Campaign to protect young people goes from strength to strength

Not In Our Community, a campaign by the Police and Crime Commissioner to raise awareness of child exploitation, has reported strong engagement with its social media activity and online resources in the 6 months to September 2020.

As the first Covid lockdown closed schools for the vast majority of young people, so the dangers of sexual and criminal exploitation increased as young people were not only out of school but spending more time unsupervised online.

To combat this, Not In Our Community produced a pack of home schooling resources aimed at parents, teachers and carers, and a 6-part online series; “Becky’s Story”, showing how young people may become victims of online grooming. The campaign has also had a website refresh with pages targeted at Years 6, Years 7-9, Years 10-11, for parents, partners and professionals along with resources available for teachers and those who work in youth engagement settings.

Added to this was the release of a new film; “Missed Me?” telling the stories of young people who go missing for various reasons including criminal and sexual exploitation and mental health reasons. This film followed the earlier success of the film “Alfie’s Story”, about a boy groomed into selling drugs for a criminal gang, which won a major international award for Best Public Sector Marketing Strategy in November. Both films were commissioned by Community Safety Partnerships in Hull and North East Lincolnshire with funding from the PCC and Home Office. 

Looking ahead to 2021, Not In Our Community will expand further with exciting new updates including an interactive e-learning platform that will be available for young people which will support a new level of engagement for educators and young people’s practitioners.

Police and Crime Commissioner Keith Hunter said: “Not In Our Community is about education and helping young people protect themselves and friends against grooming that can lead to sexual and criminal exploitation, but it is also about awareness and communication; helping communities to understand the issues so they recognise and report exploitation if they see it, or even suspect it.

“In April 2020, my office brought the Not In Our Community brand under increased oversight and we are proud to present this report that details our achievements since that time and I hope also gives a flavour of our ambition for the future.”

Click here to read the campaign update report

Visit www.notinourcommunity.org for the full suite of resources