Essex VVU/ECVYS Youth Voice Listening Project 2026 Report

Essex VVU is proud to deliver projects and interventions across Essex and partner with a wide range of amazing local organisations – work that makes a real difference to children, young people, families and wider communities – reducing knife crime and contributing to safer communities. A key element of our approach is listening to the experiences of young people and communities, ensuring their voices inform and shape the delivery of the Essex VVU work programme.

For the seventh consecutive year, we commissioned Essex Council for Voluntary Youth Services (ECVYS) to run a young person’s listening project to gather the views of young people on how safe they feel in their local communities, wider Essex and what could help them feel safer.

This was carried out in two parts; the first part took place through school assemblies, with Year 7 pupils. The second through face-to-face conversations in small groups through a range of local youth work provision, in a range of settings.

In total more than 5,000 young people took part in the project, keen to share their views and affect change in their communities. This report and its findings, along with other Essex VVU evaluations and learning, are used to inform the ongoing development of the overall Essex VVU programme and the wider violence reduction approach in Essex.

Because each part of Essex is different, ECVYS have created both an Essex‑wide report and local reports. This means the VVU, and others who want to keep communities safe, can understand what young people think at both a broad and local level. The report reflects the work of local youth organisations and, most importantly, the voices of young people across Essex, to whom we are very grateful.

The report can be viewed and downloaded via ECVYS website and a series of webinars are being held to run through the findings. Each presentation will cover the Essex wide picture followed by individual districts specified. The webinar links are detailed below and all run 2pm-3pm:

17th August – West (Uttlesford, Epping Forest and Harlow)

19th August – North (Colchester, Tendring and Braintree)

24th August – Mid (Maldon, Chelmsford and Brentwood)

26th August – South West (Thurrock and Basildon)

28th August – South East (Rochford, Castle Point and Southend)

Specific diary invites can be requested from [email protected]