Youth Safety Worker Programme for School Routes

Waltham Forest Council is seeking a provider to deliver Safer Routes 2.0, a violence prevention programme that places visible, trained youth workers on routes used by children and young people travelling to and from school and within their neighbourhoods. The programme is part of the council's Serious Violence Duty Strategy and aims to reduce serious violence, improve community safety, and increase young people's sense of security. Based on the Safe Passage model from Chicago and adapted Step Together approach, youth workers provide relationship-building, early intervention, reassurance and community engagement. Early results show positive impacts on young people's perceptions of safety and engagement with trusted adults. The contract requires identifying and reviewing priority routes using local data, intelligence, partnership insight and feedback from young people to ensure responsive deployment. Suppliers should be experienced in youth engagement, community safety programming and violence prevention work.