Youth Intervention Specialist service from the Violence and Exploitation Reduction Unit

Tackling violence and the exploitation of children and other vulnerable people in Bedfordshire is absolutely crucial work that no person, group or organisation can solve on their own.

The Bedfordshire Violence and Exploitation Reduction Unit (VERU) is a multi-agency unit funded by the Home Office to take a public health approach towards violence and the exploitation of children.

We work across multiple agencies and organisational boundaries to identify and address the root causes and drivers, and promote factors that protect individuals from becoming involved in violence and exploitation in the first place. 

We also work to identify those people who are at risk of committing violent crimes, or being a victim of violence and/or exploitation, at an early stage and intervene early.

We invest in community projects and outreach work, coordinate work in the county around things like governance, data and communications, as well as having our Youth Intervention Specialist (YIS) team.

(YIS) team comes with a wealth of both lived and professional experiences, ready to support and work with victims, witnesses and those involved in criminal activities – to include our specialist area around gang associations.

Our aim is to encourage the reduction of child exploitation (CE) and violent activities impacting our Bedfordshire community. We provide a supportive service for educators, children, young people and their families – some of whom may be currently disengaged with services.

Although the support and service that we offer are not mandatory, we as Youth Intervention Specialists recognise that we will be tasked to work with some young people and families who may not wish to engage. The strength of our YIS Team is that we are all skilled in working with this cohort.

Alongside our key partners we will always strive to ensure that the community knows that there is a supplementary support service available for them, and anyone they are concerned about. 

For more information visit the VERU's website.