A SELECTION of early intervention projects based in London will receive £1.4 million from the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit.
The investment will be made to 40 local community groups that specialise in tackling knife crime through interventions and providing support for nearly 25,000 Londoners in high crime areas.
The projects, which will be the first to be funded by the VRU, will provide mentoring, counselling, school-based education schemes and community diversionary activities over the course of the next year for young people aged 10-21.
In addition, the VRU will carry out project reviews over the next 12 months to understand what works best and to make further decisions on where similar projects would be effective in making early interventions.
The new investment comes as London’s VRU secured £7m funding from the Home Office for a series of programmes and initiatives to tackle all forms of violence in the capital.
Areas that the VRU will focus its attention on in the coming months include:
- Expanding after-school provision in high-crime areas - following data showing that violent incidents involving young people aged 10-16 are more likely to happen at the end of the school day.
- Supporting the transition from primary to secondary school.
- Creating a programme to reduce school exclusions by piloting a programme of inclusion and nurturing as developed in Glasgow where exclusions were reduced by 81 per cent over the last decade.
- Extra support for young people affected by domestic violence
- Investing in London’s youth workers by developing a programme of training and development to support and grow their profession.
- Working with young people on establishing a -Young Persons’ Action Group to feed into decision-making by the VRU
- Piloting programmes in prisons and young offender institutions.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I am determined to do everything I can to tackle violent crime in our city and that means being tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime.
“While I am investing and supporting our hardworking police officers who are targeting violent offenders and removing knives and dangerous weapons from our streets, we know the best time to stop violent crime is before it starts.
“That’s why it’s vital we invest in our communities because they are in the best position to intervene at a critical moment in a young person’s life and the VRU’s funding can help provide positive opportunities and role models.”
Lib Peck, Director of London’s Violence Reduction Unit, said: “I am really pleased that we are going to be investing in a number of projects that we know are delivering for young people and are demonstrating the public health approach in action.
“What we have learnt so far is that empowering communities and giving local people the powers and resources is key to making fundamental change in a young person’s life. They will help us make the types of long-lasting interventions that will enable us to challenge the view that violence is inevitable and demonstrate that it is preventable.”