Working alongside the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland, MFC Foundation are helping to deliver a serious message.
Statistics show that our area ranks highly in knife crime and that unwanted fact is being tackled head on.
This week has been Knife Crime Awareness Week, but it is hoped the messages learned last a lifetime.
At the start of the week, Matt Storey, Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner, launched Cleveland’s Knife Crime Action Plan, developed by Cleveland Unit for the Reduction of Violence (CURV), to reduce the harm caused by knife-enabled crime.
The plan was, shaped through consultation with organisations across Cleveland, focusses on prevention and education, early intervention, community action and positive opportunities for young people.
At the launch was the No More Red Wall: No Safe Place to Stab – a football themed knife crime education wall, developed in partnership with ourselves and local vascular surgeon Barnabas Green.
There are signs that long-running messages are having an effect. Collaborative efforts involving different organisations, including CURV-funded interventions, have seen knife crime involving under 25s is already down 12% in the last 12 months to December 2024.
Following an introduction from Mr Storey and Liam Watson, MFC Foundation’s social inclusion manager, the launch, at the Riverside, drew a rapt audience pitchside to listen to Barnaby Green, vascular surgeon at James Cook University Hospital, who graphically demonstrated the devastating effects of knife crime.
Please watch and listen to the video and do what you can to spread the message.
