Life, Crime & Social Survival Workshops
2020 Dreams Life, Crime & Social Survival workshops are focused on the challenges faced by children and young people growing up in 21st Century Britain. Children are never born to become drug addicts, alcoholics, violent criminals or bullies. Neither are they predestined to suffer the consequences of gun and knife crime, sexual exploitation or cyber-bullying. Our project targets that vital window of opportunity where futures can be changed.
Due to the challenges of Covid-19 our Life, Crime & Social Survival workshops workshops is now available as face to face or virtual sessions via Zoom, Google Meet or Teams etc, ensuring we can continue to deliver fun and engaging remote workshops to all participants.
We Provide a Range of Life, Crime & Social Survival Workshops
About our Life, Crime & Social Survival Workshops
2020 Dreams Life, Crime & Social Survival workshops are focused on the challenges faced by children and young people growing up in 21st Century Britain. Children are never born to become drug addicts, alcoholics, violent criminals or bullies.
Neither are they predestined to suffer the consequences of gun and knife crime, sexual exploitation, cyber-bullying or domestic violence. Instead, it is often the choices children make during their formative years that decide the path they take through life and, tragically, many children are deprived of suitable role models and skills to make life-affirming decisions.
The 2020 Dreams project targets that vital window of opportunity where futures can be changed. Using a combination of customised, age-appropriate workshops and dedicated, experienced facilitators we explore the issues most relevant to the youth of today.
We do this in a way which fully engages their attention; issues such as how to avoid the lure of drugs and alcohol, how to recognise and avoid domestic abuse and how to stay safe online.
Far from being afraid, students leave our workshops with a greater sense of personal power and with the skills to survive the many challenges ahead of them.
All 2020 Dreams workshops are fully risk-assessed, and all facilitators have had a recent enhanced DBS (formerly CRB) check. We can provide workshops anywhere in the UK and can customise them to fit your agenda.
As well as schools, we regularly work with charities, PRUs, local authorities, young offenders, mental health units and Special Educational Needs services.
Our workshops are designed to be flexible so if you require the content to be tailored to cater for a specific group please get in touch and we will propose a solution. All of our workshops are fully risk-assessed and our facilitators are DBS-cleared.
For your reassurance, all 2020 Dreams workshops are fully risk-assessed and our experienced facilitators have all had recent, enhanced DBS checks.
Gun & Knife Crime Awareness
Guns and knives ruin lives, but all too often, young people are seduced into associating weapons with power and control by ultra-realistic movies or computer games. Sadly, many children, particularly from deprived backgrounds, learn the truth about fighting with weapons the hard way, either by becoming a victim of gun or knife crime or by getting on the wrong side of the law.
2020 Dreams Gun & Knife Crime Awareness workshops present weapons from a less glamorous angle, stimulating debate with a powerful combination of interactive role-plays and open forum discussions. Children and young adults get to explore the motives behind the carrying of weapons in public, the attitude of the law to possession of knives and guns and the potential outcome of various choices using scenarios relevant to the age groups involved.
Workshops can be tailored to fit the needs of your institution whether that is a school, Pupil Referral Unit or Young Offenders’ Institute.
Crime & Punishment for Kids
Those who work with young people quickly realise that their concepts of fairness, honesty and responsibility can vary widely, as can their attitude to police officers and other people working with crime and punishment. In deprived areas, criminal behaviour amongst the young can be rife and lead to significant problems within families, schools and whole communities.
2020 Dreams Crime & Punishment workshops help to correct faulty perceptions of crime and punishment, providing a fascinating insight into the concept of law in society, and the roles of those whose job it is to provide us with safe communities.
From the use of forensics in solving serious crime to the law’s position on drugs, alcohol and the possession of weapons, there is plenty of material to keep young people engaged, together with ample opportunity to discuss experiences, perceptions and strategies for staying on the right side of the law. Workshops can be customised to focus on specific topics such as domestic abuse and violence; discrimination; hate crime and how to be a lawful citizen.
Stranger Danger
Having a child abducted is every parent and teacher’s worst nightmare, and every year there are worrying reports of attempted kidnaps and children going missing. The best way to keep young people safe on the streets is to give them the skills they need to spot and avoid stranger danger and to react effectively should they find themselves in trouble, but up-to-date and relevant stranger danger information can be hard to find.
2020 Dreams Stranger Danger Workshops are designed to empower children rather than keep them awake at night with worry. They teach children how to recognise when they are being lured away from safety and how to escape and raise the alarm. The workshops also explore the risk of being approached by strangers online and the importance of protecting personal information, both on the internet and in the wider world.
Domestic Abuse & Violence
Domestic abuse is an insidious form of control that happens in every corner of the UK regardless of gender, race, religion, age or sexual orientation, although research suggests that females are more likely to be on the receiving end. Children are often caught in the middle of domestic abuse between partners, affecting concentration at school and general psychological health. Domestic abuse can also happen between siblings, or between children and parents or grandparents.
Although the reality of domestic abuse is gradually becoming more widely recognised, there is still a lot to be done to raise awareness and, as with many of society’s ills, early intervention is key. 2020 Dreams Domestic Abuse and Violence workshops educate children about the meaning of the terms domestic abuse and domestic violence; how to recognise the patterns of behaviour that perpetuate abuse, both from a victim and perpetrator angle; the legal position on domestic violence, including the recent focus on coercive behaviour, and how to avoid co-dependency and choose healthy relationships based on mutual respect. The interactive role-play format helps young people to explore and develop their understanding in a safe environment.
Staying Safe Online
The potential for children to unwittingly put themselves at risk through the internet is something that rightly worries parents and teachers. We all want young people to benefit from the educational and enriching experiences offered by the World Wide Web, but how do we protect them from perils such as accessing inappropriate content; becoming a victim or perpetrator of cyber-bullying or being groomed by paedophiles?
2020 Dreams Staying Internet Safety Workshops ensure that children understand the importance of privacy and security online, how to recognise inappropriate content or communication and what steps to take if they are uncomfortable with anything accessed or experienced in an online environment. Using age-appropriate interactive role-play scenarios and open forum discussions, we teach children the key skills they will need to protect themselves online.
Road Safety Awareness
Keeping vulnerable young people safe on Britain’s busy roads is a major challenge for communities, and most experienced teachers will have been involved in the aftermath of a road traffic accident involving a child.
Effective school patrols are one way in which schools can reduce the risk of accidents, but it is so much better if children are brought up, from a young age, to be road aware. Sadly, parents often fail to equip them with the necessary skills.
2020 Dreams Road Safety Awareness workshops give conscientious schools the opportunity to fill in those skills gaps and create a new generation of road savvy children. Open forum discussions and imaginative role-plays help young people to understand the many hazards that exist on the roads and develop working strategies for reducing risk.
Peer Pressure [Saying ‘No!’]
Many of the dangers that children and young adults face today, from drug and alcohol abuse to teenage pregnancy and getting involved in criminal and antisocial behaviour happen in an environment where social pressure is high.
All children face the challenge of finding their own identity, but the desire to fit in at all costs, or to create a certain persona, can lead to them taking dangerous risks, sometimes with severe and permanent consequences.
It is vital that young people develop their own boundaries from a young age and become confident in resisting peer pressure, saying ‘no!’ and choosing relationships based on mutual trust and understanding.
2020 Dreams Peer Pressure workshops gently introduce children to realistic age-appropriate social situations through imaginative role-play, while open forum discussions enable them to talk about situations they have encountered and develop a skills tool-kit for dealing with similar scenarios in the future.