Ella‘s Work Experience I wanted my work experience to be something that I am interested in and possibly an area, I could potentially see my future in. Both my parents have worked within the Criminal Justice System, and we have often had conversations about the effects and impact that crime has on its victims
I also met with the Social Media team, and learned how important and impactive it can be to reach out to the community and those that may be suffering in silence, to encourage them to reach out to Victim Support, even if they have not formally reported a crime to the Police.
I have therefore been very fortunate to be able to attend work experience with the Hate Crime Team at Victim Support, which they very kindly organised for me.
I also met with one of the team’s training and engagement officers and we had a lengthy discussion around how to make Victim Support more accessible to young people, we had a look at a current poster, and I was able to give my thoughts and views on it, which I enjoyed very much. I was also able to join a Children and Young Persons Community of Practice forum, which discussed legislation covering young people in England and Wales, as a young person, I found this extremely informative and interesting.
On my first day, I travelled to Cardiff to Victim Support’s main office, at met with the Hate Crime Team. Becca was there to kindly welcome me, and she heads the team that work within this team. I started my day by getting a tour of the office by Becca. Then I was introduced to the team and then we went into a room to begin an introduction. I was given a clear and detailed description of the job and what hate crime is by Becca. I was very surprised to see the statistics of hate crime under Race, Sexual Orientation, Transgender, Religion and Disability. Then I met with Caitlin, she explained to me what the guidelines and procedures are that need to be met for a social media post. Caitlin began to show me how to use Canva which is what is used at victim support to create posts. I was surprised that there was a certain colour scheme and fonts of text that had to be used for the social media post to be suitable for the Instagram, Facebook and Twitter page. We began to think of ideas to post for International Youth Day and this year the theme is green skills. Then Becca gave me the task of photocopying many copies for the face-to-face meetings with young people. At first this was a challenge but now I have learned how to print and photocopy using an office printer (will be useful in the future if I have an office job). For the remainder of my days, I worked remotely, joining in on team meetings and meeting with other staff members from the team, such as case workers, who support victims of hate crime, offering them an opportunity to speak about their experiences, as well as the impact that may have had on them, as well as offer options to difficulties the victims may have experienced with the criminal justice system, such as the Police, or other local authority services, such as the housing department.
I would like to thank Becca and the team for making me feel so welcome and for the experience that I had as part of the team, during the time spent with them. I believe that I have come away from the experience with a wealth of information, on the impact crime has on victims, especially those who are additionally targeted due to their characteristics. This experience has made me even more focused on the next couple of years at school to work hard and to try my best so that I can continue on my educational journey of studying criminology in university in the future, possibly leading to helping victims of crime in some way in the future. Ella Glynn
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