Sep 5, 2022 | Events, News
Derbyshire’s specialist child exploitation charity, Safe and Sound, have supported more than 100 young people and families over the summer with a bespoke Holiday Activities and Food programme (HAF).
Around 1,800 meals, including those prepared by professional chefs at Butler’s Pantry in Burnaston, have been delivered to families over the past six weeks.
Meanwhile, young people enjoyed an array of activities including a private cinema screening at QUAD, fishing, boxing, BMX and basketball coaching sessions, days out to visitor attractions and the opportunity to learn practical skills such as woodwork and bath bombs.
The HAF programme is part of Safe and Sound’s grassroots work to support local children and young people who have been victims of exploitation or who are at risk of becoming exploited and was in addition to the charity’s specialist one-to-one support for young people and their families to enable them to take back control of their lives.
Tracy Harrison is CEO of Safe and Sound which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year of supporting young people and families across the city and county.
She explained: “This was our most ambitious HAF programme to date and the feedback from the young people we support and their families has been incredible.”
“The meals and delivery of menu stock cupboard essentials have been a lifeline for many
families who were dreading how they would put food on the table due to the cost of living
crisis.”
“Furthermore, positive activities for young people of all ages have helped to re-build their
self-confidence and resilience and, most importantly, have given them memorable
experiences that they will always remember.”
“The staff and volunteers at Safe and Sound have been amazing – going above and beyond
to deliver the summer programme – and we are extremely grateful to the businesses and
organisations who ensured that the activities were such a resounding success.”
“We are now planning our October holiday activities and Christmas HAF programmes which
will give everyone something to look forward to as we enter the Autumn and be a fitting
end to our busy 20th anniversary year.”
For more information about the work of Safe and Sound and how to support them during
their 20th anniversary year, please visit www.safeandsoundgroup.org.uk
Media enquiries: Sarah Jenkin-Jones, JJPR, Tel: 01332 515102/07951 945665;
[email protected]
Jul 28, 2022 | News, News, Press Releases
“The heady days of summer should be a wonderful time for our children and young people to take a much-needed break from school and enjoy time with family and friends. However, with more time on their hands – it is also a time when they are even more vulnerable to grooming and exploitation – both online and in person.
As parents and grandparents, we are used to asking young people where they are going, who they are meeting and what they will be doing? The sad reality is that the same questions need to be asked about who young people are talking to
online and what they are doing. The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) reports that pandemic saw a truly disturbing 374% increase in the levels of self-generated material. This is where children have been groomed or coerced into abusing themselves on camera, often in their own homes, by internet predators.
Furthermore, a new report from The Police Foundation warns that online grooming and exploitation is at an industrial scale. More than 6,000 offences of online grooming, exploitation and abuse reported to the police in 2020/21 which is an increase of 400% compared with just four years earlier. Therefore, the shocking truth is that children are being groomed and abused even as parents think they are safe at home. Indeed any device with a camera that can access the internet is like an open window through which a predator can climb.
Online grooming in itself is a serious threat to the safety and wellbeing of children and young people but there is also the further danger that perpetrators will convert this into threatening and coercing their victims into meeting up in person.
My appeal to parents and carers this summer is therefore to be just as vigilant about young people’s safety when they are on their smartphones, laptops or gaming devices as they would if they were heading out into town or the park. I appreciate that such conversations are uncomfortable but they are vital to reduce the dangers and vulnerability to grooming and exploitation.
Our website has some important information about staying safe online and in person – www.safeandsoundgroup.org.uk
Jul 18, 2022 | Events, Fundraising, News, News
Commercial property specialist Mark Richardson, who is a partner at BB&J Commercial in The Wyvern, Derby, has raised more than £1,000 for local specialist child exploitation charity Safe and Sound.
Mark is the charity’s chair of trustees and pledged to cycle the 150 mile coast to coast route in one day as part of BB&J Commercial’s support for Safe and Sound’s 20th anniversary year. The challenging route from Seascale on the west coast, through the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, Vale of York and North Yorkshire Moors to Whitby on the east coast took Mark 10½ hours to complete in blistering heat.
Mark said: “As well as heading the board of trustees who all bring professional skills to the table and raising awareness across our networks of the dangers facing children and young people in our local communities, I am glad that I have been able to put my love of cycling to good use and raise money for this great charity.
“I have been cycling for about ten years and, during that time, I have done some memorable endurance rides in the UK and Europe including three road routes in one day up Mont Ventoux in France to celebrate my 50th birthday. “This time, it was far hotter than forecast and there were some tough climbs but my companions and I had done a lot of training in the Peak District which held us in good stead.
“People are still pledging money and I hope to hit my £1,500 target in the coming weeks. This will be put to great use by the team at Safe and Sound who are doing a fantastic job supporting and protecting young people and their families whose lives have been affected by child exploitation.
“I am now looking forward to planning my next fundraising challenge which may involve two wheels – or something totally different.”
Safe and Sound CEO Tracy Harrison added: “We are very grateful to Mark for his commitment to the charity both with his business hat and cycling helmet on! We depend greatly on the generosity of individuals, organisations and businesses to raise money for our work so that we can keep pace with the rising demand for our help and support across the city and county due to the increase in online and in-person child exploitation.”
For more information about Safe and Sound and how to support the work it does, please visit https://safeandsoundgroup.org.uk/
Many thanks to Photographer Andy Milton for the fabulous image of Mark!
Jul 15, 2022 | News, News, Press Releases
Our Anniversary Champion for July 2022 is BB&J Commercial. Read this blog to learn more about them and why they have chosen to support us.
Company name, website and social media handles:
BB&J Commercial – www.bbandj.co.uk
instagram – @bbjcommercial
Facebook – BB&J Commercial
Twitter – @BBJCOMMERCIAL
LinkedIn – BB&J Commercial
Overview of what your company/organisation does:
BB&J Commercial is a leading firm of Chartered Surveys and Commercial Property Agents servicing property within the East Midlands
Why have you supported Safe and Sound as an anniversary sponsor?
It’s really important to us that we raise funds for the vital work Safe & Sound do, to ensure that the charity can provide the right support and care to transform young people’s lives.
Are you planning any special fundraising or awareness raising events as part of your sponsorship?
As Chair of Trustee’s at Safe & Sound, Mark Richardson wanted to combine his passion for cycling and love for Safe & Sound by cycling across the UK.
Have you appointed a Safe and Sound Champion within you’re your company: name, title and a key message form them about what tey hope to achieve as your Safe and Sound champion?
Mark Richardson – Partner – “‘As a Safe & Sound champion, it is really important that we raise more awareness, especially within the business community, about the dangers of exploitation and how easy it is to be sucked into the world of criminal or sexual activity just through communication online. You are incredible and keep fighting. Together, through talking about these situations, we can help to take down the abusers and prevent others from being affected by exploitation.”
Jun 8, 2022 | News, Press Releases
Derbyshire’s specialist child exploitation charity, Safe and Sound, has been chosen as one of just 23 charities and organisations nationwide to be awarded a special grant to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Safe and Sound has been awarded £7,000 to help fund an expanding aspect of its work with vulnerable young people and adults whose learning difficulties and additional needs make them at particular risk of exploitation including online grooming, sexual exploitation, County Lines, trafficking, modern slavery and radicalisation.
The grant has been awarded by The Leathersellers’ Company Charitable Fund which has awarded one-off additional grants totalling £210,000 to existing charity partners to help them rebuild, strengthen and adapt their service deliver post-pandemic.
Tracy Harrison is CEO of Safe and Sound which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. She said: “Sadly, we know a young person or adult with special educational needs is three or four times more likely to be exploited.
“This risk has been heightened by the pandemic with the increased use of social media and online gaming channels by children and young adults – particularly those with additional learning needs and health issues – as it was often their only link to the outside world.
“Their anxiety and feelings of isolation made them extremely vulnerable to predators and we are still receiving referrals to support young people and vulnerable adults who have been groomed online – often over a sustained period.
“Providing one to one and group support for them and their families therefore continues to be our primary focus. We are therefore very grateful for this grant and the continued support of The Leathersellers’ Company to enable us to do more.”
For more information about the work of Safe and Sound and how to support them during their 20th anniversary year, please visit www.safeandsoundgroup.org.uk and for more information about The Leathersellers’ Company, visit https://leathersellers.co.uk/charitablefund/
May 4, 2022 | News, Press Releases
Derbyshire-born actor Molly Windsor, who starred in a television drama about child sexual exploitation and has since been an active ambassador for local Safe and Sound, has been officially recognised with an award.
Molly, who lives in Breaston, has starred in several film and television dramas including ‘Three Girls’ which highlighted the manipulative methods used by perpetrators targeting vulnerable children and young people in Rochdale.
She connected with Safe and Sound whose expertise particularly came to the fore during the 2010 landmark case – Operation Retriever – which was Derby’s first prosecution for child sexual exploitation and abuse. Safe and Sound’s specialist team supported every young person affected by the criminal actions of 13 defendants who were jailed in total for up to 22 years for 70 offences.
Over the past five years, Molly has worked to raise awareness of child exploitation, raised vital funds and met with many of the young people and families whose lives have been affected by exploitation and who are supported by Safe and Sound.
Her voluntary work was recognised recently by The High Sheriff of Derbyshire Michael Copestake who visited Safe and Sound’s offices in Darley Abbey to find out more about the work of the charity which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
He presented Molly with The High Sheriff’s Certificate which is awarded to those who go above and beyond to support their local communities.
Mr Copestake said: “Safe and Sound do an amazing job in protecting and supporting some of the most vulnerable young people and families in our local communities and Molly’s dedication to helping the charity on a voluntary basis is outstanding.”
Molly continued: “Over the last few years, it has been a pleasure to see all the fantastic work Safe and Sound is doing.
“Since ‘Three Girls’ aired, I have found lots of people open up to me about child exploitation and their own experiences so being able to point them towards Safe and Sound is invaluable as I know that anyone who reaches out to the charity will be listened to and supported.
“It was such a surprise to be given the award from The High Sheriff. It means a great deal and I look forward to continuing to work with and support Safe and Sound.”
Safe and Sound chair of trustees Mark Richardson added: “Molly has worked tirelessly for the charity and really engages with the young people that the fantastic team here work with.
“We really value her support and willingness to speak about the issue which affects so many people’s lives. Having an ambassador with a public profile is invaluable in helping to break down the taboos about child exploitation which is an uncomfortable but important issue to bring out into the open.”
Safe and Sound supports an increasing number of children, young people and their families whose lives have been affected by exploitation including online grooming, sexual exploitation, coercion to run drugs through County Lines, trafficking, modern slavery and radicalisation.
Last year the charity worked with 203 young people (compared with 150 the previous year) as well as 49 families whose children are being groomed and exploited.
Safe and Sound CEO Tracy Harrison concluded: “Child exploitation had long been a real and present danger across all sections of society – affecting boys and girls regardless of where they lived, their family circumstances, backgrounds, cultures and age.
“Our workload has particularly increased since the start of the pandemic when young people were at increased risk of online grooming which escalated into in-person exploitation.
“Raising awareness of the dangers is more important now than ever and we are very lucky to have Molly as one of our ambassadors.
“The drama ‘Three Girls’ continues to a valuable tool in our work to raise awareness of child exploitation and one of our young people recently said that she only realised that she had been groomed and exploited by who she thought was her boyfriend having watched the programme.
“We are grateful that The High Sheriff of Derbyshire took time out of his busy schedule to visit us, find out more about our work and present Molly with this prestigious award.”
For more information about the work of Safe and Sound and how to support them during their 20th anniversary year, please visit www.safeandsoundgroup.org.uk
Picture shows, from left: Mark Richardson, The High Sheriff of Derbyshire Michael Copestake, Molly Windsor and Tracy Harrison.
