Ex-gang members share experience at youth event

Schoolchildren will be given the opportunity to hear from people with lived experience of gangs and knife crime at an anti-violence talk.

The My Tomorrow campaign will bring together youth mentors and students, aged 10 to 16, at the Molineux Stadium on Wednesday to inform them of the risks of carrying a knife.

The event has been organised by the City of Wolverhampton Council - the authority's youth council members also helped plan the event.

Sienna Ahir, Youth MP for Wolverhampton, said it was difficult as a young person to have their voices impact major policies as: "We are told we are too young or too naive, but the campaign is giving us a platform."

She added: "Young people who have been through the system as both victims and perpetrators often get trapped in that cycle, so it's not surprising young people wanted to hear from mentors with lived experience."

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows the force had 165 reported knife and sharp instrument offences per 100,000 people from October 2023 to September 2024.

Reported knife crime fell by 6% compared to last year.

Warren Sutherland, who volunteers at Wolverhampton's Drug and Alcohol Service, will share his story of a three-decade drug addiction and time spent in prison for violent crimes.

"Plenty of people have told me I wasted 35 years of my life because of addiction, but I know those years weren't wasted because something good has come out of it; I've made it mean something.

"I want the young people to know there is nothing glamorous about the life I led.

"It nearly killed me, and that, however hard things get, you can get through and ask for help," he said.

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