British Weight Lifting teams up with West Yorkshire Police

British Weight Lifting have partnered with West Yorkshire Police Youth Early Action Prevention Programme (YEAPP) for 2022.

The Calderdale Early Intervention Programme has been running for a few years, but in September 2022 West Yorkshire Police (WYP) launched a Youth Early Action Intervention Programme (YEAPP).

The six-month programme consists of four week blocks of education and activities with young people aged 10-17 who have been identified by agencies (police, social services, schools, family interventions) as being vulnerable to crime. The programme has six cohorts of 10-12 individuals, and over the course of the programme the young people get to experience a range of activities from walking and canoeing to mountain biking, indoor climbing, fishing, photography, and weightlifting.

The sessions are arranged to keep young people with similar aged individuals so that WYP can tailor their educational sessions to age-appropriate issues they may be facing. For example, WYP shared that lots of children struggle with the transition from primary to secondary school and this is a common time where individuals may join the crime pathway, especially assault, theft, and criminal damage.

As the young people embark on the new activities, WYP staff members discuss and listen to the children's circumstances and try to educate on how they may diverge from criminal activity. The young people are given educational input from WYP staff covering the consequences of crime, drug awareness, cyber awareness, and knife crime.

The programme has also teamed up with 'Healthy Holidays' who provide the young people with a healthy meal during the day to fuel them for their activities.

The activities offer young people a focus and outlet that they may not have been able to experience before. WYP told us that physical activities can often be useful coping mechanisms for children with emotional issues and can give children with ADHD something to focus on.

British Weight Lifting held a weightlifting and strength training session on 12 October in Halifax with a group of young people. Over the three hour session, young people were introduced to the sport of weightlifting and were taught a variety of strength exercises that they will be able to go away and re-do in their own time.

The next sessions will take place in November and December, followed by three more in the new year.