Young Advisors in Waltham Forest are in the process of training with Kaizan on a Gangs Awareness Programme. So far they have completed two of the four training sessions - with twenty one young people attending the last session.

This training is designed to enhance the Young Advisors ability to work with the Gang Prevention Programme which is one of the groups regular commissions.

The aims of the programme are to:

• Increase the knowledge base of the Young Advisors so they are better able to work with the Gang Prevention Programme
• Increase the confidence of the Young Advisors to engage with professionals and other young people about gangs

Kaizen is a London based training and consultancy company that specialises in designing and facilitating cutting edge projects in the community sector. We deliver work across the sector including the areas of regeneration, education, employment, housing and the care field. We are passionate about what we do, and we stand by our results.

Everything we do is focused on making a difference: empowering individuals, teams and communities.

Our clients range from Local Authorities to schools, small charities to the Olympic Delivery Authority. For more information about Kaizen go to www.kzpartnership.com is a London based training and consultancy company that specialises in designing and facilitating cutting edge projects in the community sector. We deliver work across the sector including the areas of regeneration, education, employment, housing and the care field. We are passionate about what we do, and we stand by our results.

Everything we do is focused on making a difference: empowering individuals, teams and communities.

Our clients range from Local Authorities to schools, small charities to the Olympic Delivery Authority. For more information about Kaizen go to "Kaizen is a London based training and consultancy company that specialises in designing and facilitating cutting edge projects in the community sector. We deliver work across the sector including the areas of regeneration, education, employment, housing and the care field. We are passionate about what we do, and we stand by our results.
Everything we do is focused on making a difference: empowering individuals, teams and communities.

Our clients range from Local Authorities to schools, small charities to the Olympic Delivery Authority. For more information about Kaizen go to www.kzpartnership.com

Our training is experiential and practical. We have an open, direct, style in which we ask questions that challenge participants to examine the way they think, feel and act and to identify new possibilities through creative thinking.

The programme was designed following a meeting with the Young Advisors to agree what they would like from the sessions. We then wrote a Training Needs Analysis which was approved by the YAs and which is the basis for this programme.

This day will give participants a general understanding of conflict, conflict management/resolution.

• Definitions and meanings –what is a gang/different interpretations of key terms
• Community context for gangs – cohesion and resilience
• Motivation for joining a gang – push and pull factors/what gang members get from being in a gang
• How gangs are organised – structure/stages of development

• Methods and interventions used to work with gangs
• Gangs and prisons

• Women and gangs – female gang members, relationships, sexual exploitation
• Impact of international conflicts on gangs and conflict in the UK
• LBWF Gang Prevention Programme, Enough is Enough (Bethan)

The YAs from Waltham Forest gained much from the Gangs Awareness Training - information, discussions and ideas which will doubtlessly inform the important work they are doing in this field.

Kaizan trainer, Jessie Ben - Ami, was very impressed with the groups contribution to the training sessions:

They were an incredibly energetic, inspiring and committed group to spend the day with. I was so impressed by the maturity of the conversations that we had and also thoroughly enjoyed the fun - at times the noise levels in the games was pretty intense

The day really reinforced why I do the work that I do, my heart felt very full when I left and I have a sense of confidence that with the YA's looking out for them, the young people of Waltham Forest are being taken care of

If you would like to commission these experienced and well trained young people then email their local lead, Youth Engagement Officer at Waltham Forest, Jane Brueseke:

Jane.Brueseke@walthamforest.gov.uk