Students hear survival stories during Crime and Justice week

Our students had the opportunity to take part in a range of workshops and listen to guest speakers and inspirational talks as part of the College’s Crime and Justice Week.

The events allowed students to explore potential careers and develop the skills they need for Higher Education or employment, as well as boost their personal, social and professional development.

The main activity of the week was a talk by Alison Cope, the mother of Joshua Ribera who was murdered in 2013. She now works tirelessly to help prevent youth violence by sharing her son’s unique life and death story to help educate young people on the realties and consequences of youth violence.

Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit provided students with the opportunity to learn about cyber security in terms of password security and knowing what to do around data breaches. They learnt about the National Crime Agency (NCA), cyber choices and the legal pathway into working in cyber-crime.

John Hoskison, a former Professional Golfer talked to students about how his career was cut short after a drink driving incident saw him sent to prison. For the last fifteen years, John has tried to make up for what happened by speaking to over 200 schools and 80,000 children, about the dangers of taking unnecessary risks.

Over the course of the week, students heard from other speakers from a range of professional backgrounds. This included Claire Throssell MBE, spoke about her two son’s murder; Natalie Queiroz, an attempted murder survivor; Sammy Woodhouse, spoke of her extraordinary battle as a Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) survivor; Mark Brooke, Senior Operational Manager at HM Prison and Probation Service; Karen Howell-Ball and Nina Reaney, spoke about their experience of Sexual abuse, Rape and Domestic Abuse.

The sessions were organised by Lee Perks, Enterprise Team Leader at Barnsley College. Lee said: “Crime and Justice Week is the most popular week in the College calendar for the Enterprise Team. We have a range of guest speakers talking about their lived experiences and there is something really satisfying about seeing our students make an emotional connection with these speakers.

“The impact of the week is incredible, we see approximately 600 students per day throughout the week take part in enrichment activities looking at topics such as Knife Crime Prevention, Domestic Abuse, Joint Enterprise, Rape and Murder in the hopes that we can help our students realise the impact that crime has on the perpetrator, victim, families and communities and make Barnsley a safer place for the next generation.”

For more information about our courses, visit www.barnsley.ac.uk/courses. Alternatively, contact our friendly Information Team by calling 01226 216 123 or by emailing info@barnsley.ac.uk