What makes a winning programme?
Redthread Youth, a small but growing charity which works with young people at risk of violence, won the 2018 Charity Award in the Children and Youth category.
Redthread’s youth violence intervention programme embeds specialist youth workers in the emergency departments of major trauma centres. They meet young victims of violence or exploitation, and focus on the “teachable moment” – when they are at their most vulnerable after falling victim to violence – and help them to make positive changes within their lives.
The charity could clearly show it was meeting a need with an innovative, thoughtful approach. And it could show how well its approach worked. More than 1,000 young people were referred to it, of whom 60 per cent engaged. Of those, only 2.4 per cent returned to a hospital within a year with violence-related injuries.
The charity could also show that its intervention was replicable and sustainable. Its model was so compelling that in London the mayor’s office is keen to expand it to all major trauma centres, and the charity is now fundraising to spread it further, across the whole of England.