2008/9.
The NYA has been commissioned by West Midlands Police Authority to undertake consultation with young people to gain their perceptions and experiences about personal safety and policing to inform their strategic plans. An initial report has been produced based on focus group work with 150 young people during November 2007, a regional consultation event with 300 young people is planned for November 2008 to explore the issues and develop an action plan.
For Staffordshire Youth Offending Service, The NYA Youth Justice and Community Safety Team provides regular training and consultancy support to implement the Hear by Right standards framework to enable them to map and plan for greater involvement of young people in their Youth Offending Service planning and delivery.
On behalf of the DCSF, The National Youth Agency undertook a national review of effective practice in Positive Activities for Young People – Young People and Gang Culture in April 2008.
The NYA Youth Justice and Community Safety team held a national round table event in February 2008 on Gang Gun and Knife Crime: Seeking Solutions with a wide range of representatives from voluntary and statutory organisations, academics and the Government. The NYA youth justice and community safety team have produced a report based on the discussions and recommendations from this event.
Publications
"Youth Work and Youth Justice: Effective Practice in Community Safety/Anti-Social Behaviour/Youth Crime"
“Youth Work and Youth Crime: Guide to Policy and Practice”
“Modern Youth Work and Youth Crime Prevention”
“Knives, Guns and Gangs” (policy breifing)
These publications are available to download at the National Youth Agency website.
The National Youth Agency has co-ordinated seminars at the National Community Safety Network Annual Conference in 2006, 2007 and 2008 on anti-social behaviour, working with gangs and weapons and engaging young people and positive activities.
Finding out more
For all NYA youth justice and community safety services and for more information about our publications contact:
Youth Justice and Community Safety Team
The National Youth Agency Eastgate House,
19-23 Humberstone Road,
Leicester,
LE5 3GJ
Tel 0116 242 7414
email youthjustice@nya.org.uk.
Website www.nya.org.uk/justiceandsafety
Last update: Wednesday, September 03, 2008