Rachel joins Suzy Lamplugh Trust as a Youth and Community Development Officer, and will be working with the team to develop and deliver personal safety training for young people and in communities. 

Rachel joins the Trust at an exciting time! This year, we have delivered our 'Keeping Myself Safe' training to over 80 young people in organisations across London and the South East. The training, which is designed specifically for different age ranges helps young people to understand and engage with personal safety issues. We hope to expand on this work in 2018, and look forward to working with Rachel in her new role! 

Rachel brings a wealth of experience to the team. With a degree in Applied Social Science, Community Development and Youth Work, she’s an expert in delivering training, activities and workshops to young people from a variety of backgrounds and professionals. Her previous work has been mainly in the voluntary sector, and she’s worked in schools, delivering workshops and supporting the most disadvantaged students so that they could thrive and achieve. Most recently, Rachel has been working on two youth homelessness projects, where she delivered programmes supporting young people with mental health problems. 

Speaking about her new role at Suzy Lamplugh Trust, Rachel said: 

“I am extremely excited about making a difference as a Youth and Community Development Officer at Suzy Lamplugh Trust. I have a passion for working with vulnerable and disadvantaged young people and communities, and consider myself fortunate to have such a variety of experiences under my belt already. 

“In previous roles, I have been lucky enough to gain insight and understanding of the challenges that face some of London's most disadvantaged communities. I have worked with individuals with poor mental health, those who have experienced or are currently homeless, ex-offenders, asylum seekers and refugees, and those with disabilities. I am passionate about giving people facing challenges opportunities and information that can help them to achieve their goals.  

“I believe that personal safety awareness is extremely important for young people. I have seen first-hand the impact that fear can have in disadvantages communities, and witnessed local groups of people becoming increasingly insular and isolated, young people feeling concerned about crime, and people not feeling confident about leaving their local area. When people are scared, it restricts the opportunities available to them, and young people become unable to ask their local communities for support.  

“Through my work at Suzy Lamplugh Trust, I hope to give young people the confidence to travel and explore wherever they are, diffuse aggressive incidents, resolve conflicts in more positive ways and know how to life live safely. I also hope that I can help young people to develop the confidence to pass the information that they learn on, and that they become a supporter of the Trust so that messages around how to be safe and keep other safe are never forgotten.” 

To find out more about Suzy Lamplugh Trust’s personal safety training for young people call 020 7091 0014 or email info@suzylamplugh.org