Youth Justice Service

What we do

We work with children and young people aged between 10 to 18 with the aim of preventing offending and reoffending. We support children and young people who have been directed to work with us by the court or police. We also support children and young people on a voluntary basis referred to us via different agencies on our prevention route. 

We assess all young people using either the Youth Justice Board’s approved AssetPlus or Prevention and Diversion assessment tool and devise bespoke intervention plans.

We complete these tailored interventions either on a 121 basis or in small group work sessions. The aim of any intervention is to build on strengths, steer children and young people away from crime and anti-social behaviour, repair any harm and ensure that anyone that encounters our service has the best opportunity moving forward.  

YJS work with parents of young people who have offended. This is to ensure an appropriate level of support and intervention is offered to them alongside any work done with the individual young person. Additionally, we provide victim contact and restorative justice services to the victims of youth crime.  

• Find out more by downloading our 'Youth Justice Service Plan' (PDF, 6.6MB)

Volunteering

Westmorland and Furness Youth Justice Service are looking to recruit more volunteers to help support the work of the service. We are looking for volunteers from the local community who are passionate about working with young people and can build trusting and supportive relationships with young people, their families and partner agencies.

Full training and support will be provided to volunteers to support them in their role. Volunteering opportunities are always changing within the team and at present the following roles are available:

Youth Justice Panel Members

The panels involve local community volunteers working with young offenders, their parents, and the victims. Panel members will talk and listen to these key people and agree with the young person a plan of action that is designed to repair the harm done and prevent further offending. This normally needs three hours per fortnight of your time.

Mentoring scheme

Volunteers will undertake a range of tasks to support a young person to take part in their statutory court order. This can include:

• helping them to attend solo and group work sessions
• helping young people to get to external appointments or interviews
• helping with transport.

Some young people benefit from a “long-term” mentor, who can offer support from the same volunteer over the period of their order.

Reparation scheme

This involves working with young people in the community who are repairing some of the harm that they have caused participating various projects throughout the county. These range from painting and decorating, graffiti clearance and regeneration schemes.

How to apply 

To express your interest in volunteering fill out the form , .docx  and email it to yjs@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk

• Youth Justice Service volunteer form (.docx, 117kb)