£600,000 boost for Evening Standard's Save London Lives fund

The Evening Standard’s campaign to tackle surging youth violence using the “public health” approach has today been given a £600,000 boost, taking the total raised to £1.6 million.

Our Save London Lives fund received the £600,000 donation from the L&Q Foundation, the charitable arm of the social housing landlord, making them the largest single donor to our fund.

The funds will be used to back hyper-local groups with demonstrable experience in tackling youth violence by making available grants to cover their core costs with up to £30,000 payable over three years.

It follows our special investigation, Violent London, last year in which we backed the public health model as the best way to halt the surge of knife and gun killings, which are at a 10-year high and continue unabated with 29 fatalities already recorded in the capital this year.

The model, used to dramatically reduce the murder rate in Glasgow, deploys a range of holistic services —including youth work, education, mental health, charities and police — to divert young people from gangs, rather than just the police-led enforcement approach that has failed in the past.

David Montague, chief executive of L&Q, which has a stock of 100,000 properties in the pan-London area, said: “London’s gang violence epidemic is a tragedy that affects entire communities. There is no easy solution but we believe that empowering grassroots organisations is key. By giving these organisations the resources to get on with their work and share expertise with one another, we aim to help them reach people who may feel society has given up on them. That is why we are proud to support the Evening Standard in backing these projects.”

The grants will be administered by The London Community Foundation, the charity that manages Save London Lives and the Dispossessed Fund. So far, 41 charities have been supported in the first two rounds of grant giving.

Kelly Rust, director of grants and impact for LCF, said: “Our aim in launching this programme was to help build a resilient grassroots response to youth violence. That’s why we are focused on providing core funding and building the capacity of small charities to tackle this complex issue.”