Young victims of crime will be helped to rebuild their lives thanks to a new initiative launched by Durham Constabulary.
Eight young people between the ages of 12 and 17 will be offered the opportunity to take part in the ‘Bounce Resilience Academy’.
All of those selected have overcome adversity in their lives.
Bounce aims to provide the chosen eight with tools to help overcome their individual trauma and the necessary skills to adapt to life’s challenges and setbacks.
Its ultimate aim is to equip them with emotional resilience which will help them deal effectively with the stressful situations in their past and move forward to a successful and positive future.
A combination of workshops and one-to-one sessions will be part of the programme where the students will learn about mindfulness, communication, problem solving and confidence and trust.
Durham’s assistant chief officer Gary Ridley said: “In Durham we are always keen to explore new ways to support our victims and to find ways to help them move on with their lives and Bounce offers us an extremely innovative way to do that.
“I am hopeful that this will be the first of many Bounce programmes and we as a force can continue to provide our unique service to victims that makes Durham different and outstanding in terms of the policing service we provide.”
Hannah Bell, a personal change expert from Clarity, a Teesside-based company which provides personal change work, specialising in neurolinguistic programming, will be delivering the Bounce Academy programme in partnership with the force.
Hannah said: “This is really cutting edge stuff and I’m delighted to be working alongside Durham Constabulary in helping young people who have had an extremely challenging start to their lives move forward to secure the best possible opportunities for their future.”
The Bounce Resilience Academy which should be up and running later in the summer, involves six days of activity which concludes with a graduation where all involved receive a certificate of achievement.