Supporting Victims of Violence
Rae Atkins is the first Oasis youth worker to be based in a Hospital A & E department. As part of the Oasis Waterloo Hub, she has the specific remit of supporting young people who are the victims of violent incidents.
Southwark and Lambeth boroughs have a combined population of 600,000, significant levels of deprivation and high rates of violent crime. However, it is estimated that 75% of young people who arrive in A&E as a result of a violent incident do not report the crime to the police.
As Rae says, "Recently a young person came into A & E who said he had received a wound from a bike accident. However, the nursing staff said that the laceration was much more in line with that of a knife wound. Things are not always straightforward for these young people. A young person can attend A & E through an injury to themselves when they're carrying a knife in their pocket for example. Many of the alleged assaults that I have seen since being here are by 'unknown' attackers although I have a feeling that this isn't really the case. There's a definite link between the victim and the perpetrator - once someone is the victim of a crime there's a temptation to protect themselves, so they start carrying a weapon - it's a vicious circle."
The programme is optional, and involves meeting with the young people on a one-to-one basis for up to three months. The focus of the meetings is simply to get to know the young person, and at the end of the three month period, to connect them to other projects running in Southwark and Lambeth, such as Southside, the Oasis-run radio station.
The programme runs alongside a three year research programme designed to identify ways of effectively reducing knife crime among young people.