Lottery money for fighting crime

The grant is one of two announced today from the fund's Reaching Communities programme to support projects in South Yorkshire.

Money given to the South Yorkshire Victim Offender Mediation Service (Remedi), will be used to reduce crime in the region by working with persistent re-offenders on their release from custody.

The project will use mentors to work with offenders over a period of three months to a year, to support them in rebuilding their lives.

Mentors will meet offenders on a regular basis and support them to deal with issues such as housing, drugs, education, finances, employment and relationships, to stabilise their lives and reduce the risk of their reoffending.

Remedi's director, Steve Jones, said: "We are absolutely delighted with the grant from the Big Lottery Fund. The grant will enable Remedi to work with some of the most prolific offenders in South Yorkshire on release from custody.

"Our evidence shows this will significantly reduce re-offending and reduce the number of local people who become the victims of crime."

The project will help individuals to find long-term accommodation and also build links with their families through mediation.

Mentors will accompany ex-prisoners on their first visits to appointments and provide help with drawing up CVs, applying for courses and registering with health services.

Most persistent offenders are men aged 18 to 35, who have a range of problems such as drug and alcohol abuse, homelessness, debt, poverty, low levels of literacy and numeracy, unemployment and mental health issues, all of which can lead to offending.

A further grant of 499,922 has also been awarded by the Big Lottery Fund to Africans Unite Against Child Abuse (Afruca) towards its work in Sheffield. The organisation will use its grant over five years to reduce the number of children within African communities suffering from child abuse linked to religious and cultural attitudes.

Child protection training programmes will be aimed at faith leaders and their congregations and a number of information leaflets will also be produced.

Debbie Ariyo, executive director of Afruca, said: "Increasingly, local authorities across the country are reporting cases of African families coming to the attention of children's services, mainly due to different child-rearing practices which conflict with the laws of the land.

"Cultural practices like female genital mutilation, the use of children as domestic servants as well as witchcraft branding are seen as putting children at risk of abuse. For that reason, more children are being lost to the care system, leading to more African families being broken up and fragmented."

Vanessa White, Big Lottery Fund's head of region for Yorkshire and the Humber, said: "These projects will help to improve lives in our communities.

"The grant awarded to Remedi has the dual benefits of reducing crime and helping persistent offenders to get their lives back on track.

"The grant awarded to Afruca) is helping to raise awareness and tackle an issue which often goes uncovered. Every child in this country has the same rights and should not be subject to abuse."

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