KIDS COUNT LAUNCH

2nd May 2006

Speech by Kevin Everard Project Director

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I am a Director and founder of Be Safe Personal Safety Consultants and The Be Safe Project Ltd.

I am both pleased and honoured that Linda has asked me to speak at the launch of Kids Count it is a great initiative and will give young people a forum and reference point to learn and understand about all the important issues which make being a young person increasingly difficult in modern society.

Be Safe were first approached to devise a Weapons Awareness Course for young people in The London Borough of Newham in 1999, this was as a result of The Youth Offending Team and local magistrates realising that more and more young people were being found in possession of weapons, particularly knives and other sharp or bladed implements, they were not necessarily committing knife crime, but during random searches or after being arrested for an offence they were often found to be in possession of a weapon, most claimed the weapon was for self defence.

The course has evolved over the years into what it is today, we have researched the subject thoroughly and have learnt from talking to thousands of young people across the country about why they feel the need to arm themselves. The course covers every likely outcome from the moment a young person decides to put the weapon in their pocket including what was a knife first designed to do and is it really a self defence weapon, medical implications including mortality and long term morbidity, the law, revenge and reprisals and the long lasting effects on the individual, families and society in general. Many young people are misguided or uninformed about these issues as they often are around the subjects of drugs and sex the difference being that drugs and sex education programmes are running in all schools in the country, weapons awareness is not, but we honestly believe it to be as big if not a bigger issue.

The Be Safe Weapons Awareness Course has been hugely successful and we work with young offenders and on preventative programmes in schools and any other places where young people go. We are recognised nationally as the lead agency in this field and are asked by all the leading media outlets to comment on any issues regarding young people and violence we also sit on The Home Office Gun & Knife Section Round Table.

We are currently involved in training trainers to deliver our programmes across the UK this is fully supported by Charles Clarke who witnessed The Leeds Weapons Awareness initiative where we have trained over 100 people to deliver Weapons Awareness sessions to all senior school aged children across the city.

We are very proud of our work and feel it is important to form partnerships with organisations like Kids Count and The Damilola Taylor Trust, so we can work together to educate young people allowing them to make informed choices about how they live their lives and to invoke attitudinal changes in those who are already heading down the wrong road.

Be Safe Project Limited: Registered Charity No: 1108706: Company No: 05155989.

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