Guest blog: Kelly Williams, Serious Violence Prevention Coordinator

The Serious Violence Prevention Coordinator role is responsible for maintaining and deepening relationships with partner agencies for the purpose of reducing identified drivers of serious violence in Gwent.

Part of my role is also to challenge the prevalence and perception of knife crime. Fortunately Gwent has one of the lowest levels of knife crime in the UK.

The project was initially funded by the Home Office and is now funded by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent, as part of the office’s approach to reducing serious organised crime and violence.

I have previously worked within community safety within Gwent, and with young people involved in anti-social behaviour and crime. I passionately believe that a collaborative and coordinated approach to tackling serious violence issues is essential.

The Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner for Gwent has allowed me to step into a role which brings together professionals that are passionate about collectively working together to prevent youth serious violence.

Within this project we have colleagues from Fearless, a branch of Crimestoppers specifically for young people, and colleagues from St Giles Trust, working within secondary schools across Gwent to deliver education around the law and the harm caused by serious violence and crime.

In addition to this, St Giles Trust is also supporting young people who are at a difficult period of their lives.

Barnardo’s colleagues are working with a younger group of children individually and will soon be working within a number of primary schools across Gwent delivering preventative and positive messages.

As a multi-agency collective, we are not only able to understand what works for Gwent, but we are able to link in with the Wales Violence Prevention Unit to share learning across Wales in order to collaboratively inform work practices across the nation.