SURREY’S Police and Crime Commissioner has told of her pride after visiting a service that helps criminally exploited children to reshape their lives.
Lisa Townsend joined staff from Catch22 at their base in Farnham during February to celebrate their work with vulnerable young people.
The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) is the sole funder of Catch22’s Music To My Ears programme, which allows clients to explore music production, photography, film-making and writing.
Over the past four years, almost £400,000 has been committed to the programme through the OPCC.
Commissioner’s pride
Young people who have been exploited and used by county lines drug dealing operations, have previously gone missing in Surrey, or have been involved in serious violence are among those to attend the service.
Music To My Ears offers voluntary attendance, meaning clients cannot be compelled to attend. However, many continue to work with the programme for months or years.
During her visit, Lisa met with a teenager who is now attending a prestigious music college, four years after first coming to the service for support.
Other clients say Music To My Ears has pulled them out of criminality, with one telling the team: “It has literally saved my life.”
Currently, Catch22 are working on a one-to-one basis with around 80 young people between the ages of 10 and 18 in Surrey. They are also presenting to Surrey’s magistrates to raise awareness of the programme as an alternative intervention that may prevent criminality altogether.
“It saved my life”
Lisa said: “We cannot know how many crimes have not been committed because of the team’s intervention, or how many young people have not entered the prison system in the first place through their work.
“But it is clear the Catch22 team are changing the lives of young people in Surrey.
“During my visit to Music To My Ears, I met with a young person who has changed his own life with the service’s support, and is now a promising musician at a fantastic college.
“There’s a wonderful future ahead of him because of the support he was able to access through Catch22.
Changing lives
“The programme is completely voluntary – young people create their own care plan, and can stay, or leave, as they wish.
“This gives them an agency that they may never have felt and empowers them to make choices that can shape their lives.
“Those who have been groomed or exploited can learn that it is not their fault, that help is out there, and that there are adults who will support them to break free from criminality.
“I am so proud to fund the programme.”
For more information, visit catch-22.org.uk