The Phoenix Programme
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The Phoenix Programme is a tertiary prevention initiative which seeks to prevent violence and associated crime from recurring through a comprehensive multi-agency programme which balances high levels of support from services and communities with swift and certain consequences, including enforcement, if behaviours persistent. The programme works with 14 year olds and above who are involved in group-related violence related behaviours. ​​​​​
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Our aim is simple: To make our communities safer for everyone by reducing the occurrence of serious violence and associated crime.
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Phoenix offers an age-appropriate, concrete and tailored package of support to participants focussed around hope, opportunity and connection. This is delivered through a multi-agency team which includes community navigators, many with lived experience of violence and crime. The team delivers in local communities and takes a pro-active approach to engagement. Based on a focussed deterrence model, when participants commence the programme the consequences of continued involvement in violence are clearly communicated. If participants refuse to engage and/or there are concerns in relation to continued harm, the enforcement and disruption element is deployed.
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Suitability for the programme is assessed by a panel and is based on an analytical process which considers data and intelligence from multiple sources. An individual has to be a member or associate of a group known to be involved in serious violence or associated criminality such as drug supply and been arrested or suspected of serious violence, possession of weapons (including flagged as a habitual knife carrier), or drug trafficking in the past 12 to 24 months. ​
The Team comprises of practitioners from the Police, Probation, Youth Justice, Ingeus (community navigators) and Leicestershire Cares.
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The programme is funded largely through the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) who are also funding a high-quality impact evaluation led by the University of Hull. ​