Officers and staff from the Thames Valley Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) have launched a week of problem-solving activity focused on tackling hotspots for violence in two areas of Oxford and Slough. Operation Pacation – defined as ‘the act of making peace’ – involves a range of partners working together to identify and solve problems to make a local area safer.
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.
The VRU Strategy Board is the most senior partnership meeting, which met today to discuss the proposed areas of investment for next year’s budget and delivery plan.
A further £7m funding to tackle serious violence has been announced by the Home Office today.
Members of the public from the Chalvey area of Slough are invited to attend a facilitated community engagement event to discuss how to make a safer community and to identify solutions to local issues.
The latest of the VRU Violence Involving those Identifying as Women And Girls Special Interest Group meeting was held last week, with a broad range of presenters and attendees.
This International Women’s Day today (8 March), Thames Valley Violence Reduction Unit has been accredited as a White Ribbon status organisation, committed to ending male violence towards women.
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.