Expanding Local Charity Launches Property Search

Expanding Local Charity Launches Property Search

A specialist child exploitation charity is looking for new premises in central Derby to enable it to expand its team and support more young people and their families.

Safe and Sound, currently based in Darley Abbey Mills, supports children and young people across Derbyshire who are victims of or at risk of child exploitation which includes online grooming, sexual exploitation, County Lines, Modern Slavery and trafficking as well as raising awareness of the issues in local communities.

In recent months, the charity has seen a significant increase in the number of young people and their families that it works with across the county and is currently recruiting additional support workers and volunteers.

Safe and Sound is also expanding the services that it provides and therefore needs larger premises to accommodate the larger team and organise sessions such as mentoring and CV writing sessions, positive activities and well-being support.

Safe and Sound trustee Mark Richardson is a director of Derby-based commercial property agents BB&J Commercial and is leading the search for new premises.

He explained: “Our goal is to find suitable premises for Safe and Sound at a subsidised rate that reflects their charitable status and the fact that their work in local communities is largely reliant on the generosity of businesses, organisations and individuals in the city and county.

“A real possibility may be a company who plans to continue offering remote working to employees post lockdown and may therefore have spare capacity to accommodate the Safe and Sound team under their corporate and social responsibility commitment.

“I am delighted to be able to provide professional commercial property support for this important move for Safe and Sound which does such vital work to support some of the most vulnerable young people in our society and their families.”

Safe and Sound chief executive Tracy Harrison added: “We have supported 123 young people so far this year compared with a total of 100 throughout 2019.

“We know that lockdown has been a major factor in this increase with young people spending more time online and therefore easier prey for grooming predators and we have been asked for help by fellow professionals, parents and young people themselves.

“With life returning to normal and young people enjoying more freedom to go out. our support workers have recently started an outreach programme.  From feedback and wider intelligence, we know that online grooming activity is steadily converting to face to face criminal and sexual exploitation of young people in our local communities.

“Our numbers of young people and their families who need our support will therefore increase further and we need to now expand our team and also broaden the services we provide.

“We therefore need larger premises and I would appeal to commercial property owners to support us in whatever way they can to make this a reality.”

Businesses and property owners interested in a no-obligation discussion should contact Mark Richardson at BB&J Commercial [email protected] and, for more information about Safe and Sound and how to support the work it does, please visit https://safeandsoundgroup.org.uk/what-you-can-do/cycle/

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Media enquiries: Sarah Jenkin-Jones, JJPR, Tel: 01332 515102/07951 945665; [email protected]

About Safe and Sound

Formed in 2002, Safe and Sound is an inspiring Derbyshire charity that transforms young lives affected by child exploitation with innovative, hands-on programmes.

The charity works at grass root levels delivering individual support to each child as well as families and carers.  This vital support enables them to move not just to a place of safety, but emerge unshackled and undefined by their experience and enabled to reach their full potential.

The charity continues to specialise in child sexual exploitation and is now developing its services to support children and young people facing or at risk of wider exploitation which are often interlinked.  These include physical and emotional violence, neglect, modern day slavery, radicalisation and human trafficking, domestic abuse, missing episodes and County Lines.

Safe and Sound is led by former police superintendent Tracy Harrison with the support of a specialist team; an experience board of Trustees and now a team of Ambassadors who are helping to raise the profile of the charity and the issue of child exploitation.

Safe and Sound’s expertise came to the fore during the 2010 landmark case – Operation Retriever – which was Derby’s first prosecution for child sexual exploitation and abuse.  The charity’s specialist team supported every young person affected by the criminal actions of 13 defendants who were jailed in total for up to 22 years for 70 offences.

For more information about child exploitation, Safe and Sound Derby and how to support their work, please visit www.safeandsoundgroup.org.uk

Support Widens For Butterfly Appeal Recycling Programme

Support Widens For Butterfly Appeal Recycling Programme

A mobile phones recycling initiative has been further expanded to help a local charity help more young people and families affected by child exploitation.

Mobile phone and tablet accessory and services retailer Yoo Kase at East Midlands Designer Outlet near Alfreton is now collecting disused handsets and unclaimed phones from the centre’s lost property.

These are then recycled by Sinfin-based Century Mobile and proceeds donated to Safe and Sound’s Butterfly Appeal which was commended as fundraising project of the year in the recent East Midlands Charity Awards.

The Appeal supports Safe and Sound’s work across Derbyshire to raise awareness of and support children, young people and their families across Derbyshire whose lives are affected by child exploitation.  This includes sexual exploitation, County Lines, trafficking and modern slavery.

Safe and Sound chief executive Tracy Harrison said: “We are delighted that Yoo Kase at East Midlands Designer Outlet has lent their support for the recycling project which is raising vital funds for the charity.

“They join several businesses, groups and intu Derby who joined the recycling project earlier this year.

“As people start returning to shops and their normal lives, I hope that they will continue to look out unwanted mobile phones and enable us to turn these into much-needed cash.

“The money raised is being put to good use as we are busier than ever before – supporting young people who are at risk of or are victims of exploitation and particularly those who have been at greater danger of online grooming during lockdown.

“As well as raising awareness in local communities, we have also started an evening outreach programme in areas that are popular with young people and therefore perpetrators to ensure they recognise the potential dangers and know where to turn for help.”

For more information about the recycling scheme and other ways to support Safe and Sound, please visit www.safeandsoundgroup.org.uk and follow on Facebook and Twitter @safeandsoundgroup or email [email protected]

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Media enquiries: Sarah Jenkin-Jones, JJPR, Tel: 01332 515102/07951 945665; [email protected]

 

About Safe and Sound and the Butterfly Appeal

Safe and Sound was launched in 2002 and is the only local charity that is totally focused on transforming the lives of thousands of children and young people who are victims or are at risk of child sexual exploitation across Derbyshire.

Safe and Sound’s expertise came to the fore during the 2010 landmark case – Operation Retriever – which was Derby’s first prosecution for child sexual exploitation and abuse.  The charity’s specialist team supported every young person affected by the criminal actions of 13 defendants who were jailed in total for up to 22 years for 70 offences.

Safe and Sound’s specialist team provides individual support for children and young people from as young as eight up to the age of 18. They also raise awareness of the issue and the dangers facing children and young people through awareness programmes for schools, organisations, businesses and community groups.

Safe and Sound has launched the Butterfly Appeal #Buildingstrongwings to bring to fruition its vision for expanded services to support young people, families and wider community.

The charity’s future vision is extensive and includes:

  •  A new outreach programme to provide hands-on support where young people are at their most vulnerable
  • Wider support for the families of victims and those at risk of CSE
  • Youth work programmes with new activities from music to sport to build young people’s confidence and resilience
  • Specialist psychological therapy programmes to tackle trauma, anxiety and depression
  • Longer-term support for survivors moving into adulthood enabling them to mentor younger victims
  • An expanded community education programme to increase public awareness of CSE and the dangers facing young people

Supporters and ambassadors include the Chief Constable of Derbyshire who has chosen Safe and Sound as one of his chosen charities.

For more information about child sexual exploitation, Safe and Sound Derby and the Butterfly Appeal please visit www.safeandsoundgroup.co.uk and follow on social media. A powerful video outlining young people’s experiences and why local people and businesses should support Safe and Sound is online at https://youtu.be/xjcb1y2cfGE

 

About CSE

In the UK today, one in 20 children suffer sexual abuse which includes child sexual exploitation.  That means that in every classroom in Derbyshire, there is at least one vulnerable young person in need of help.

Child Sexual Exploitation (commonly referred to as CSE) is a form of child sexual abuse and takes many different forms from rape and sexual assault to online grooming and encouraging children to share inappropriate images of themselves.

CSE is a particularly manipulative form of abuse and is also linked to such criminal exploitation issues such as County Lines, gangs, trafficking and modern slavery.

The key factor is that individuals or groups take advantage of young people by manipulating or deceiving them into sexual activity in exchange for something the victim needs or wants.  This could range from money and alcohol to less tangible things such as the attention that they crave at a vulnerable time in their lives.