Children on Teesside 'desensitised to serious violence', claims youth worker
Children are becoming desensitised to serious violence due to the prevalence of organised crime, a youth worker has claimed.
Debbie Jones, a youth worker on Teesside, said: "This is a tough area to grow up in. And they're seeing things you wouldn't want children to see.
Lucy Bentley, operations manager and safeguarding officer at the Corner House Youth Project, in Stockton-on-Tees, said she recalls how a pre-teenage child saw a stabbing. She said: "She was talking about it as though she was going to buy a Fruit Pastille. It's all normalised."
"It's humdrum," Ms Jones, project manager, added: "There's a definite desensitisation to serious violence.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, she said: "They're used to seeing fistfights in the street, serious injuries, emergency sirens screeching past. That's their everyday. There's unfortunately a lot of organised crime in this locality and these kids are extremely vulnerable to that."
The Corner House works on the streets of Stockton to support vulnerable young people aged eight to 19, protecting them from harm and exploitation and drawing them away from crime and anti-social behaviour.
Ms Jones said she wants people to understand the power and importance of youth workers helping improve community safety in a deprived area. She added: "We're a key essential service, a great way to alleviate so many of the issues we're facing. We're trying to create a place of safety, with adults they know they can come to for any concerns they've got.
"The reason this work's been so successful is it's based on true relationships with young people over a continued period of time.
"I think we need to humanise young people again. There's an awful lot of negative language and demonising.
"Yes, young people's behaviour does escalate but a lot of it comes from past trauma and experiences. We try to understand what is making young people behave as they are, and we can only do that by creating relationships with them.
"We've had young people that have come to us and had not been attending school, not been engaging in anything really. This has brought them back into feeling part of something and feeling valued.
"I think that's a massive thing. They go on to improve their self-esteem and ultimately improve their life chances, get places in college, hold down jobs."
Corner House is one of four outreach projects - along with The Junction in Middlesbrough, Streetz Team in Redcar and Cleveland and Belle Vue Centre in Hartlepool - now funded for three years by Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC).
The teams made 8,942 contacts with young people last year as they targeted crime and anti-social behaviour hotspots across Teesside.
Visiting the project, PCC Steve Turner said: "It's public money and today reaffirms that it's money well spent because we're having a positive impact in the community that really needs it.
"Places like this are invaluable for giving young people a safe place and someone they feel comfortable with. The key is building up trust.
"They work 365 days a year. The work they do isn't just diversionary.
"It's about highlighting those children that are most at risk and most in need. That preventative work is far more beneficial for us as a society than any active work our police officers will do."
An 11-year-old, who has been coming to the centre for about a year after a recommendation from school, said: "It's very good because we get to play pool and football and just chill. We can talk about our problems. They can give you advice.
"There's always something to do, you're never bored. Before I was just sat at home watching my phone."
A 14-year-old who has attended for about two years said: "I'm scared to go out by myself. I think Stockton is a good place but if the drugs weren't here it would be better.
"I'm happy to see everyone here. They plan such good stuff."
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