Mayor’s investment to support over 110,000 Young Londoners
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today announced a further £16.4million investment in community projects providing positive activities for young Londoners, particularly those at risk of getting caught up in violent crime.
More than 70,000 young Londoners are already benefitting from a series of positive projects and programmes in high-crime areas as part of Sadiq’s £45 million Young Londoners Fund, which was launched in 2018.
The latest investment in a further 74 community projects in high-crime areas will help almost 40,000 more young Londoners across the capital over the next three years, bringing the total number of young people supported through the Fund to more than 110,000.
City Hall’s investment is now supporting 200 charities, local authorities, schools and youth clubs to provide a range of education, sport, cultural and other activities for young Londoners. Youth services have been on the frontline of a near decade of damaging government cuts - new figures released by London’s Violence Reduction Unit show that there was a 46 per cent cut in national funding for youth services in the capital since 2011.*
On top of the human suffering caused by such crimes, violent incidents cost the capital £3 billion last year**, yet the Mayor believes the Government still fails to recognise the impact that its systematic cuts to policing and youth services have had in London.
Sadiq was joined by Watford FC players Andre Gray and Daniel Phillips to see how nearly £190,000 of City Hall funding is helping the Harrow Club in Kensington & Chelsea. Before he became a Premier League footballer, Andre was attacked and stabbed following a gang-related incident in 2011. He credits his mother, close friends and a renewed focus for helping him leave the trappings of a gang lifestyle and turn his life around.
The Mayor’s investment is helping the Harrow Club’s youth workers and trained community volunteers work with more than 400 young people aged between 10-21, many of whom are who are at a high risk of being involved in criminality. This includes funding for the club to open late at night to offer a safe space where young people from the local area can be paired with mentors who support them with activities, work-focused training and development.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “We know the best time to stop violent crime is before it starts and it is vital we help young people make the right choices as early as possible. That means investing in our young people to give them positive opportunities and to learn from the right type of mentors. Our Young Londoners Fund was created to provide young people with positive alternatives to crime, and already 70,000 young Londoners are benefitting. This further announcement today means a further 40,000 young Londoners will have access to opportunities, taking the total number of young Londoners benefiting from the Fund to more than 110,000.
“Our youth services, schools and sports clubs have struggled as a result of deeply damaging Government cuts, which must be reversed because focusing entirely on enforcement will only deliver short-term improvements and not the sustained reductions in violence we all want to see.”
Andre Gray from Watford FC said: “Going to see some of the work being funded in London is really important to me. I’ve lived some of the issues these young people are going through, so going to places like the Harrow Club, it’s like looking at myself again and the situations that I’ve been in but ultimately overcome as well. It’s easy for people who haven’t come from it to say what needs to be done, but I think we need to be honest about it and hear from people who have lived it and who are living it.”
Michael Defoe, CEO of Harrow Club W10 said: “In 2018 the Young Londoners Fund provided us with key funding to set up our ‘Another Way’ project which provides a late-night safe-space, positive activities and mentoring support to young people who are at risk of involvement in harmful and dangerous activity that can lead to violence.
“In round 2 of the fund we secured further funding to build on this work through a peer-education initiative through which our young people will visit local schools, youth clubs and community centres to talk about the effects of youth violence and showcase film, music and drama which they have produced to try and deter others from getting involved in that negative lifestyle. We are very grateful for the support given by the Mayor and his team that has enabled us to deliver this vital life-saving work.”
Elaine Harrison, Trust Development Manager from Crystal Palace Community Trust said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have been granted funds from the YLF for our partnership project 'The Power of One'. This money will enable us to develop a local Youth Offer with the newly renovated 'Old Library' as a hub for youth activities and a safe neutral space without territorial affiliations. We cannot overstate the importance of being given the opportunity to deliver this project which represents community action in response to the issues affecting young people - with established and emerging grassroots organisations working together for positive change.”
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Notes to editors
- The £45m Young Londoners Fund was created by Sadiq in 2018 as a means to support education, sport and cultural activities for young people to help tackle knife crime and youth violence, which has been rising across the country since 2014. It particularly seeks to help young Londoners who might otherwise be at risk of getting caught up in crime by providing aspirational and positive activities to help them reach their true potential.
- The announcement of a further £16.4m is the latest investment from Sadiq’s £45m Young Londoners Fund.
The £45m Young Londoners Fund consists of:
- £30m for projects in local communities (allocated through 2 funding rounds)
- £15m to scale up existing City Hall-funded projects to support young Londoners
- Round 1 of the Young Londoners Fund opened on 15 May 2018 and closed on 9 July 2018. £20.5m was invested in Round 1 and scale up projects to provide positive local opportunities, events and activities for 70,000 young Londoners at risk of or having been involved in violent crime.
- Round 2 of the Young Londoners Fund opened on 15 May 2019 and closed on 12 July 2019.The latest investment of £16.4m will fund further 74 community projects in high-crime areas and will help almost 40,000 more young Londoners over the next three years, bringing the total number of young people supported through the Fund to 111,488.
- In addition, the Violence Reduction Unit has invested over £2.4m in five projects that applied for Round 2 of the Young Londoners Fund
- You can also find out more about the successful 74 Round two Young Londoners Fund projects please visit the London Datastore.
*Between 2011/12 and 2018/19, 46 per cent of funding for London’s youth services was withdrawn. A reduction in police officer numbers has impacted on the police’s ability to disrupt and deter violence: https://www.london.gov.uk/city-hall-blog/new-report-shows-violence-cost-london-ps3-billion-last-year
**Homicide review and Strategic Needs Assessment reviews here: https://www.london.gov.uk/city-hall-blog/new-report-shows-violence-cost-london-ps3-billion-last-year
- Croydon has the highest level of round 2 investment (£1.7m), followed by Enfield (£1.5m), Barking and Dagenham (£1.4m), Newham (£1.1m) and Tower Hamlets (£1m).
- As part of round two investment in 74 projects, five large grants have been awarded. Further details can be found below:
Croydon Council: Croydon Community Partnership Against Trauma (£1,215,000 grant)
This project will offer targeted support for young people when they are moving from primary to secondary school and from school to college/further education. It will focus on young people who have had negative childhood experiences and build partnerships that bring families, schools and local communities together to give young people the confidence and skills needed to succeed. By helping young people with social and emotional issues remain in mainstream education, the project will work to tackle the root causes of youth violence through community-based activities.
Crystal Palace Community Trust: The Power of One (£553,681 grant)
‘The Power of One’ will offer outreach and community-based activities across a range of spaces for example parks, open spaces, with a safe and neutral central hub without territorial affiliations. It aims to remove barriers for young people, helping them to release their potential. It will seek to engage young people, especially those not accessing mainstream services, by supporting them in positive activities and services giving them their own space to realise their potential.
Enfield Council: Inspiring Young Enfield (£1,326,588 grant)
This collaborative project will provide new opportunities for young people to improve emotional and physical health through employment, mentoring and learning opportunities and access to sport, arts and culture. Inspiring Young Enfield is a community led programme of locally delivered support, incorporating a public health approach and working with mainstream services, to help our most challenged young people make positive life choices, reconnect with their neighbourhoods and realise their true potential.
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham: Developing from roads to community – building hope, resilience, enterprise and capacity for sustainable change (£1,002,228)
The project comprises of a team of qualified and experienced street workers, working intensively with disengaged young people to deliver an enterprise development programme for young people, a community leader’s programme and an accredited mentor programme. Additionally, it implements a half-day workshop related to communicating in a trauma-informed way, for local businesses, faith leaders, parents/carers and other community members.
Catalyst in Communities (£270,000 grant)
The project will engage young people from Waltham Forest, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham who are excluded, offending or at-risk of either, a RE:SOLVE Coaching Programme. This is an expansion and improvement of the successful 'EastSideStory' project established through the Young Londoners Fund's first round. This project will enable participants to articulate their life-stories, attitudes and beliefs; helping to enable them to resolve personal challenges and conflicts though coaching, residential trips and development of digital media.
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