Joanne's new achievement

A mother of three children who was terrorised by local youths but has come out the other side is giving back to the local community. Joanne Binns from Swarcliffe, has turned her life around and is now piloting a course for parents to teach them about the what they can do to prevent their children becoming involved in anti social behaviour.

Joanne wanted to make parents aware of what some children can be like, and the terror they can cause, after suffering for 12 months from youths targeting her and her family. She is working with the Leeds Antisocial Behaviour Team to use a video they produced about how parents can influence the behaviour of their children as part of a session with a group of parents at Swarcliffe Primary school.

Joanne, who used to live in East End Park was targeted as she tried to build bridges between the local community and the police. She, and her children had stones thrown at them, parts of their garden set alight, and she was punched in the stomach when she was eight months pregnant. Her children suffered through threatening texts and being bullied in the street, to the point they no longer wanted to go outside. To top it all, they unfortunately lost the dad during this time.

It took a lot of hard work, but eventually Joanne was moved from East End Park, and since the new Leeds Antisocial Behaviour team has been launched, there has been a marked improvement to the response to ASB through the joint working of partners such as the police and local authority.