Kent is amongst the top 10 most dangerous places to live in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a total of 85 crimes committed per 1000 people (see https://crimerate.co.uk/kent for more on this), leaving a lot of children at risk of being victim to crimes or even becoming offenders.
Most crimes committed by young offenders (aged 10-17) take place in city centres on weekends. There are 120 first time youth offenders per 100,000, with a 34% reoffending rate. Crimes committed by teenagers between 15 and 17 make up 81% of them. Males aged 10-17 reached a high of 86% and 14% by females (see https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2021/09/Kent-Youth-inspection-report-v1.0.pdf for more information)
Our goal is to keep children off the streets in such a dangerous area and assist them in staying away from being victims, or offenders in these statistics. We offer 16 different FREE youth sessions currently across Kent with numbers reaching as high as 25 participants in some, however, this is done on a first come first serve basis, with one coach present we can only have up to 16 children and with a coach and another attendee above the age of 18 to oversee we can operate with space for up to 32 participants.
We hope these numbers will continue to climb across all our youth sessions and create a positive difference within communities across Kent, protecting the at-risk youths within our home and encouraging them to go further in life, decreasing limitations they may receive from being born and living in these areas.