Every year thousands of children and young people enter the criminal justice system for the first time. This has a major impact on their families and the communities to which they belong, but an even bigger impact on their own life chances.
The Young Foundation was a member of the consortium appointed to manage Realising Ambition, a £25 million Big Lottery Fund supported programme investing in projects which have been proven to help children and young people to fulfil their potential, and avoid pathways into crime.
This report from consortium members The Social Research Unit outlines the learning from the first year of the Realising Ambition programme. It shows that there is currently a lack of evidence-based programmes to choose from in the UK. The report highlights the challenges in recruiting sufficiently qualified or experienced staff, along with internal bureaucracy mean successful early intervention programmes aimed at helping vulnerable children act as a barrier to successful replication. However whilst the replication of evidence-based and promising interventions is hard, the majority of projects supported by the Realising Ambition are succeeding in replicating to new areas.
Criminal justice Families & Youth Social innovation
Posted on: 18 July 2013