Communities

Community leaders across the West Midlands play a critical role in violence prevention and reduction; not least in the support they offer to communities when incidents of violence occur. The VRP aims to support leaders across the region to meet the bespoke needs present in their community, by sharing up to date information that relates to

• What is happening locally
• What support can be accessed
• How communities can get involved with services

We have carried out extensive consultation with communities, children and young people, but we understand that consultation can appear tokenistic if people can’t see how their views have shaped and informed our work and/or directed our focus; as a result, we intend to continue our move towards authentic co-production.

We will achieve this by developing a West Midlands Violence Reduction Partnership Community Engagement Strategy, which will ensure we are working in responsive and reciprocal partnership with children, young people and communities. We will also continue our ongoing work alongside young people and communities to further develop a youth-led counter-narrative to violence, forming the basis of a robust campaign against violence in the West Midlands in 2024 and 2025.

The VRP Community Engagement Strategy will have 3 strands:

1. Delivery at a local level: Asset mapping & capacity building, building awareness & training through existing community networks
2. Communication through our website: Sharing relevant and up-to-date information, whilst also providing regular and consistent messaging related to (but not limited to) our campaigns, funding/tendering opportunities, as well as chances to connect with like-minded individuals, both locally and regionally
3. Toolkit: Community Engagement to Prevent Violence: This will include examples of best practice, resources, links and tools to support, steer and inform this type of local action.