The power of sport is making a difference to the lives of young people at risk of criminality or exploitation in Essex, according to Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Roger Hirst.
Mr Hirst joined High Sheriff Julie Fosh, Essex Police Assistant Chief Constable Glen Pavelin and statutory organisations and sports clubs from across the county at the Active Essex Foundation (AEF) Power of Sport & Youth Crime Prevention Conference on Tuesday 16th September 2025.
The event, at Colchester Stadium, was an opportunity for partners to come together to discuss the work going on to divert children and young people away from criminality and exploitation and how sport is playing a key role in those transformations.
Representatives from the Home Office and national charities also brought some perspective to how Essex is doing in the field of youth work compared to the rest of the country.
AEF uses sport as a hook to begin building positive relationships with young people at risk of committing crime or being exploited, before providing mentoring and opportunities for gaining qualifications and employment.
Mr Hirst, whose office provides funding to AEF for its Girls Inspired and Boxsmart On The Ropes initiatives, told delegates: “It is a really powerful partnership that we have in this room. It is through working together and providing the support for young people across the county that we are really making a difference.
“We have, across this great county, a real experience of seeing youth crime going in a different direction to the rest of the country. You walk across the border from London and youth crime goes down by a third.
“My role is to ensure emergency services are not only responsive, but proactive, that we are out there working together in collaboration, hand in hand with communities to prevent crime before it happens and keep young people safe by getting them involved in good stuff. What you are doing is good stuff.”
Nationally, recorded knife crime has risen by 2% year-on-year.
Bucking the national trend, Essex has recorded a decrease in knife-enabled crime year-on-year, with a 24% reduction in incidents of knife-enabled crime when compared with pre-Covid levels (the 12 months to December 2019).
Since 2018, working with public support, the PFCC secured over £9m funding from central government to add to our local funding for the multi-agency Violence and Vulnerability programme of work.