A GROUP of 15 young people gathered in Coventry for a workshop on crime, organised by campaigners aiming to empower youth voice.
A seventeen year who said he had been stabbed six times and lost friends to knife crime, is holding the police chiefs to account on youth violence.
West Midlands PCC Simon Foster, chief superintendent Paul Drover and the head of youth justice services for Coventry City Council Nick Jeffreys, answered questions from the group, who told them that they didn’t feel safe in the city.
The event, called My Tomorrow: A Conversation With, was the first in a series of special workshops.
It was organised by the West Midlands Violence Reduction Partnership (VRP) as part of the My Tomorrow campaign, which was created by young people from across the region to give them a platform to talk about their priorities.
The 17-year-old told the panel that he ended up as part of a gang because of his postcode.
“It don’t have to always come down to attacking and violence. Why can’t we all live in more harmony and all talk?
“Do you know how many times I’ve been stabbed? Six times.
“I’ve had my friend die in my arms and that’s hurt me. It could be any second, it could be five seconds from now, but I never see the police.
“It’s made me who I am today and I’m not trying to stay on the road because it’s not the way.
“I don’t want to sit here and put my life at risk because it’s also putting my family’s life at risk if I become a part of something I don’t want to be part of.”
The PCC Simon Foster said: “Hearing about some of the brutal and harsh realities of their day to day experiences only provides me with yet further determination to do all I can within my power to address the challenges they have in terms of preventing, tackling and reducing violence.”
Ch Supt Paul Drover, local police commander, said the session was powerful and will inform the way police work with partners to tackle and prevent crimes affecting young people in Coventry.
“I’m committed now. I made the commitment in the room.
“We’re going to bring the team together, we’re going to bring the children and young people together so they can have a say and help with how we tackle violence in the city.”
Olivia Birtwistle, 21-year-old who had her drink spiked at university called for practical and compulsory first-aid lessons starting in primary school and progressing to train older students to stop a bleed.
She told the panel that she only survived because her housemates knew what to do to prevent a seizure.
