Empowering Young People: A Report on the Community Safety Standards Programme: Community Safety Standards Programme

The concept of community safety has evolved significantly over the last three decades, expanding from a narrow crime-prevention agenda into a broader, socially oriented framework concerned with harm reduction, wellbeing, and the governance of local spaces. This study reports on a pilot implementation of a Community Safety Standards Programme (CSSP). The study involved one hundred and seven (107) students, all boys, aged 13-14 years, attending Year 9 at a secondary school located on the south coast of England. A Likert-scale survey was employed to assess the impact of a one-day training session delivered by the Who Dares Gives charity. Emerging scholarship highlights the need for participatory, inclusive, and place-based strategies that recognise diverse experiences of safety and promote resilience across all age groups. This case study indicates that the Community Safety Standards Programme demonstrates strong potential as an effective and engaging intervention, supporting young people’s resilience, awareness, and participation in community safety conversations.