Swansea City AFC Foundation support Knife Crime Awareness Week through Premier League Inspires and Premier League Kicks
Swansea City AFC Foundation has teamed up with South Wales Police, StreetDoctors and the Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner for Knife Crime Awareness Week to educate participants of their Premier League Inspires and Premier League Kicks programmes on the issue.
Knife Crime Awareness Week (which begins on May 19), aims to start conversations, educate society and encourage change around an issue which has been on the rise over recent years.
The Foundation delivered a ‘Not the One’ workshop to Premier League Inspires participants at the Swansea.com Stadium. The campaign, led by South Wales Police, aims to persuade 11 to 16-year-olds away from carrying knives and to help them fully grasp the dangers they pose.
Additionally, two Premier League Kicks sessions came together as participants from the Foundation’s Seaside session in Llanelli joined Ammanford Premier League Kicks participants for a joint workshop and mini tournament to raise awareness of Knife Crime Awareness Week.
All participants engaged in a workshop delivered by StreetDoctors, a national charity which empowers young people to learn emergency first-aid provision, and become part of the solution to violence through understanding the physical and psychological consequences.
“As an organisation it’s important for us to educate young people on the dangers of carrying a knife,” said Beth Robinson, targeted interventions manager at Swansea City AFC Foundation.
“We’re raising awareness of the consequences and the impact it has on victims and their families, but also to keep young people safe in the community.”
Rachele Ferrario is the StreetDoctors regional development coordinator for the south west of England and south Wales, and she helped to educate the Foundation’s participants on the medical consequences of knife crime.
“We delivered a bleeding workshop,” said Ferrario.
“So we taught young people what to do if someone is bleeding, we covered the medical consequences of violence in terms of loss of blood, infection and loss of organ function.
“We also had a brief conversation on the psychological consequences of violence.”
Premier League Kicks is also supported by Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn, who was present for the Knife Crime Awareness Week workshop and tournament in Ammanford.
“We’ve seen knife crime increase in recent years,” said Llywelyn.
“As a result of that I think it’s really important for us to have interactions with young people to talk to them about the dangers of carrying knives or being involved with knives.
“So it’s fantastic to be here in Ammanford with the Swans Foundation and Premier League Kicks programme to have workshops with the young people to talk to them about the pressures and issues they may have to deal with.
“The whole point is to have a preventative message, to ensure that they are resilient and equipped to maybe call out incidents if they hear of people carrying knives, or threats around knife-related issues.
“It’s important to educate the young individuals through different methods of educations.
"Interacting through a football perspective gives them a different outlook on the issues. Getting the message to the young people is important to try and in effect divert them away from potential offending in the future.”