News

Good News - Gang related violence reduced in Glasgow

Monday 11th January 2010

At Leap we get to work in many cities and areas of the UK and it is fascinating to hear about, and sometimes to be part of, the varied responses to youth conflict in different locations. Recently registered as a charity in Scotland, Leap is learning about their approach.

Interestingly in Scotland, they have made violence a health issue. They have also been very successful in harnessing the commitment of a range of agencies in jointly tackling their gang violence issue.
The Glasgow ‘Community Initiative to Reduce Violence’ (CIRV) project has taken a very focused approach to this based on an American model.

In early 2009 Leap Confronting Conflict formally entered the CIRV partnership and now have a part time worker based in their central Glasgow offices. We have trained over 60 practitioners from various agencies both statutory and voluntary who are part of the strategy.

I have been eagerly awaiting their first impact report and am quietly pleased with the results it shows. There has been an impressive 49% decrease in violence within the group of 368 young people who have committed to the scheme. This is not easy work, it requires long term, sustained, joined up action and determination and as Chief Inspector Robert Stevenson points out in the report it is still very early days:

‘We are not in any doubt, however, about the very complex nature of the problem we are dealing with and while early results are indeed encouraging, international evidence shows it is only through prolonged intervention, enforcement and one-to-one support that we can hope to leave a lasting legacy of real reduction in gang violence in Glasgow.’

These results represent an enormous amount of hard work from the Strathclyde police, health agencies, social services, education, community safety, housing and local voluntary groups.
It is good to hear of a multi-agency model that is working effectively. We all know it is the only way forward for any significant and embedded changes to happen in areas where violence and gang activity have held sway for decades.

‘The priority for the CIRV project team over the next 12 months will be to improve upon what we have delivered so far, further integrate with partner agencies and community groups across the north and east of the city, and in particular build a strong mentoring service to follow those programmes and services which CIRV currently provides either directly or via its network of community planning partners.’
Robert Stevenson

Leap has experienced the Glasgow partnership approach to be well organised and driven by the Strathclyde police and soundly backed by the Scottish government.
We want to say congratulations to our new partners in Scotland, we are proud to be part of this initiative and hope to continue and increase our involvement.

CIRV First Year Report

Campaign cuts Glasgow gang violence by half – Evening Times

Related documents

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• cirv-first-year-report_1263221503.pdf