Volunteers Needed To Work With Teenagers (& Help Reduce Offending)?

Would you like to work with teenagers and help them to change their lives and their futures? If the answer is yes, Gloucestershire Youth Support Service would like to hear from you.
Youth offender panels are a unique way of dealing with young people who commit crime. The panel comprises two volunteers recruited from the local community, alongside a member of the Youth Support Service.

The panel meets with the young person and their parents or carers to talk about the reasons for the offending behaviour and to agree a contract aimed at putting things right. The victim is encouraged to attend the meeting to tell the young person how the crime affected them. Youth offender panels give the community a say in creating effective programmes that ensure young people who offend repair the harm done and are given positive help to prevent further offending.

Cabinet Member for Young People, Paul McLain said, “The panels give local communities the chance to challenge young offenders head on. Panel meetings provide an opportunity for young people to speak for themselves and, most importantly, to face up to their actions. Being a panel member is a challenging role. But if it succeeds in getting one young offender off the criminal conveyer-belt then it’s worth its weight in gold.”

Vounters are needed to represent a cross-section of the local community: male and female, working or retired, employees and employers, but in particular more male volunteers and people from more rural areas, such as the Forest of Dean and the Cotswolds.
The next training runs on six Saturdays between 15th October and 26th November. Travel expenses are paid for training and work as a volunteer.

For more information and an application form please telephone 01684 298291 or contact caroline.ellerton@gloucestershire.gov.uk  (See more info by reading in full on the Council Website – http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=105716 )