Virtual reality headsets are to be used in a West Yorkshire training programme aimed at cutting knife crime & ASB

The West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Partnership has selected Yorkshire Mentoring as the organisation that will be delivering virtual reality workshops using VR headsets across Kirklees to Young people aged 12 and above, aimed at cutting ASB & knife crime.

We are currently funded till March 2025 by the partnership to deliver to schools and colleges across Kirklees.

The tech sessions will ask young people to make decisions when faced with "serious violence", with outcomes that can then be discussed by trained facilitators in group sessions. We will also be training professionals from across the locality to use the headsets to increase the number of young people gaining access to the headsets.

Director of the West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Partnership (VRP), Detective Chief Superintendent Lee Berry, said: “Tackling knife crime can only be achieved in partnership, and it is events like this that allow us to recognise the gaps and meet the challenges.”Over the past year alone, the VRP has reached 24,991 young people under 24 and 816 over 25 through our focused interventions, not to mention training 392 professionals.”

Karol Thornton, our Non-Executive Director at Yorkshire Mentoring, who oversees our mentoring & training programmes across Kirklees, was invited to attend

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