Monday 13 November marks the start of Operation Sceptre, a national week of action, education and awareness-raising to tackle knife crime and violence.
Areas we cover
Our core function is to support and coordinate the local response to serious violence and to embed public health approaches which tackle the root causes of violence through earlier interventions and prevention.
We work with nine separate violence reduction partnerships which are consistent with the upper-tier local authority boundaries, covering all of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire.
Use the map to find out more.
What we do
We have a central programme consisting of five workstreams. Within these strands our teams are working with partners to deliver projects and activity across the Thames Valley to prevent serious violence.
VRU Special Interest Groups
The VRU has established three professional networks, each focused on specific thematic areas which cut across all our work. Special Interest Groups (SIGs) bring together professionals, academics and researchers working on or with an interest in the thematic area. They build collaborative networks and share best practice. Use the buttons below to find out more.
Latest news
Read more about what we’ve been up to across the Thames Valley.
On Wednesday 14 June, the VRU hosted a webinar with a focus on the youth justice services and their work on serious youth violence. The recording and slides are now available.
The National Data Connections Conference on Wednesday 28 June is an opportunity to explore the value of data, the challenges it presents but also the opportunities for innovation.
The Armoured Heart sculpture was unveiled in Reading
Over 200 school children from 20 schools across Buckinghamshire participated in the “Youth Voices Bucks” youth summit on Thursday 23 February.
Oxford Brookes University has been commissioned by the […]
Blog and resources
We publish regular blog posts from colleagues working on the VRU, from those in our partners and from members of the community we serve. These explore the work we are doing and the wider agenda associated with tackling the root causes of violence.
We also publish a range of resources which we have either developed ourselves or which are hosted on behalf of our partners to help support local partners in their work to tackle violence.