A grant of £17,500 will see the University's Youth Safety Research Group assess a specialist violence and re-offending reduction programme in the East London borough.
Date: 19 January 2022
London Met's Youth Safety Research Group has been awarded a substantial grant to evaluate the Osmani Trust's Aasha BAME's violence and re-offending reduction programme in Tower Hamlets.
With funding of £17,500, Dr James Alexander will lead a project to assess the specialist programme which is funded through the Violence Reduction Unit and Supported by Tower Hamlets Community Safety Team and The Probation Service.
Aasha BAME is geared towards cutting crime, reducing the fear of crime, promoting citizenship and bridging the gap between communities. It works with 18 to 25 year olds from Tower Hamlets with offending backgrounds and creates positive change in the youth culture of the area, in order to see a reduction in crime and antisocial behaviour.
In evaluating the success of the Aasha BAME's work, Dr Alexander and his colleagues will assess the effectiveness of the programme delivery against the programme's aims and objectives.
They will then assess the project in terms of wider factors that are known to impact youth criminality such as the participants' sense of safety and wellbeing, their ability to develop and maintain positive relationships, their sense of purpose and fulfilment, and their ability to cope with trauma and adverse childhood experiences.
The evaluation exercise will take an inclusive approach to ensure project recipients are involved - either as part of a steering group or as trainee researchers.
The evaluation will employ a mixed methods approach using existing council, probation and police data on offending behaviour as well as new qualitative data through a series of interviews from Aasha staff and project participants; staff from partner organisations; as well as focus groups and field note entries from project delivery observations.
An aerial view of Tower Hamlets.
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