The role of youth work in Social skills training to reduce offending and violence

Social skills training helps children think before acting, understand others, communicate effectively, and manage impulsiveness. Research shows that children with these skills are less likely to engage in crime and violence. Delivered through school programs, activities include role-playing, video demonstrations, delayed gratification exercises, and relaxation techniques. We’re keen to share what role youth work plays in this type of approach and understand the overall strength of evidence and practice within social skills training approaches.

At the session:

• You’ll hear from leading delivery organisations that combine the power of youth work to deliver social skills training approaches.
• What outcomes can social skills training provide for young people.
• Get an overview of how social skills training is defined based on the available evidence.
• Gain insights to the key practices and principles developed to implement social skills well.
• Explore the Casel framework and understand how this underpins the practice.
• The session will end with a Question and Answers section for attendees to engage with our brilliant guest speakers

We will be joined by:

Caleb Jackson, Head of Change -Youth Sector, Youth Endowment Fund

Caleb will be chairing this event and sharing an overview into the YEF toolkit specific to what it says about social skills training. Contextualising the session as we prepare to hear from expert leaders.

Dr Aleisha Clarke, National Programme Manager, Mental Health and Wellbeing at Health Service Executive

Aleisha Clarke is a post-doctoral researcher at the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Health Promotion Research at the National University of Ireland Galway. She is a qualified primary school teacher and completed a Master’s in Education at Trinity College Dublin. In 2011 she completed her PhD in school mental health promotion at NUI Galway. Aleisha has worked on several national and international research projects on the implementation and evaluation of mental health promotion interventions in the school and community setting.

Aleisha will be talking about the current available evidence in social skills training. We’ll hear about research that looked at what works in enhancing social and emotional skills development during childhood and adolescence? A review of the evidence on the effectiveness of school-based and out-of-school programmes in the UK.

James Reeves, Senior Policy Officer, Football Beyond Borders

James will share core features of FBBs model and the framework that underpins their practice.

Lucy Bailey, CEO, Bounce Forward

Lucy will talk about the model in which Bounce Forward’s practice resides.