Community groups working with young people and helping to tackle knife crime across the capital are being urged to apply for a share of funding from City Hall.
The new funding is part of the Mayor Sadiq Khan’s tough and comprehensive Knife Crime Strategy, which he published in June, with an additional £625,000 for knife and gang crime projects, taking total spending to £7million to help beat the continued problem of rising knife crime in the capital.
Grants of up to £50,000 are available for individual organisations, and bids of £100,000 will be considered for projects which collaborate between partners and across boroughs. The cash is available for a wide variety of uses to support knife crime prevention work. This could include hiring premises, paying for instructors or paying for leaflets or food to galvanise attendance and encourage engagement from within London’s communities.
During the development of the Mayor’s Strategy and the Mayor’s new anti-knife crime campaign, London Needs You Alive, community groups and young people raised how they want to be engaged with by people from their communities who they know and trust, and who have experienced some of the same issues and challenges around knife crime.
Earlier this month, Sadiq launched a new and positive anti-knife crime campaign which focuses on the value and potential of London’s teenagers and is supported by influential Londoners and anti-knife crime campaigners. It is backed by a powerful video and asks young people to post social media content telling their friends and family why London needs them alive and why they shouldn’t carry a knife.
