Seven organisations working with young people across Barking and Dagenham are benefitting from a £125k pot of money to ensure that there are opportunities for the borough’s youngsters to get involved in and enjoy.
The funding will enable the organisations to provide a range of different activities for young people from sports to theatre to music production. Some organisations will also provide safe places for young people to come and talk about any personal issues that they may be experiencing around safety, online safety, exploitation as well educating them on how to stay safe.
The groups that have been commissioned to do the work are:
- Ben Kinsella Trust – Reducing Serious Violence (cross-service priority)
- Arc Theatre (Tackling Hate crime, intolerance, and extremism)
- Studio 3 Arts (Tackling Violence against women and girls)
- Beyond Education Sports Foundation Reducing Serious Violence (cross-service priority)
- Future Youth Zone (Reducing Serious Violence (cross-service priority)
- True Cadence – Protecting Children and Young People
- West Ham United Foundation Protecting Children and Young People
The funding has come from MOPAC’s London Crime Prevention Fund and the council’s application clearly shows how the money will be used to link into its Community Safety Partnership Plan 2023-26 priorities and how it will reduce crime and violence amongst young people, women and girls as well as increase perceptions of safety.
Councillor Syed Ghani, Cabinet Member for Enforcement and Community Safety said: “Having places for our young people to go is really important to ensure they have the opportunity to learn new things and not be tempted to go down the wrong path.
“We have some amazing local organisations doing incredible work with our young people, and I am really pleased that we are able to support them further.”
The funding was provided to the organisations in April this year and the programme of activities and support will run until early March 2024. As well as providing a range of different activities, the organisations will be providing them at different times of the day – before school, during and after school. However, Studio 3 Arts will be focussing their work on violence against women and girls.
Councillor Ghani added: “Data shows that the majority of youth violence occurs between the hours of 3pm-7pm – the ‘Lost Hours’, so I’m pleased to see that we have activities taking place during this time. I would encourage all parents to get their children involved in an extra-curricular activity.”