Quantifying the benefits

For every £700 spent for one young person to participate on a Leap intensive Quarrel Shop and begin the shift to a positive life path, the potential cost saving is £110,000 annually

Over the past three years, Leap has worked with more than 30,000 young people aged 11 to 25, 11,500 adults and 668 organisations across schools, prisons, young offender institutions, the police and on the streets.

Benefits for the individual and community

• By working with young gang members in the East End of Glasgow, violent crime was almost halved in 1 year, thanks, in part to Leap training for adult support workers. This initiative has been recently advocated by David Cameron as a solution to the recent unrest.
• On average, three-quarters of young offenders will re-offend. Leap has reversed this pattern with young offenders who went through its Fear and Fashion programme: 17 out of 23 stopped or reduced their offending behaviour. This programme has also been applauded by Brooke Kinsella in her recent report for government ‘Tackling Knife Crime Together’.
• An evaluation of one Quarrel Shop in 2010 found that all eight of those trained cited improvements in their communication skills, confidence and empathy.
• In 2010, 100 young people in prisons and Young Offenders Institutions achieved an OCN level 1 qualification in Personal Leadership in Conflict. Ten also volunteered to become young mentors for other young people going through the programme.
• Anti-social behaviour was down 53% on an estate in Enfield, London, after Leap worked with the police, teachers, youth workers and young people.
• In our recent school work in Bexley around identity and belonging, 91% of young people reported a positive change in perceptions of themselves, how they viewed others and how they responded to prejudice.

Financial benefits

Every young person who is excluded from school, in custody, unemployed, prosecuted by the police or treated for wounds by the NHS costs the taxpayer approximately £130,000 per year.

• For every £150 invested in training a young person in Peer Mediation and leadership, thus keeping them in school, the potential cost saving in £24,000 annually.
• For every £300 spent on transforming the outlook and behaviour of a young person at risk from gang activities or violent crime, thus keeping them unharmed and out of custody, the potential cost saving is £108,000 annually.
• For every £700 place on a Leap intensive Quarrel Shop course, to begin the shift to a positive life path away from unemployment and low-level youth offending, the potential cost saving is £110,000 annually.

Please note all figures are conservative estimates

Benefits at the corporate level

• “We came away inspired and motivated to consider approaches to better manage communications and conflict situations both in a work context and in our personal lives.” – Paul McNamara, Managing Director of Insurance and Investments, Barclays

To make a donation to any of Leap’s programmes please see our ‘support us’ section

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