Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership

Together, the VRP aims to:

• Tackle the causes of serious violence in Merseyside
• Reduce serious violence in Merseyside and particularly youth violence in public spaces
• Identify suitable responses to prevent violence before it becomes a part of someone’s life
• Provide opportunities for young people to fulfil their life chances away from the impact of violence and crime
• Ensure our response is bespoke to the challenges in each area of the county

Working collaboratively the partner agencies from the public, third and voluntary sectors within the VRP use prevention and early intervention as a model of delivery. The Home Office awarded the Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership grant funding, which enabled the partnership to continue its work around serious violence prevention. Part of the VRP funding was allocated specifically for activities and interventions provided by the sports sector.

At MSP, we’re really excited that sport and physical activity has been regarded as a positive contributor towards the physical and mental health of young people, and provides opportunities for engagement with young people and a means of diverting them away from other negative activities, such as violent crime.

We were delighted to commission the sports sector to provide sector support through training, funding and development for the sports sector partners who engage young people who may be at risk of experiencing or becoming involved with violent crime, gang culture or anti-social behaviour.  MSP continue to support the sports sector contribution to making our local communities stronger and safer places to be.

The purpose of this element of the funding was to provide effective intervention programmes for young people involved in serious violence, whether as perpetrators and/or victims, or to intervene early in order to prevent young people from becoming engaged with or vulnerable to such crimes.  We worked with organisations that created and delivered effective sport and physical activity projects which really changed people’s lives!