A total of £2
million from the Community Fund and the Youth Sector Development
Fund will help organisations who work with young people to prevent
them becoming involved in gun, gang and knife crime. Successful
bidders include the Croydon Youth Development Trust and Manchester
Young Lives.
In addition, £300k from the Victims’ Fund will be given to
six organisations that support the families and friends of victims
of homicide including the Damilola Taylor Trust and Mothers
Against Murder and Aggression.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson said:
“The organisations receiving funding today work tirelessly
with communities at the very frontline of the fight against knife
crime and demonstrate how at every level we are tackling serious
youth violence.
“I am committed to making our streets safer by tackling the
minority of young people who commit serious violence through
enforcement, tougher sentencing, and also stronger prevention,
sending out a very clear message that it will not be tolerated.”
Lyn Costello, Mothers Against Murder and Aggression (MAMAA)
said:
“MAMAA are pleased to have been successful in their
application for The Victims’ Fund. The grant will allow us to
reach secondary victims of violent crime, enabling them to access
a much needed support system.
“Further to this it will enable continued training of volunteer
support workers, in the hope of reaching every family member that
needs our service. It is encouraging to see resources being
directed toward services that directly benefit victims of violent
crime, a group of people who are in dire need of support and
services and we hope to see this commitment to victims continue at
government level.”
The funding is part of the government’s one-year extension of
its Tackling Knives Action Programme (TKAP) announced in March.
TKAP now works intensively in 15 areas affected by knife crime to
reduce the number of knives on the streets, as well as with the
British Transport Police.
Latest provisional figures from the NHS show a 22 per cent
reduction in admissions for ‘sharp object’ assault for teenagers
across England in March 2008 to February 2009 compared with the
same period the previous year.
During the same time periods, in the nine original English
TKAP areas there was a 27 per cent fall in teenage stabbing
admissions and a corresponding fall of 11 per cent in the non-TKAP
areas.
NOTES TO EDITORS
- The organisations, who all work in the Tackling Knives Action
Programme (TKAP) areas, will receive funding from the homicide
section of the Victims’ Fund, the Youth Sector Development Fund
or the Community Fund. Community Fund grants will be awarded
following successful completion of the due diligence process.
- For details of the successful bidders visit www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/funding/funding013.htm
- The Community Fund was launched in October 2008 to provide
£4.5 million of funding over three years to 150 organisations
working to divert young people from gun, gang and knife crime in
the 13 phase 1 TKAP areas.
- The Youth Sector Development Fund is run through DCSF and will
provide £100 million over three years (2008-2011). The Home
Office has contributed a one-off £500k to the YSDF which will be
allocated to four organisations working specifically with young
people most at risk of becoming involved in gang and knife
crime.
- The Victims’ Fund was established in 2004/05. It contributes
to a wider programme of work to provide victims and witnesses
with specialists support to meet their individual needs. In the
financial year 09/10 the homicide section of the Victims’ Fund
has £300K available to organisations supporting the friends and
family of victims of homicide.
- TKAP launched in June 2008 with ten police forces –
Metropolitan, Essex, Lancashire, West Yorkshire, Merseyside,
West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Nottinghamshire, South Wales
and Thames Valley. In November 2008 four more were added as
second tier forces - Bedfordshire, Northumbria, South Yorkshire
and British Transport Police. In March 2009 it was further
extended to include Kent and Hampshire.
- TKAP is sending out a clear message that if an individual
carries a knife, they aremore likely to get caught,
prosecuted and receive a tough punishment. It has also
accelerated educational programmes and diversionary activity to
stop young people becoming involved in knife crime in the first
place, and reassured the public that we are doing all that we
can to keep knives off our streets, with high visibility
enforcement activity to back this message up.
- For more information call Home Office press office on 020 7035
3535.