Meet the ex-Royal Marine helping to keep Northamptonshire youngsters out of crime gangs' grip

Meet the former Royal Marine helping youngsters escape notorious Northamptonshire crime gangs preying on vulnerable kids.

John Sullivan has been running Elite Survival Training for the last 12 years.

Now, he has been enlisted by the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV) to swap their life of crime on the county’s estates for a day under his watchful eye building shelters and hammocks, create their own fires and learn to tie knots.

Eight youngsters from across the county took part in the latest survival day and, for some, it was their first ever experience of leaving their own estate.

Sullivan said: “This approach is about giving plenty of praise and building their confidence up slowly and giving them a self-belief to succeed.

“That’s what I want them to walk away with.

“At the start of the day they don’t think they will be able to do it but by the end of the day the confidence will be flowing.

“They can then use that as a nice base when they go into education and they might get a seed of doubt on whether they can do something.

“They will think back to this and tell themselves that they can do it.”

The CIRV programme started in the USA before coming over to Glasgow and the Northamptonshire project is the first of its kind in England.

Once a child is referred to CIRV, they will offer to work with them and their family for 12 weeks. This can include referring them to organisations where they can speak with former gang members, or in this case, bringing them to a new part of the world and teaching them valuable skills.

PC Spence Lyman is one of six serving police officers acting as navigators who work on children’s pathways for CIRV.

He said: “You’re nurturing these children from a position where they are being exploited and getting involved in criminal gangs — then, when they do things like this, you can see the child come back out and it’s lovely to see.

“It takes time and each kid is different. They see the police officer card as a hurdle to start with but once they know you’re a human they can start to begin trusting us.”

Crime statistics show the CIRV programme appears to be having an effect with 400 youngsters having passed through since it started.

■ Anyone can refer into CIRV – whether that is someone who needs help themselves to get out of ‘gang life’ or someone who is concerned about someone they know. Referrals can be made by calling 07539 183975 any time, day or night.

The scheme is backed by Crime Commissioner, Stephen Mold, who took a close look at one of the most recent survival days in woodland near Market Harborough.

He said: “It’s always been really important to me to stop crime happening in the first place and to work with young people at an early stage.

“A lot of those who attend these days will have been excluded from school and are missing authority figures in their lives and people they can trust.

"This event allows them to build some bonds and have honest conversations about their life choices.”