Crime prevention initiative opens in Oldham

Community specialists UCAN North West have relocated to Oldham, from Preston.

UCAN are crime and anti-social behaviour specialists, supporting parents and carers of teenagers at risk of involvement drifting into crime and anti-social behaviour at home, at school and in the wider community.

They serve Greater Manchester and the north west of England, as well as providing online family support with their Parent999 programmes.

Staff include a former Greater Manchester Police Sergeant, Steve Kenny, and a Detective Constable, Karen Archibald, each with over 25 years of policing experience.

Steve has also spent the last nine years working as an independent family support worker and early intervention specialist, delivering UCAN’s unique Bedroom to Cell Room workshops in and around the North West.

The workshops are designed to educate young people, and especially teenagers, how positive life choices can help them to avoid criminalisation and stay safe in the community.

The workshops revolve around two characters, Josh and Sophie, who are each vulnerable in their own way.

The students on the workshop work together as a team, and as well as looking at potential offences the teenagers may have committed, they work together to find alternative ways they could deal with the different situations the teenagers are confronted with.

UCAN is also working with Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Manchester, providing multi agency workshops for health and social care students.

These workshops involve Josh and Sophie again and the students are not only involved in looking at possible criminal offences, and avoiding criminalising Josh and Sophie, but also how different agencies can join together to provide relevant interventions for them.

The overall aim is to improve not only their lives, but that of their families and the local community as well.   

UCAN also offer one-to-one and small group support for families struggling with teenager behaviour at home.

This can be done face to face at UCAN's office in Hollinwood, or online, and they have a number of courses that parents, carers and teenagers can access including: managing conflict in the home, building confidence and self-esteem for teenagers, anger management techniques, supporting teenagers involved in crime and anti-social behaviour, and much more.

For further information, check out the UCAN websites: www.Parent999.com and www.ucannorthwest.co.uk

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