Your Choice is a new pro-social Violence Reduction Programme. It is delivered in Wigan through our Reach Safeguarding Adolescent Service using our very own skilled practitioners. The Your Choice-trained practitioners work with young people in Wigan between 11 and 17 at medium–high risk of violence outside the home, using psychologically informed, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) tools and techniques.
The programme aims to empower young people by taking a public health approach to help break the cycle of violence and harm. Your Choice allows for delivery alongside the more systemic work that colleagues in Wigan are already doing. We have already heard many anecdotal stories about the positive impact of the Your Choice programme from young people and their practitioners, but we are keen to establish a robust evidence base to support long term investment for this way of working.
This innovative programme is currently being delivered across London and is subject to an ambitious pan-London evaluation by the Institute For Fiscal Studies and the Anna Freud Centre, using a Step Wedge Randomised Control Trial methodology with over 1100 recruits to date. The final Impact Report is scheduled for September 2025.
Read more about the evaluation of the Your Choice programme through the London Young People Study, here.
Your Choice seeks to:
Maximise the engagement skills embedded within adolescent services to increase access to the “Therapeutic approach”, which puts goal setting at the heart of the “Your Choice” programme
- Activate behaviour by identifying the young person’s “hook” and working towards goals that are meaningful to them
- Get alongside young people in order to help them to understand and appropriately manage cognitive processes that that may be getting in the way of them achieving their goals.
Resources
Contact Details
- Practice Lead (Your Choice): Dr Karla Goodman (LIIA)
- Service Lead, REACH Service: Mike Blower