Police, Prevention & Youth Opportunity: Building Stronger Communities in Bolton
Posted on:
For Sam Smith, Founder and Co-Director of Genuine Futures CIC, working on the Thornbank Estate and across the wider Deane area of Bolton is personal.
These are the streets where Sam was born and grew up.
Today, he is returning with a different purpose: working alongside children, young people, families, residents, police and community partners to help create opportunities for the next generation.
During recent community activity on the Thornbank Estate in Deane, Bolton, Sam spoke with Sgt Oliver Cooper about community policing, collaboration, prevention and the importance of creating positive opportunities for local young people.
The conversation also produced a simple idea with much bigger potential:
Could young people gain skills, confidence and work experience by cleaning police vehicles?
Policing Is About More Than Enforcement
Greater Manchester Police officers have been working regularly on the Thornbank Estate over the past year.
Speaking about the work, Sgt Oliver Cooper highlighted officers Connor Finch and Mark Harrison and their continued presence within the community.
Oliver explained:
“We’re down here most days, really setting that tone that if they want to speak to the police, we’re here and we’re here to support them.”
He went on to make an important point:
“It’s not just about the enforcement side of things, it’s about supporting people and trying to build a stronger community around here.”
That message strongly reflects the approach we believe is needed across our communities.
Police have a vital enforcement role.
But stronger and safer communities are also built through relationships, trust, visibility, opportunity and prevention.
Building Community on Thornbank Estate
Oliver also spoke positively about the community activity taking place and the importance of continuing to build momentum on the estate.
For Genuine Futures, improving communities is not simply about addressing individual problems.
The environment matters too.
How an area looks.
How people feel about where they live.
Whether children and young people feel that they belong.
Whether residents believe organisations are listening.
Whether opportunities are visible and accessible.
That is why bringing different organisations together is so important.
Speaking during the interview, Sam said:
“Collaboration is very important. We can’t solve the issues single-handedly. It’s about bringing these communities together, bringing people together and giving them opportunity.”
He also highlighted something simple but fundamental:
People make places.
When residents, young people, businesses, police, housing providers and community organisations take pride in an area together, it can begin to change how that community feels.
This Community Is Personal
For Sam, there is another dimension to the work.
He was born and grew up in this area of Bolton.
Returning to work alongside the community therefore carries particular significance.
Genuine Futures is not interested in arriving in communities with predetermined answers.
We believe in listening first.
Understanding what young people and residents experience.
Recognising the strengths already present.
And then bringing people and organisations together to create practical solutions.
For Sam, that also means helping create opportunities for children and young people growing up on some of the same streets that helped shape his own life.
From Cleaning Cars to Creating Opportunity
During the interview, the conversation turned to We Shine Any Car, our practical youth enterprise.
Sam raised the possibility of young people becoming involved in cleaning police vehicles.
Oliver immediately understood the wider potential.
He said:
“Something as simple as cleaning cars can open the doors to other opportunities or just increase confidence.”
That sentence captures much of what Genuine Futures is trying to achieve.
The activity does not always need to be complicated.
Sometimes it is about giving a young person somewhere to start.
Turn up.
Put on the workwear.
Learn how to use the equipment.
Work alongside other people.
Complete a job.
Take responsibility.
See the result.
Be recognised for doing something well.
Then ask:
What could come next?
“Some of These People Don’t Dare Come Near a Police Car”
Perhaps the most powerful part of Oliver’s comments came when he reflected on how some young people feel around the police.
He said:
“Some of these people don’t dare come near a police car. So to be cleaning it… it’d be brilliant.”
Think about what that could represent.
A young person who may previously have avoided a police vehicle could instead be trusted to clean one.
Their interaction with an officer is no longer beginning with enforcement.
It begins with work.
Contribution.
Conversation.
Responsibility.
The police officer gets to meet the young person as an individual.
The young person gets to meet the person behind the uniform.
That creates the possibility of a very different relationship.
Prevention Through Positive Contact
This is what prevention can look like in practice.
Not every preventative intervention needs to be a new programme or classroom-based course.
Sometimes prevention begins by creating a different environment in which relationships can develop.
Through something as practical as vehicle cleaning, a young person can develop:
- Confidence
- Communication
- Teamwork
- Reliability
- Timekeeping
- Customer service
- Health and safety awareness
- Responsibility
- Workplace behaviour
- Enterprise skills
- Pride in completing a job properly
But another important outcome can develop alongside those skills:
Trust.
That matters particularly for young people who may have experienced exclusion, disengagement, difficult relationships with services or involvement with the youth justice system.
Supporting Young People in the Youth Justice System
At Genuine Futures, we believe prevention does not stop when a young person enters the youth justice system.
A mistake should not determine an entire future.
Some young people need a second, third or even fourth opportunity to demonstrate what they can do.
We want to create practical pathways for young people who may be:
- Known to youth justice services
- At risk of offending or reoffending
- Experiencing school exclusion
- NEET — not in education, employment or training
- Care experienced
- Returning to the community following intervention
- Struggling to access conventional employment or training
- Facing multiple barriers to opportunity
The answer cannot simply be telling young people what not to do.
We also need to show them what they can do.
That means creating credible alternatives.
Work.
Enterprise.
Education.
Training.
Trusted relationships.
Belonging.
Purpose.
And the opportunity to earn.
Working With Bolton’s Youth Justice System
Genuine Futures would welcome further opportunities to work alongside Bolton Council’s Youth Justice Team and other local partners to identify young people who could benefit from practical work, enterprise and employability experiences.
A police vehicle-cleaning pilot could provide an interesting environment in which to test this approach.
For a young person who has experienced policing primarily through enforcement, returning in a different context — to work, contribute and learn — could be particularly powerful.
The objective would never be simply to keep a young person occupied.
There must be progression.
That could mean further work experience, education, training, an apprenticeship, employment or enterprise.
The activity is the starting point.
The destination is opportunity.
We Shine Any Car: Learning Through Enterprise
We Shine Any Car gives young people practical experience through a real service.
There is something powerful about completing a tangible piece of work.
A dirty vehicle arrives.
Young people work together.
A clean vehicle leaves.
The customer sees the difference.
The young person sees the difference too.
For someone who may have struggled in a conventional classroom, that immediate sense of achievement can matter.
It can create confidence.
And confidence can create momentum.
Exploring a Police Vehicle Cleaning Pilot
Sgt Oliver Cooper also explained that facilities already exist at the police station for cleaning vehicles.
That creates an interesting opportunity.
Instead of immediately developing something large or expensive, why not start small?
A pilot could involve a small number of young people working alongside Genuine Futures staff using existing facilities to gain supervised work experience cleaning police vehicles.
We would want to measure much more than how many vehicles were cleaned.
We could look at:
- Young people engaged
- Work experience hours completed
- Confidence before and after participation
- Employability skills developed
- Positive interactions with police officers
- Attendance and reliability
- Increased aspirations
- Understanding of careers within policing and public services
- Progression into education or training
- Apprenticeships
- Employment
- Enterprise opportunities
That would allow us to understand whether the approach genuinely works.
Exploring Crime Commissioner Funding
Oliver also mentioned potential funding through the Crime Commissioner’s Fund.
We would welcome the opportunity to explore whether an appropriate funding programme could support the preventative and youth-development elements of a pilot.
The case would not simply be:
Fund young people to wash police cars.
It is much stronger than that.
The vehicle cleaning provides the environment through which young people can develop skills, relationships, confidence and pathways towards employment.
Appropriate funding could potentially support supervision, PPE, travel, training, safeguarding, employability development, progression support and evaluation.
Changing the First Interaction
There is a bigger principle here.
What if we changed some young people’s first meaningful interactions with institutions?
What if their first interaction with the police was through work experience?
What if their first interaction with an employer was through a Try a Trade opportunity rather than a rejected application?
What if their first interaction with a housing provider involved improving their own community?
What if their first interaction with an NHS organisation introduced them to jobs and careers they never knew existed?
These experiences create connections.
Connections create relationships.
Relationships create opportunities.
And opportunities can change trajectories.
From Thornbank Estate to Greater Manchester
This conversation happened on Thornbank Estate.
But the principle could travel much further.
Across Bolton and Greater Manchester, organisations spend millions of pounds purchasing goods and services.
Vehicles need cleaning.
Estates need maintaining.
Buildings need servicing.
Communities need improving.
At the same time, young people are looking for their first opportunity.
We need to become better at connecting those two things.
Could procurement create work experience?
Could contracts generate entry-level jobs?
Could employers provide workplace exposure?
Could public-sector facilities become environments where young people learn?
Could social value become something a young person actually experiences rather than something written into a report?
We believe it can.
An Invitation to Bolton and Greater Manchester
Genuine Futures wants to work with organisations willing to open doors.
That includes:
- Greater Manchester Police
- Bolton Council and youth justice services
- Housing providers
- NHS organisations
- Schools and colleges
- Training providers
- Businesses
- Contractors
- Funders
- Community organisations
You don’t necessarily need to create an entirely new programme.
Look at what your organisation already does.
Could a young person shadow somebody?
Could you provide work experience?
Could an employee become a mentor?
Could you sponsor a young person?
Could a supplier contract generate employment opportunities?
Could your organisation commission a youth-led social enterprise?
Sometimes the opportunity is already there.
Someone just needs to open the door.
Bridging the Gap to Opportunity
We want to thank Sgt Oliver Cooper, along with officers Connor Finch and Mark Harrison, for the work they are doing within the Thornbank community and for being willing to think differently about how we engage young people.
Perhaps the next step starts with cleaning a handful of police cars.
But success will not be measured by how shiny those cars become.
It will be measured by the conversations happening around them.
The confidence developed.
The relationships built.
The skills learned.
The young people supported towards a different pathway.
And where those young people go next.
This is prevention through opportunity.
Work With Genuine Futures
If you represent an employer, public service, housing provider, youth justice service, school, funder or community organisation and can provide work experience, facilities, contracts, equipment, mentoring or employment opportunities, we want to hear from you.
Don’t wait until a young person reaches crisis to ask what could have been done differently.
Help us create the opportunity earlier.