Young people involved with the local Youth Offending Service (YOS) have been improving the environment at schools across Caerphilly County Borough as part of their community reparation.
To date, young offenders under the supervision of Youth Offending Service officers have made environmental improvements such as painting playground furniture, gardening and cutting grass at 14 schools across the county borough.
Cllr Judith Pritchard, Cabinet Member for Social Services said, “Projects such as these aim to help young offenders get their lives on the right track and help build better, more honest futures for themselves by learning a new skill while doing something positive for the local community”.
Schools that have benefitted from this project to date include St Martin’s School, White Rose Primary, Ystrad Mynach Primary, Markham Primary, Twyn Primary and many more.
Isobel Davies, Head teacher at Twyn Primary School said, “I would like to thank the Youth Offending Service for the improvements carried out at our school. The group came on site during half term and worked extremely hard, re-varnishing the picnic benches in the children’s playground. Our caretaker was so impressed with the final work and explained to me how hard they all had worked on this project”.
The aim of community reparation hours as part of a community sentence is to help prevent a young person between the ages of 10 and 17 from further offending, by understanding the consequences of their actions and taking responsibility for what they have done.
The hours require the young person to repair the harm caused by their offence either directly to the victim or indirectly to the community.
For further information on community reparation, please contact the local Youth Offending Service on 01495 235 623.
