18.03.2024

Positive news for £15.6m announced by Mayor of London for new Violence and Exploitation service. But there’s more to be done to bridge the youth service funding gap – that will be lifesaving and life changing for young Londoners.

Nahim Ahmed MBE, a youth work professional leader at Spotlight, and a front-line youth worker for 15 years for Tower Hamlets, London. Shared the stage with the Mayor of London and the MyEnds consortium at the Safer London Press conference on the 14^th of March 2024.

The Mayor of London announced funding for the new Violence and Exploitation service. We welcome this positive news. Even so, we know with this announcement of £15.6 million in additional funding, there is still a funding gap for youth and community work. We echo the urgent call from the Mayor of London, demanding urgent action from the Central Government. We see firsthand as frontline youth workers how the right level of funding would be life-changing and lifesaving.

Nahim said:

‘Frontline Youth and Community Work has been heavily underfunded and undervalued for the past decade. When a young person loses their life to violent crime it is a loss that affects us all.’

‘As a consortium partner funded and supported by the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit, we have been working with other local grassroots youth and community providers to provide support and de-escalate incidents of crime and exploitation. We help by offering reassurance to victims and calming tensions within the community with the aim of preventing more violent incidents from taking place.’

The Mayor of London’s new service will invest funding in targeted and specialist interventions to help young Londoners avoid being exploited by criminal gangs.

Spotlight has been running in Tower Hamlets for 10 years, and expanded across four additional sites, we are dedicated to our continued commitment to collaborative and powerful work that transforms our communities and beyond.

We’re here to provide specialist support and targeted interventions – that keep our community safe and save lives.

We lead and inspire alongside, our collaborative consortium approach with partners. For the benefit of the community in Tower Hamlets, and as a blueprint for youth and community work in London and more widely across the UK.

Get in touch:

Nahim Ahmed MBE, The Youth and Community Guy, Nahim@wearespotlgiht.com / LinkedIn @nahimahmedMBE

We are Spotlight, hello@wearespotlight.com / www.wearespotlight.com / LinkedIn: WeareSpotlight Instagram: @weare_spotlight