The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is this week investing £2.6million in 36 projects across the capital, providing almost 10,000 young Londoners with positive life opportunities.
Sadiq launched the £45m Young Londoners Fund earlier this year to support community groups, charities, youth centres and schools providing much-needed positive events, activities and opportunities for young people in the capital.
The fund is part of a package of measures aimed at encouraging young people to get off the streets and to make the right choices and, for some, diverting them away from criminality and anti-social behaviour.
The Mayor will be investing in projects over the course of the coming months. Today’s announcement will benefit 9,950 young Londoners through 36 London schemes, including everything from theatre groups and employability training to football clubs and art sessions.
It follows an investment of £750,000 made in July to 15 schools to provide safe, positive summer activities and ongoing support for more than 2,000 of the most vulnerable young Londoners.
In contrast, central government continues to cut vital services. £39m has been lost from London’s youth services since 2011, meaning that local authorities have had their youth service budgets cut by an average of 44 per cent, resulting in the closure of 81 youth centres and the loss of at least 800 full-time youth workers in the capital*.
