Sefton Young Advisors have been tackling the issue of Section 30s (Dispersal Orders that can be used to break up groups of more than two people). Leading on this project is Young Advisor, Kim Cooper who specialises in community safety and crime.

Kim designed a questionnaire and collected over 200 responses in the ward she currently lives and works in, one of the most deprived in the borough.

Kim found that:
• 70% of young people didn’t feel safe in their own communities
• 30% Didn’t know what a Section 30 was
• 95% felt unsafe going outside their area
• Only 40% would tell the police if they had a very big or fairly big problem to do with their safety or that of others

Following the research, Kim and the Sefton Young Advisor team pulled together an event, attended by all the local decision makers who lead on Section 30s and other community safety initiatives. Here Kim and the team presented their results to the delegates and gave them chance to discuss and debate in groups how they could work together to ensure younger and older people could feel safer on the streets.

The event was a big success and lead to further work for the Young Advisors. The Young Advisors are now sitting on a number of panels within Sefton influencing the way Section 30s are to be implemented and how other community safety solutions could be informed by the innovative engagement of young people

The Sefton team later planned a feedback event to the young people they had previously consulted. They told them what they had done with the research and collected information on how young people’s views had changed. This was followed by another extensive piece of consultation, facilitated by Young Advisors Emily Woodruff and Brian Mok. Emily and Brian went to community centres, youth groups, parks and other places young people gather to find out how views had changed in the time since the first piece of research.

If you would like to know more about this piece of work, take a look at the full report. Well done Sefton for great piece of work, keep it up!