The conference brought together faith leaders, communities and violence reduction specialists from across the country to prevent and reduce violence.
The event highlighted the ways in which faith groups can work together to create opportunities to engage with young people, build safe spaces and act as mentors and guides for our communities.
The West Midland’s Faith Alliance is led on the conference with four other VRUs from across the country. It featured a number of keynote speakers, interactive panels with young people and a deep dive into faith-based approaches to reducing violence.
The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, Simon Foster said: “Our faith communities can and do, play a key role in preventing and reducing violence.
“Often when violence occurs or there are community tensions, our faith communities step up to help calm tensions and reassure communities.
“There is collective action and commitment within faith groups, to offer support for our communities and help prevent and reduce violent incidents.
“Preventing and reducing violence and in particular youth violence and knife crime are top priorities for our Violence Reduction Partnerships and our Faith Alliances, with the aim of preventing violence from happening in the first place.”
The Faith Alliance sits within the West Midlands Violence Reduction Partnership and focuses on empowering faith leaders and institutions to play an active role in keeping young people and the wider community safe.
It has, amongst many other matters, funded and helped to set up safe spaces across the region and provided fun and creative activities to young people, to boost their safety and wellbeing.
