Making amends through creativity

Leicester young offenders have created a spectacular mural at Leicester’s Victim Support Centre, as part of their Reparation Orders from the city’s Youth Offending Service.

Three young people worked on designs around the theme of helping victims of crime to have a brighter future. Over the course of the next two months, they then painted the design onto a large wall in the bottom floor of the Victim Support Centre, with the help of Kieran Walsh from Soft Touch Arts and Lauren Sharpe of Leicester City Council’s Youth Offending Team. The mural is now complete and was unveiled on Monday by Sir Clive Loader, Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicestershire.

Soft Touch Arts were originally approached by Mick Studley, Divisional Manager for Victim Support, who suggested the idea for an improvement to their building on Bishop Street, which would allow young people who had reparation orders to complete to give something back to the community. Several young people from Leicester’s Youth Offending programme offered to help with the project. The final design was created by Chelsey Selby, who oversaw the initial stages of the mural, before she moved to another home outside the city. The mural was then completed by other young people from the Youth Offending Service.

Soft Touch Arts
‘Creating Brighter Futures for Young People’

Kieran Walsh of Soft Touch Arts said, “This is a great example of how young people can use their creativity to help create a better community for themselves and the people around them, while also taking responsibility for some of their actions in the past. It’s been great to watch them develop their idea from a simple drawing to a full-scale mural. The finished piece really brightens up the building and we hope that it will be a positive symbol for victims of crime”.