Scottish Justice Secretary Michael Matheson visited Dundee to congratulate the team behind a project to prevent knife crime among young people.
Police Scotland youth volunteers have given talks to around 2,700 pupils in schools across the city over the past year as part of the No Knives Better Lives initiative.
The campaign concluded this week with a discussion at Braeview Academy and a visit by Mr Matheson.
Sammy Keith, community development officer for Dundee’s youth volunteers, said: “No Knives Better Lives in a national initiative that began four years ago to build bridges between police and young people.
“However, it was not delivered in Dundee until now.
“The idea was that it would be peer-to-peer education, so the young volunteers are delivering it.
“It was felt that the age-old formula of adults telling young people what to do doesn’t always work, so all the volunteers are aged between 13 and 18.”
Morgan Academy was the first of 18 schools in Dundee to take part in the programme.
Jade Heron, 18, began volunteering with Police Scotland five years ago and feels that the project is already making a difference.
She said:Â “I joined Police Scotland when I was 13-years-old and I was very shy initially, but I got more and more involved.
“I started working on projects with drugs and alcohol and got a good reception from it, which led to getting involved with the knife crime prevention initiative.
“We get the first years to think about why people carry knives and how that affects people. The second year talks focus more on what to do if someone has been stabbed.
“I feel that the kids can relate to me because I’m someone close to their age who wasn’t always perfect at school.
“All the pupils seem to enjoy the talks and if I can get even one person not to carry a knife it would make a massive difference.”
