here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\nShe said: \u201cI think it\u2019s a really powerful way of saying goodbye to school and a way of expressing how you feel about youth violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barnardo\u2019s, Empire Fighting Chance, City of Bristol College and YouthMoves were among the organisations involved with the project.<\/p>\n
Project lead Dr Jade Levell, Senior Lecturer in Social and Public Policy at the University of Bristol, said: \u201cThe response has been overwhelmingly powerful and positive. At this time of year many young people will be writing on school shirts as they graduate from formal education.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren involved in youth violence often miss out on this important milestone and this exhibition shines a light on an issue which affects all young people in many different ways.<\/p>\n
“Their creations so brilliantly show how the problem goes beyond knives and when you let them lead the conversation, there is so much for us to learn about how they feel and what they want to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/21_May_knife_crime_awareness_image_1JPG.jpg\")
Ellen Sheehy, aged 16, holds her rhinestone decorated school shirt, which formed part of the \u2018Empty shirts, Lost Childhoods\u2019 exhibition in the Lord Mayor\u2019s Chapel(Image: University of Bristol)<\/p>\n
Knife Crime Awareness Week, which runs from May 19 to Sunday, May 25, is an annual campaign by The Ben Kinsella Trust to highlight the complexity of the problem, its devastating impact, and prevention work.<\/p>\n
Clare Moody, Avon & Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner, said: \u201cThis exhibition powerfully highlights that too many of our children miss out on having a childhood, miss out on feeling safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe University took an interdisciplinary approach and we, as partners, must do the same. Above all, we won\u2019t achieve change if we don\u2019t listen to our children. These shirts show us how powerful their voices are, when we listen with the purpose of taking action.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jon Yates, Chief Executive of the national Youth Endowment Fund, said: \u201cHalf of our teenage children say that they have changed their behaviour in some way because they are worried about violence. It\u2019s on us as the adults to listen hard, find out what works to change children\u2019s lives and make it happen. This exhibition is a brilliant way to start listening.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_Bristol-Live-Together-for-Change-v4-1.png\")
Together For Change Aims<\/p>\n
Set up a task force<\/strong> – We will develop a community-driven task force to meet and discuss the issue, how best to tackle it and how we can make a real difference with those in power.<\/p>\nGetting knives off the street<\/strong> – We will work with the campaigners to raise awareness of initiatives designed to get knives off the streets.<\/p>\nSocial media<\/strong> – We will look at the Online Safety Bill and see if it goes far enough where it comes to harmful knife-related content on social media and how easy it is for children to see.<\/p>\nRaise awareness <\/strong>– We will work together to raise the awareness of how knife crime is linked to poverty, education, employment, social exclusion and the collapse in youth services<\/p>\nLobby the government<\/strong> -We will cover the issue in the context of the General Election, using our findings from the taskforce and our reporting to lobby for change<\/p>\nHold power to account –<\/strong> We will scrutinise and hold Avon and Somerset Police and Bristol City Council to account on their plans and models to make Bristol safer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘Children can’t relax’ Annette Belcher Digital Publishing Editor 13:15, 20 May 2025 Empty Shirts, Lost Childhoods Exhibition, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,52570,748,52569,188,2266,393,4884,13072,16657,16,15,25179],"class_list":{"0":"post-117091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-mayor","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-city-of-bristol-college","12":"tag-crime","13":"tag-education","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-marvin-rees","17":"tag-together-for-change","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-university-of-bristol"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114540254615544125","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Empty Shirts, Lost Childhoods Exhibition, The Lord Mayors Chapel, Bristol<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_UoB-Empty-Shirts-Lost-Childhoods-Exhibition-Bristol_BMS6754JPG.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
Luchia Avery and Eva Morne-Edwards, aged 13, giving readings about knife crimes at the opening of the \u2018Empty shirts, Lost Childhoods\u2019 exhibition in Bristol(Image: Bhagesh Sachania Photography)<\/p>\n