London's VRU at the Preventing Serious Violence national conference

London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) will join 17 other VRUs from across England and Wales on Thursday 15 July to discuss progress made in reducing violence and opportunities to share ideas on how to build stronger, more resilient communities.

It will be the first time that VRUs will have joined together since launching in 2019. London’s VRU, set up by the Mayor of London in 2018, brings together a wide range of organisations, including local authorities, charities, voluntary sector organisations, the police, health specialists and education providers, to tackle the underlying and complex causes of violence.

London’s VRU is tackling violence through a programme of investment, partnership with public and voluntary sector organisations, developing research and data, putting our communities and our young people at the heart of a preventative and public health approach.

In the capital, the VRU has focused funding and interventions in five key areas:

• Education
• Youth work
• Early intervention and family resilience
• Neighbourhoods and local violence reduction plans
• Young people – giving them a voice

Last year alone, the VRU commissioned 126 programmes and projects which reached around 80,000 young people.

The Preventing Serious Violence national conference provides an opportunity to hear from experts across the country on key themes such as the role of education in reducing violence and provides an opportunity to learn from other units and collaborate with peers.

London VRU Director, Lib Peck, will chair the first discussion on adolescent wellbeing and violence reduction, which includes talking about the importance of contextual safeguarding in developing policy and practice and insight from Ben Lindsey, CEO of Power the Fight, on their project working alongside young people living with trauma.

Lib Peck, Director of London’s VRU, said: “London’s Violence Reduction Unit is leading a public health approach in tackling the complex and deep-rooted causes of violence in the capital.

“We firmly believe that violence is preventable and not inevitable and our focus is on being a voice and a champion for young people in our city.

“We work really closely with VRUs across the country and I’m really pleased we are able to join together to share expertise and learn more about how we can collectively reduce violence and build stronger communities.”

The conference will be attended by representatives from all 18 VRUs across England and Wales. Local, regional, and national stakeholders – people already working within violence reduction or those who would like to find out more about how these systems could work better together – are invited to join the conference. To register for the wellbeing session, the booking link is: bit.ly/wellbeingvru