1. really understand the root cause which made young people feel the only way they can be safe is to carry a knife.
2. Listen to young people more
3. Stop assuming “we know”, better
4. Put younger people at the centre of debate on solutions and give them a pivotal role in planning solutions
5. More effective lines of communication in multi-agency working
6. More trained professionals for the community to call on as required.
7. Ensure the punishment fits the crime
8. Use media to present positive images of young people and eliminate distortions
9. Tailor the education system to meet individual needs
10. Provide more preventative facilities, peer mentoring, role modelling
11. Give young people a safe place to build-up their self-respect and self-esteem.
12. Invest more resources and funds in to properly staffed facilities to improve community liaison
13. Involve victims to help their perpetrators accept responsibility and create clearer boundaries
14. Mixed age Community activities centres involving the business community to enable young and old people relate more effectively with each other.
15. CPS, which takes the final decision on charging for crimes, needs to increase the victim’s sense of relevance to reported crimes.
16. Facilitate opportunities for cross-cultural understanding across youth groups and communities.

I will also be asking Paul Scriven to give us similar feedback for us to then feed it back to you with a view to influencing policy at a local level which is integral to our ethos.

Please do not hesitate to share your concerns on youth crime even if you were unable to join us at our Youth Crime workshop.

A copy can be downloaded here, and there is also an update to bring you right up to date with AFI happenings up until June 30th 2008.

You might also be interested in our ‘Open Planning Presentation’.  Please note that this is in the form of a Powerpoint Presentation.

Delivered two Events with high level speakers including:

* Nick Clegg, MP, the Liberal Democrat Party Leader;
* Rose Ardron, the former Chair of the Burngreave New Deal for Communities Board; Peter Bradfield, a researcher at the think tank, Demos;
* Magda Reed, a former Consultant with Council for Ethnic Minority Voluntary Organisations (CEMVO) & Director of MRA;
* Ashley Sweetland, Trustee of UK Youth Parliament & Director of Corporate Culture;
* Perry Walker, Head of Participation & Democracy at the leading think tank, nef (new economics foundation).

Developed ground-breaking research on the issues affecting inclusion for people with communications disorders.

Contributed to research undertaken by the University of Sheffield research on the misconception of “hard to reach groups”.

Contributed to The Hansard Society’s report on Digital Dialogues Pilot Study for the Department of Constitutional Affairs in April 2007.

On a more practical footing, we have actively and heavily helped our Sheffield communities affected by the recent floods.

We have published our October 2007 Event Report – please see here.

Our funder, the Big Lottery’s Awards for All scheme were more than happy with our project management when they closed our funding account for year ending 31st December 2007.  We will publish our year end accounts as soon as possible.

Sheffield Community Enterprise Development Unit (SCEDU) is advising us on AFI’s vision and structure to ensure we meet your needs.

We’re planning a Friends Meeting to present and discuss our plans for AFI to ensure they reflect what you want before we organise our next event.

We’re upgrading our website to a Content Management System

We’ve produced:

1. Event Feedback report from everything you said about us at our October 2007 Event.

2. 1-page Briefing Report on plastic pollution written by Jeremy Houghton, an IT Consultant and business analyst