Charity expands outreach programme

Safe and Sound has expanded its outreach programme into parts of Erewash and South Derbyshire in a bid to raise awareness of the support available to protect young people from child exploitation.

Safe and Sound 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 supporting the wider families and raising awareness of the issues in local communities.

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The charity’s expanded youth work team is now making weekly visits to various areas including Cotmanhay, Long Eaton Swadlincote, Woodville and Newhall – regularly engaging with up to 50 young people a night.

The key objective is to gather information and intelligence about suspected criminal activity, talk to young people about their experiences and provide support or signpost them to other organisations.

Safe and Sound is also keen to recruit volunteers with knowledge of the local areas to join the outreach programme.

According to chief executive Tracy Harrison, the outreach programme had originally been piloted in Derby city – prompted by potential consequences of lockdown, which had led to young people spending more time online and therefore being at greater risk of grooming which now leaves them vulnerable to in-person exploitation.

In the past year Safe and Sound has supported more than 150 young people and their families – compared with 100 during the whole of 2019.