We proud to announce a new project in Ilford supported by London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) as part of their award-winning MyEnds programme. Building on our partnership with the London Borough of Redbridge, this work will develop community-led and intergenerational responses to the ongoing incidence of violence affecting young people and families across our borough.
Over the past 18 months, we’ve been working with our multi-agency colleagues from the Met Police, youth offending teams, adolescent safeguarding teams, social care, CAMHS and local schools to identify and support young people at risk in Hainault and Barkingside. To this end, we’ve delivered community outreach, positive activities for young people, and trained adults and parents to support volunteering efforts on local activities programmes.
This project builds on this work by focusing resources on the high-need neighbourhoods in and around the Loxford ward of Ilord. Following a detailed examination of local crime data we found that 20% of offences around this area were classified as serious violence. It was also observed that that the majority of offences committed by young people (those under 25) occurred in the afternoon, between 3 PM and 9 PM, with almost half of all offences taking place during this period.
Funding from London’s VRU will help us to address these critical issues and work towards creating a safer environment for our community. We will be implementing targeted interventions, providing support to young people at risk of violence, and reducing the amount of violent and drug-related crimes in Ilford Town Centre. We’re focused on developing a developing community-led and inter-generational place-based response to violence affecting young people along with its causes and consequences.
We’re also excited to be working alongside our friends at Frenford Clubs and Youth Unity, who will be providing additional elements to the programme
