John Hawkins was Head of East Sussex Youth Offending Team and treasurer of the AYM, until his untimely death in 2011. The AYM John Hawkins Award was established in memory of John, with agreement from his family. The award is presented annually to a youth offending service for innovation and creativity in youth justice practice. The award ceremony usually takes place at the Annual Youth Justice Convention, however Covid restrictions meant that the awards had to take place virtually. The winners are chosen by children and young people of the previous years winners. This year Bradford judged the entries and couldn’t decide between two projects and for the first time ever it was decided to split the award between two Youth Offending Teams. Congratulations go to Hampshire YOS for their ‘Therapeutic Wellbeing Officers (TWO) Service’ and Lancashire YOS for their ‘Your Choice Diversion Programme’
What the children said about Hampshire’s project:
Gets young people to build relationships and have support to address what’s happening for them. This could help most young people and support them to think of different ways to manage emotional and mental health and build relationships.
It’s good because it can help a lot of young people and they can get to know the worker. Help them to not hurt there self and build confidence so they believe in themselves.
What the children said about the Lancashire Project
It is a good way for young people to develop knowledge but they might not open up in group situations i.e. if they were being exploited, I think other YOT’s offer similar things before young people go to court.
Can help young people before they offend or before they end up in court
Both YOT’s were presented with their awards by the Chair of the AYM in December 2020. Lancashire received their award during the YOT Management Board meeting. Hampshire received their award during an awards ceremony and were joined by our AYM Secretary who was their previous head of service. John’s sons attended both award ceremonies and shared their own personal reflections of their dad and have agreed to visit both projects once the Covid restrictions have been lifted. Congratulations to both Lancashire and Hampshire.
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