Nurtureuk are partnering with the Kent and Medway Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) to deliver a two-day community summit to explore how nurturing approaches in schools can be extended to the whole community.
The event will bring together education professionals, residents, police, the local authority, and those from community and voluntary organisations. Participants will hear from national speakers, including author Joe Brummer, as well as local speakers on the challenges that schools face and how nurturing approaches are positively impacting young people. The sessions will also explore how schools and community representatives have worked together to strengthen the support for young people and helped them to achieve positive outcomes.
The first day focuses on the Medway, Swale and Gravesham regions, whilst the second is dedicated to Maidstone, Ashford and Thanet. In addition to the speakers, there will be a series of practical workshops to allow local representatives to discuss how plans can be created and delivered to build nurturing communities around schools.
“We know there is huge untapped potential not only within the young people themselves, but within the communities they live in. For nurtureuk to have the chance to provide a platform for all these groups to come together to listen to the voices of young people, and then action some positive nurturing outcomes for the students, the schools and the wider community, is a huge privilege.” – Nichala Johansen, VRU Project Lead Consultant and Trainer, nurtureuk
The summit aims to identify causes of serious violence and how they affect young people, whilst looking at how partners can work together to address them. It will provide the opportunity to explore how nurturing approaches that extend from the school into the community can create safer spaces, and help young people to achieve positive short and long-term social, emotional, and academic outcomes. By bringing local services together to create and strengthen networks around schools, the summit aims to enable a localised community approach.