The Violence Intervention Project

Who we are

The Violence Intervention Project is built on one belief: relationships change everything. 

We are connectors, therapists, youth practitioners and system shifters, working together to transform how young people, families and schools are supported. 

Our work is rooted in trust, persistence and collaboration — bridging the gaps between home, school and community, and building ecosystems of care that last. 

Our culture and values

SHAME-INFORMED APPROACH

By naming and addressing shame, we create space for dignity, trust, and healing. This is why all of our work is under-pinned by a shame and trauma-informed approach. 

We have launched The Shame Initiative to help professionals working with youths to recognise, understand and respond to shame.

Urban Therapy 

Conventional therapy doesn’t work for everyone. Our client base won’t sign up for weekly sessions on a couch, their lives are complex, unpredictable, often chaotic. 

Urban Therapy responds to that reality. 

• We meet young people on their terms: day or evening, in cars, parks or cafés. 

• We combine practical help (housing, education, returning from county lines) with therapeutic care. 

But the practical is never the point — it’s the pathway. Every lift, every check-in, every bit of support is an opportunity to build attachment and mentalisation: helping young people recognise and regulate emotions, and see themselves and others with new clarity. 

That’s how we help them build safer, healthier, violence-free lives. 

AMBIT: OUR FRAMEWORK

We are trained as an AMBIT team by the Anna Freud Centre. AMBIT (Adaptive Mentalisation-Based Integrative Treatment) helps us work effectively with young people facing overlapping challenges: mental health difficulties, trauma, substance misuse, and violent behaviour. 

It’s more than a therapeutic model, it’s how we run our entire organisation:

• With young people face-to-face 

• Between team members through reflective practice 

• Across professional networks to strengthen collaboration 

• In our team culture, always learning and adapting 

This makes us consistent, reliable, and trusted — for young people and the systems around them. 

OUR WORK IN ACTION

Through shame and trauma-informed practice, our urban therapy programme and AMBIT framework, we deliver a whole-system response to serious youth violence. Practical, therapeutic and relational. Our tried and tested approach addresses the gaps. Between home and school, services and systems, because we know that’s where violence grows.

• Urban Therapy: frontline therapeutic outreach, building trust in context. 

• The DRIFT Project: early intervention at key transitions, bridging home, school and community. 

• The Shame Initiative: leading a movement to put shame-informed practice at the heart of the youth sector. 

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

At VIP, belonging is not just our goal for young people — it is the standard we hold ourselves to as an organisation. Equity, diversity, and inclusion are therefore central to our mission, not peripheral to it. They shape how we show up for young people, for each other, and for the communities we serve. 

We recognise that experiences of shame, disconnection, and exclusion are often rooted in wider systems of inequality — including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, and classism. To build genuine belonging, we must confront these structures and ensure our work actively challenges, rather than reproduces, them. 

Over the next three years, we will embed EDI across every layer of VIP — from our therapeutic practice and recruitment to our partnerships, governance, and communications. This is about creating an organisation where every person — young people, staff, and partners alike — feels seen, valued, and able to bring their full selves to the work. 

Our EDI Commitments (2026–2030): 

• Inclusive Practice: Embed equity and anti-oppressive practice within our Urban Therapy and Shame-Informed models, so that intersectionality is recognised and addressed in how we understand and respond to shame, trauma, and identity. 

• Learning & Reflection: Deliver ongoing EDI and anti-racism training, alongside reflective spaces that allow our staff and associates to explore bias, privilege, and power with honesty and care. 

• Voice & Influence: Amplify the voices of young people and families from marginalised backgrounds through our VIP Voice platform — ensuring EDI principles inform programme design, evaluation, and public storytelling. 

• Data & Accountability: Use data, feedback, and lived experience insights to track our progress on EDI goals and hold ourselves accountable — publishing an annual reflection on what we’ve learned and where we must do better. 

• Partnership & Sector Change: Collaborate with equity-focused partners and networks across the youth, mental health, and justice sectors — contributing to a wider movement for inclusive, shame-informed systems. 

Our vision of belonging cannot exist without justice. Through this EDI commitment, we will continue to evolve — building a culture where equity and connection are not aspirations, but daily practice.