Mayor's £700,000 for youth crime

A £700,000 funding package has been announced by the mayor of London to help tackle knife and gun crime among young people.

The announcement follows a spate of high-profile deaths of young people in London. So far this year, 21 teenagers have been killed violently in London.

The new funding will be put into two programmes - Calling The Shots, run by The Boyhood To Manhood Foundation, and Watch Over Me, run by the Kids Taskforce.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES

A third project, also run by the Kids Taskforce initiative, will teach seven to 11-year-olds about personal behaviour, crime and safety.

Speaking at the Brixton Road Youth Centre in south London, Mr Johnson said: "Everyone knows what the root causes of youth crime are and everyone knows what the solution is.

"It's a question of how we get from here to there. It's about giving young people boundaries and discipline."

Labour Assembly Member Jennette Arnold said the announcement was a credit to the hard work of those involved.

"They have demonstrated that they are best placed to intervene and support our young people - especially those most at risk in some of our most challenging communities," she said.

Miguel Beia, a mentor at the youth centre, said it helped turn his life around. "My life would have been devastating without the youth centre," said the 18-year-old.

"I would have been involved in gun crime. If not dead, then I would have been in prison."

Mr Beia, who grew up on Brixton Road's Cowley council estate, recently completed an internship with the Bank of America and is studying at university.