An 11-year-old boy has had his life transformed by a scheme which aims to deter young people away from criminality including knife crime.
Two years ago, Bobby came to the attention of the police due to getting involved in antisocial behaviour. The youngster, from Newcastle, was destroying property, smashing windows and knocking on people's doors and running away.
While he was still at primary school, the force referred him to the YOLO programme, run by the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU). It aims to steer young people, aged between eight and 14, away from violence with football and one-on-one mentoring.
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Bobby, who completes his mentoring at NUCASTLE, the home of Newcastle United Foundation, has now turned his life around. Instead of causing mischief on the streets, he now spends his spare time kicking a ball around on the rooftop pitch.
His mum Christine told Chronicle Live: "It's been great. Bobby loves it and it's peace of mind for me. I know he's safe and I know he's looked after. He's doing things which he enjoys and it's great for him.
"Before he was getting involved in antisocial behaviour. I found it hard because he doesn't have his dad and he's been through a lot. I didn't know how far it would go. I didn't want Bobby to go down that route.
"Bobby has learnt to read and write, it's fantastic. He gets a lot of help and I really appreciate it. They occupy them all the time, he plays games and football. It's kept him away from everything which is going on in the big, bad world."
When asked what he thinks about the YOLO programme, Bobby said: "It's good - I learn to keep out of trouble."
YOLO was founded in 2018 by Northumbria’s VRU, which is funded by the Home Office, in partnership with Northumbria Police, Newcastle and Sunderland Football Foundations. It aims to identify the underlying causes behind worrying or troublesome behaviour.
Young people are referred to the programme by education, social care and Northumbria Police. Each young person is allocated a mentor who they work with on a one-on-one basis.
They can take part in football coaching sessions on the rooftop, which overlooks St James' Park, and they can make use of VR headsets. The headsets are used to recreate knife crime scenarios and build decision making skills in a safe environment.
Bobby is one of more than 250 young people, who have benefitted from the scheme so far. Almost half (48%) of participants’ families have also been given support.
YOLO co-ordinator Jacqueline Critchley said: "We're doing a range of intervention sessions specific to the needs of the young person. That might be knife crime work, anger management, building relationships or resilience, in the hope it will steer them to positive behaviour change.
"A lot of young people are referred for circumstances completely out of their control and we like to give them hope that they can have a bright future and work towards grasping an opportunity available to them.
"We've been doing it now for three years and seeing a range of young people who have made a big change or a small one. We see the likes of Bobby who has learnt to read through this programme. We have got young people who didn't used to go to school on a Monday and now they do.
"The young people respond really well to it. We use Newcastle United to engage them and because we go to see them in tracksuits the engagement levels are a lot higher."
In recent years, concerns have been raised about knife crime and it is an offence which the scheme aims to steer young people away from. Just last week, three teenage boys were charged with a murder of 43-year-old Nathaniel Wardle in Wallsend, North Tyneside.
VRU director Steven Hulme said: "It's really important to intervene because sadly one murder is one too many in our region, there's numerous victims involved in a murder. Within the North East we don't have the same challenge as some of the metropolitan areas but we have to be ahead of the curve. We need to show these young people and intervene.
"Bobby has done excellent, he's a real credit. It just goes to show that additional support helps to show those qualities that Bobby's always had."
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