Knife Crime Awareness Week

Knife Crime Awareness Week takes place between the 20th and 26th May 2024

This week-long initiative aims to shed light on the detrimental effects of knife crime while providing educational resources about its risks and consequences.

Loudmouth’s theatre in education programmes can help educators to engage students in thinking about these risks and consequences through drama and discussion. We support many schools with programmes that address knife crime and it is an issue that we know that schools and communities want to address.

Last year we reached over 20,000 young people with our child exploitation programme Working for Marcus. The theatre in education programme supports school’s RSHE work on knife crime as well as issues around gangs, grooming and exploitation.

The programme includes a performance where the audience meet a character called Jay. Jay is a young man in his twenties who shares his story on how during his teenage years, he was groomed into criminal exploitation and County Lines.

Jay’s story is built through research and consultation with young people and professionals. Jay’s experiences draw from case studies and insights from professionals who work around county lines and knife crime. Jay is an honest and charismatic character who engages with the audience and explains how he was targeted and drawn into county lines in his early teens and how what initially felt exciting and powerful soon became a scary time where he had no choices and no way to get out. Jay relates how he was given a knife and how the initial feeling of being safe and protected soon changed as he realised how vulnerable this made him. The audience listen to Jay’s story before being given the chance to ask him questions. This is a highlight of the session as group’s have the chance to ask the questions they want answers to and for us to be able to highlight the risks and consequences that he faced and to highlight how he was coerced and the different pressures on him to get involved.

The Working for Marcus programme also includes a drama on Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and is available in different formats. The workshop option allows students to further explore the issues raised in the drama and learn more about where to get help and support.

If you would like to know more or want to find out how Working for Marcus can support your RSHE in Knife Crime Awareness Week then contact us on 0121 446 4880 or email enquiry@loudmouth.co.uk