Today the Home Office announced its first Serious Violence Strategy, to reverse the tide of rising serious youth violence across London and the UK.
Naomi Hulston, Catch22’s Chief Operating Officer, attended a roundtable this morning with the Home Secretary to discuss community reaction to the strategy.
She commented:
“This is a significant step from the government towards tackling serious youth violence.
“Importantly, it recognises that the most serious youth violence is driven by organised criminals who use young people in illegal drug selling enterprises.
“Young people only pick up a knife when they feel scared for their life. And a child only becomes vulnerable to doing a drug dealer’s bidding when they don’t have strong, positive networks around them. As a society, we must put all of our resources into raising a generation of young people who feel confident to say ‘no’ to organised criminals. By giving our young people places to go where they can feel safe, clear routes to success and viable alternatives to the street.
“We will not stop serious youth violence by banning knives, or putting age limits on acid sales. We will stop it by investing in a generation where every young people feels that they have a positive choice, away from violence and drugs.”