Wokingham

A group of young people from the Wokingham district have been short listed from over 400 nominations for a national award for a knife amnesty project they launched earlier this year.

The Positive Images Award, organised by Children Now and Young People Now magazines as part of the Children and Young People’s Services Award, recognises a project that has promoted a balanced portrayal of children or young people in local or national media. Judges looked for entries where children or young people have taken the lead in planning and organising the work as well as delivering it.

In June 2006, a group of young people from the Wokingham district launched a district-wide knife amnesty. The message to their peers and older residents of the district was: ‘It’s not big and it’s not clever to carry a knife’. This message was so clear that over 330 knives were handed in during the month-long campaign, which coincided with a national knife amnesty.

The catalyst for the campaign was the setting up earlier this year of a group of some 15 young people from Wokingham in memory of two of their friends who died tragically last year. The Tribute Group had regular meetings with district council youth workers and the feeling amongst the group was they didn’t want anyone to suffer as they had done. They were concerned that their peers did not understand how dangerous knives can be.

Keen to arrange a local knife amnesty, the young people approached Wokingham District Council and Thames Valley Police to see if this would be possible. And as a result, the organisations backed the national knife amnesty in the district. However, this amnesty was different. Planning and publicity for the campaign was led by the young people, supported by the council and the police.

The young people were keen to attend assemblies at local secondary schools to talk about the dangers of knives. The young people contacted local secondary schools directly and gave presentations at three of the four schools in Wokingham to raise awareness of the dangers of using weapons of any sort. The young people wrote their own presentations.

Adam Couchman, aged 17, from Finchampstead, said: “By launching the amnesty, we aimed to raise public awareness to the fact that people do carry knives and knives do get used. Some people carry knives in self-defence, but half the time when they go to use them, it is not in a self-defence situation. Their knife could also be turned on them. You are no safer with a knife than you are without one. We hope to reduce the number of knives on the streets. Our main aim is to prevent what happened to us from happening to other young people in the district.”

Supporting the launch of local knife amnesty, Wokingham District Council sent out press releases, gaining extensive coverage in the local papers and on local radio stations. Meridian TV also picked up on the story and ran a highly positive piece during their prime-time evening news programme and two of the young people were interviewed. Despite being based in Manchester, BBC Real Story heard about the amnesty and spent an afternoon filming the young people and talking to them to find out why they had been so instrumental in organising this amnesty. It is hoped this story will be aired in the future.

An article written by Stephanie Dier, aged 18, from Wokingham also appeared in the district council’s youth magazine ‘Txt’. This is a magazine written by young people for young people and the article appealed to others not to carry knives.

The young people are planning to return to schools next term to raise awareness further. They are currently making a DVD which they hope will be highlight the problems of caused by carrying a knife and offer tips on street safety to young people.

Cllr Barrie Patman, the council’s executive member for community safety, said: “I would like to congratulate the young people for their hard work in making this knife amnesty such a success. They continue to raise awareness amongst their peers about the dangers of knives and I know they have ambitions to make all young people in the country aware of this. I wish them lots of luck at the award ceremony.”

Ch Insp Tony Ismay said: "I am delighted that the young people have been nominated for this award. They have worked tirelessly in preparing and delivering messages to secondary school pupils in the Wokingham district on the dangers of carrying knives and their commitment towards the knife amnesty I believe is reflected in the number of knives that were surrendered. I attended one of their presentations at the Forest School and I was extremely impressed with the message they put across. The young people are worthy candidates for the award and I wish them every success."

The awards have been judged by a panel of distinguished experts and professionals and a shortlist has been drawn up. Wokingham District Council has been shortlisted for the Positive Images Award along with Bridport Youth Assembly, Community Mediation Service North East Lincolnshire, Essex County Council, Shropshire County Council, Vale Young Carers’ Project and Genesis Community. The Children and Young People’s Services Awards will take place on Tuesday November 28 in London.

Wokingham District Council