St Giles

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St Giles St Giles is an award-winning charity using expertise and lived experiences to empower people who are not getting the help they need.
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We are a UK charity putting experience to work, through our peer led support model, on society's most complex problems.

15/10/2026

Our colleague Jade Hevingham on BBC's Crimewatch this morning highlighting the risks young people face from adult criminal exploiters and tge work being done to support vulnerable youn people.

💜 Look beyond the behaviour. See the child.Every child deserves the chance to build a safer future — whatever they’ve ex...
15/10/2026

💜 Look beyond the behaviour. See the child.

Every child deserves the chance to build a safer future — whatever they’ve experienced or what others may think of them.

Delivered by St Giles Trust and funded by Cheltenham Borough Council through its No Child Left Behind programme, our Cheltenham Violence and Exploitation Project supports young people at risk of criminal and sexual exploitation, serious violence and offending.

Our approach is built on one simple principle: understand the child, not just the behaviour.

📊 The impact over the past year:
• 169 positive outcomes achieved across safety, relationships, education and confidence.
• 32 young people referred to the project.
• Intensive, individualised support for children facing complex challenges, from exploitation and school exclusion to trauma and unmet additional needs.

One young person was referred aged just 12, with 21 outstanding charges and seven arrests. Through consistent mentoring, safeguarding and advocacy, harmful peer relationships ended, school attendance improved and the child stepped down from a Child Protection Plan. Since the intervention, there has been only one historic arrest.

Another young person's school attendance rose from 20% to 55%, while missing episodes reduced and relationships with older peers ended.

Beyond individual progress, the project helps families navigate challenges, strengthens safeguarding partnerships and challenges professionals to look beyond labels and recognise the vulnerability that may sit behind a child's behaviour.

At the heart of it all is one trusted adult who listens, advocates and keeps showing up.

Because children are more than their behaviour. With the right support, they can move towards safety, education, opportunity and a future beyond exploitation.

20 years of SOS. 20 years of lessons. 20 years of showing up. 💜On 3 October 2006, the day after his release from prison,...
13/10/2026

20 years of SOS. 20 years of lessons. 20 years of showing up. 💜

On 3 October 2006, the day after his release from prison, Junior Smart began work on what would become St Giles’ SOS Project.

It started in south London with one caseworker, 30 young people and a belief that people with lived experience of the criminal justice system could help others build a different future.

It built on our decades of experience working in south London supporting people impacted by poverty and the justice system.

In its first year, none of the young people supported reoffended. Today, SOS is a national programme, while our preventative work through SOS+ has reached close to 100,000 children and young people annually in recent years.

Twenty years have taught us that change takes time, trust and relationships that don’t give up.

We’ve learned to look beyond behaviour, recognise the signs of grooming and exploitation, listen to young people and families, and adapt as the challenges change.

Our Kent county lines work showed what’s possible: a study found that 85% of children remaining on the caseload had exited, or were making progress towards leaving, county lines. The evaluation also estimated £271,253 in police savings linked to fewer missing episodes.

But the real impact is also found in moments statistics can’t capture: a young person choosing a different path, a child beginning to trust an adult, or a practitioner staying alongside someone when progress is hard to see.

Our ambition is not simply to grow our services. It is to help build a future where fewer children need them.

Until every child can grow up safe from violence and exploitation, our work is not finished. We’ll keep showing up.

People who have been written off can go on to change lives, services and systems.Perhaps the greatest lesson we’ve learn...
07/10/2026

People who have been written off can go on to change lives, services and systems.

Perhaps the greatest lesson we’ve learnt from 20 years of supporting young people affected by violence and exploitation is this: they can transform not only their own lives, but the lives of those around them.

Behind the fear and anger are young people with potential, purpose and the power to create lasting change.

Our role is to recognise and nurture those strengths, helping each young person build a path towards the future they want.

Our colleagues and the young people they support have gone on to lead services, transform systems, deliver TED Talks, shape government policy and amplify voices that too often go unheard.

A person’s past should never define their future. With the right support, that future can change lives.

20 years. 20 lessons.

The people closest to the problem should help shape the solution.We wouldn’t ask someone who has never been lost to draw...
06/10/2026

The people closest to the problem should help shape the solution.

We wouldn’t ask someone who has never been lost to draw the map.

So why would we design routes out of violence, exploitation or poverty without listening to the people who have travelled them?

Good services are not simply delivered to people and communities. They are built with them.

Someone who has been there and experienced it can hold the keys to the best solutions.

Their voice needs to not only be heard but brought into policy decisions, strategy and service development.

Professionals bring valuable technical knowledge and insight. But the people who have been there bring a different kind of expertise and one which can help guide the direction of travel.

20 years. 20 lessons.

Data can tell us what happened. Context helps us understand why.Numbers matter, but they never tell the whole story on t...
02/10/2026

Data can tell us what happened. Context helps us understand why.

Numbers matter, but they never tell the whole story on their own.

Behind the figures lie real people with ambitions, loved ones, challenges and hopes.

And around them lie systems and structures which can either hinder or help them.
And beyond this lies society with societal beliefs and thinking.

Numbers give us valuable insights into what is working and what isn’t.

But they only give us the ‘what’ and - at St Giles - we also need the ‘why’.

We need to know why a young person is frequently going missing.

We need to know why young people in a certain postcode have suddenly started carrying weapons.

We need to know why girls and young women don’t show up in the data when we anecdotally know they are affected by criminal and sexual exploitation.

Numbers tell us a lot but don’t give us the full picture. We need to look at what lies behind them.

20 years. 20 lessons.

Safeguarding can start with the basics.For a young person, safety can begin with a hot meal, a secure place to stay, a r...
01/10/2026

Safeguarding can start with the basics.

For a young person, safety can begin with a hot meal, a secure place to stay, a return to education or support to manage money.

When these foundations are missing, vulnerability grows.

A nourishing meal brings energy and resilience.

A secure home can close the door on harmful influences.

School or college can restore stability and open up opportunity.

A reliable, legitimate income makes it possible to plan for the future.

These are not luxuries. They are the building blocks of safety, dignity and hope.

Practical help is safeguarding.

20 years. 20 lessons.

Professional timescales and human timescales are not the same thing.A funding deadline should never become a deadline fo...
30/09/2026

Professional timescales and human timescales are not the same thing.

A funding deadline should never become a deadline for a young person’s recovery.
Contracts end. Funding cycles close. But a young person’s need for support does not disappear when the paperwork does.

Recovery is rarely linear. There can be setbacks as well as breakthroughs and staying alongside a young person through both is what makes lasting change possible.

Years of trauma and exploitation cannot be undone in a six-month funding window.

When support ends abruptly, progress can stall, trust can be broken and hard-won stability can unravel.

A trusted mentor leaves. A young person must tell their story all over again. An organisation loses specialist knowledge that took years to build.

For some young people, time with a trusted professional is their only safe space. Short-term, fragmented funding does more than create uncertainty: it disrupts the relationships that make support effective.

Lasting progress needs long-term funding, consistent support and relationships with time to grow.

Young people’s lives do not run in funding cycles. Our support should not either.

20 years. 20 lessons.

Every young person deserves the chance to dream and the support to turn those dreams into a future.Yet for too many, tra...
28/09/2026

Every young person deserves the chance to dream and the support to turn those dreams into a future.
Yet for too many, trauma, loneliness, exclusion and exploitation threaten to bury that potential before it can shine.
We are here to change that - to help each young person recognise their strengths, believe in what is possible and take back control of their future.

It starts by looking beyond the labels, the challenges and the circumstances and seeing the person. A person with hopes and talent. With the courage to reach for something better, when someone stands beside them.

After 20 years of this work, one truth has never changed: every young person we have met has wanted the chance to transform their life.

But systemic barriers can shut down opportunity, derail progress and keep young people trapped in situations they are fighting desperately to escape.

Without positive opportunities, vulnerability deepens and extraordinary potential is left unseen.

We can change that. See the young person. Stand beside them. Help turn hope into the brighter future they deserve.

20 years. 20 lessons.

Join us for the final session of St Giles’ Violence & Exploitation Learning Series Hidden Harm. Trusted Adults. Better R...
28/09/2026

Join us for the final session of St Giles’ Violence & Exploitation Learning Series Hidden Harm. Trusted Adults. Better Responses.

Led by St Giles’ Dr Junior Smart OBE, FCGI – a renowned expert in child criminal exploitation, county lines, youth violence and safeguarding – each of the five sessions will focus on a specific topic.

The final session – Twenty Years of SOS: What Young People Have Taught Us About Violence, Trust and Change
Monday 5th October 2026 12noon-14.00pm

Registration: copy this into your browser: https://www.stgilestrust.org.uk/join-st-giles-violence-exploitation-learning-series/

Or head over to our homepage and you will see the series advertised on there.

Five lessons from twenty years of SOS:
• Young people are not hard to reach, systems are often hard to trust
• Lived experience is powerful, but only when it is supported and professionalised
• Violence is rarely just about violence
• Families are part of the harm and the hope
• The next 20 years must move from intervention to influence

SOS should not only be celebrated as a project that helped young people. It should be positioned as a model that has shaped practice, challenged systems and still has something to teach.

Who should attend?

These sessions are FREE to anyone – but a must for professionals working with children, young people and families across safeguarding, education, health, youth justice, policing and community settings.

What are the learning outcomes?
These sessions will help practitioners:
• Recognise early signs of exploitation
• Understand grooming, coercion, and control
• Challenge assumptions and victim-blaming
• Improve safeguarding and engagement

We hope to see you on the 5 October.

Address

Georgian House, 64/68 Camberwell Church Street
London
SE58JB

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+442077088000

Website

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