In 2016 , The South West OPCC approved a 12-month pilot, with Young Devon, Young People Cornwall and Kooth to deliver enhanced victim care services for young victims of crime.
The overarching aims are to:
ensure that all young victims of crime (aged 11 – 25) are able to access timely, child and young person centred support in ways that works for them
Provide a consistent service to young victims of crime across both Devon and Cornwall.
Establish partnerships across county boarders with youth organisations that improve the quality of service provision to victims of crime
Enable quick access to low level mental health support and referral to more intensive support if required
Develop specific resources relevant for young victims of crime for use both on online and through existing participation work that will raise awareness of crime, support networks and prevention.
Increase the knowledge and understanding of young victims of crime (especially through outcome measures that capture the ‘victims’ voice’) both reported and none reported. This will be shared to inform the learning of both statutory agencies and other victim care network providers
How is Kooth involved?
Young people who have been affected by a crime can come and speak to our confidential professional team to access support. A high number of young people report suffering ongoing emotional distress as a result of a crime; such as anxiety, stress and depression. Getting the right help quickly can turn things around for people, so come speak to us or message the team.
Young people self-identify as a victim of crime at the logging in page of the Kooth website and in doing so, receive targeted information and articles. Young people are also able to access all elements of the Kooth site when they register. This means they can chat online to professional counsellors and emotional wellbeing practitioners. They can join online forums, read support materials and contribute articles to our online magazine, effectively joining a supportive ‘Kooth community’.
In the past 4 years we have:
Hosted over 100 live forums for VoC in the area
Specifically helped nearly 1000 CYP who identify as victims of crimes
Held over 300 local events to promote the service
Cocreated more than 150 pieces of content with Victims of Crime
“Reporting something to the police seems like a very daunting thing to do. That would put me off anyway. Feeling embarrassed/nervous, like it was your fault that the crime was committed or fear of the person coming after you. For example, a lot of people feel afraid to report if they have been raped as its uncomfortable, they feel they won't be believed or they think maybe they weren't clear enough although they were. Also some people may not trust the police to do something and think it’s not worth it.” Elijah, 18
“I think it is Snapchat or Instagram or something like that, that people send pictures of themselves to strangers. I know some people in my school have pictures of people on their phone who they have never met. I don't think that is very good.” - Jo, 13