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August 5, 2022
London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, recently announced that his Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) has invested £5 million to help direct young people in London away from crime this summer through sports, theatre, art and dance. The funding is supporting all 32 London Boroughs in delivering prevention and early intervention programs in an effort to prevent a spike in violent crime over the period when schools and colleges are closed.
The VRU is a team of specialists who bring people across London together to better understand why violence happens and to take action to prevent it now and in the long term. Tackling violence has been the Mayor’s top priority and said that he is “determined to do everything he can to support young Londoners with access to summer activities and opportunities in employment, apprenticeships and training.”
The program focuses on supporting communities through prevention and early intervention including mentoring and youth work services, along with sports activities which are designed to help reduce re-offenders. £4.5 million of investment through the London Crime Prevention Fund will be used for councils across the capital to fund local violence reduction initiatives. The VRU support package is set to benefit 15,000 young people and community members through the summer and into 2023. An additional £500,000 will be invested to provide further support to boroughs to prevent violence.
According to Khan, “the power of sport can bring young people and communities together and is often a valuable intervention tool in engaging young people.” Therefore, VRU will be investing a further £1 million in a new sports program to deliver a range of activities for young Londoners in areas with traditionally low engagement rates and neighborhoods affected by violence.
“We know that sport has the power to unite people and communities,” said Lib Peck, Director of London’s VRU. “We’re investing in a sports program that will deliver football, boxing, hockey, netball and other activities through the summer and beyond because we believe violence is preventable, not inevitable.”
Additionally, a portion of the funding will support London Youth, a charity that offers opportunities outside of school for young people to improve their lives. The investment will help them deliver summer events and programming to around 3,800 young people during August that is designed to sustain youth engagement through weekly sports sessions through to the end of the year.
Speaking at Edmonton Eagles Amateur Boxing Club, Mr Khan said: “It’s really important to invest in young people, we’ve seen over the last 12 years massive cuts in the facilities available to young people with government cuts leading to youth centers closing down, a lack of after school clubs, a lack of facilities at the weekend and in the summer holidays. We also know that unfortunately during the summer holidays, with the cost of living crisis and temperatures going up, youth violence can go up.”
This summer’s free activities can be accessed through the Local Village Network (LVN) app, supported by the Mayor of London. The free-to-download app provides young people ages 14-24 with more than 2,500 activities to get involved in across all boroughs including sports, dance and creative workshops.
Source: London World
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