Community & Developing Young People

The Service is committed to working towards achieving the goals that underpin the National Framework Strategy for Children and Young people, one of which is:

• To prevent children and young people from becoming involved in fire crime and anti-social behaviour.

The Service is working alongside a number of agencies including the Princes Trust in order to develop young people who are at risk or who can be identified as vulnerable. We have a shared interest in establishing a programme of preventative work aimed at diverting them away from fire related risk taking or anti social behaviour.

Within the programme young people are given the opportunity to develop:

• Problem solving skills
• Self respect and respect for others
• Assertiveness
• Teamwork Skills
• Other forms of emotional intelligence

Washington Hall UK plays an integral part in driving forward initiatives that include:

• Firewise
• Firebreak
• FLARE

The impact of these programmes play a vital role in developing young people and evidence can be seen in the results of the successful completion of a number of FLARE courses in 2006.

During this period, of the 69 young people who successfully completed the FLARE course, 43 were already in the criminal justice system and a further 26 were identified as at risk of offending. After the course 79% had remained out of trouble. Not one young person deemed at risk of offending actually went on to offend (100% success).

Following the pilot Firebreak course a school from the South Ribble area of Lancashire commented:

I strongly believe that my pupils have really benefited from the course. Their behaviour in school has improved, they have matured and can now communicate their feelings and expressions better, and their attendance percentage at school has improved.

The young people attending the course also commented:

We got more life skills and more confidence. We all grew up a bit and it made us stop and think.

Everyone worked together to stay on the course. We all felt part of a team.

The discipline in Firebreak was all about safety. At school the discipline is in isolation. What do you learn? They dont listen to you. At Firebreak we were listened to.

I have been in less trouble outside of school. I have been able to walk away. Ive challenged people behaving badly. I couldnt have done that before.

Washington Hall UK is proud of taking an active role in the development of these young people who hopefully will continue to gain confidence and play a positive role in their local community.