Cadet programme

Who are we?

Established in 2009 Cleveland Police Cadet programme was managed by Safer in Tees Valley who ran a successful cadet programme until the recent covid pandemic struck and curtailed the programme.

Fast forward to 2022 and the Police cadet programme has been re-established and ran exclusively by Cleveland Police.

The Cleveland Police Cadet programme hopes to provide a long term structured developmental programme that is adventurous, informative and exciting for young people.

Young people aged between 13 and 17 are invited into the programme which consists of a cadet group in each of the four districts of Cleveland, (Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar & Cleveland and Stockton).

The programme welcomes applications from young people from all communities and backgrounds including those who are vulnerable to social exclusion or involvement in crime.

What do we do?

• We meet every week, from 6.30pm till 9.00pm at designated venues in Stockton, Hartlepool, Redcar and Middlesbrough
• We discuss issues that are important to us and take part in a range of community projects – recent projects have included river-mapping part of the River Tees for the emergency services, designing a cycle safety poster for the Police, producing an alcohol safety video and producing a young person’s version of the Policing Plan.
• Each week we do team sports such as hockey, softball, football and basketball. We also include other Police aspects such as training/marching and as a fun task we do the bleep test to check how our fitness levels are improving. The bleep test is part of the Police entry structure  
• We learn about crime and how the Police work. We often take part in simulation exercises which encompasses real-time 999 call scenarios through to crime scene investigations and court-hearings.
• We learn about different aspects of the Police service – including visiting the Roads Policing Unit and the Dog section, also discovering how investigations are undertaken and how we recover forensics (fingerprints etc) with a visit from or to our Scenes of Crime Dept we also include a visit to our extremely busy control room.
• We are all community volunteers and take part in a variety of projects to help the community which could include caring for your area with a litter picking exercise or a visit to a care home to provide a coffee morning and engaging with our senior citizens, in the past we have helping disabled athletes to compete in the Games for the disabled and provided fun activities for residents of local care homes.
• We also help out at public events across Cleveland such as the MELA and show events we also attend commemorative parades.
• In the warmer months we do group walks and expeditions. We learn outdoor survival skills and then put them to the test at cadet camp.
• The Cadet programme over the years has won 2 national awards for all the work the cadets have done with people living with Dementia.
• The programme is really exciting and benefits young children from all backgrounds

The Cleveland Police Cadets is a uniformed personal and social development and community volunteering programme for young people aged 13-17 years and its aim is to provide:
A safe environment for young people to enable them to develop and grow into mature adults.

To promote safer communities.

The programme focuses on fun, friendship and adventure; while encouraging young cadets from diverse backgrounds to develop social responsibility for their communities.
Volunteers, including Police Officers, deliver a structured weekly programme of community safety, physical fitness, outdoor adventure and social responsibility.