Supporting the Work of Lives Not Knives
Lives not Knives (LNK) works with young people who are living in poverty with a household income less than 60% of median income.
Following the pandemic, household income has fallen putting increasing pressure on single parents, households where parents are in receipt of free school meals, people from ethnic minority backgrounds and people living in economically deprived areas.
This demographic of households are expected to experience greater deprivation, whilst experiencing unequal access to public services which in turn will compound health, social and economic equality.
Lives not Knives help to close that gap of social and economic deprivation by advancing the equality of opportunities for young people. Supporting children and young people between the ages of 9-18 (70% of which are at high risk of school exclusion) to stay in education, support their pathways to higher education, expose them to better life experiences and offer them and their parents/guardians local access to public services and signposting for professional services, such as mental health.
Partnering with Corporate Funders for more Impact
Whilst working for 15 years dependant on fundraising, small pots of funding and grants, we soon realised that short term funding can only achieve short term effects.
LNK have worked on a long term model, which asks schools to contribute as part of their teacher training budget to help create a collective sustainable model, which will not only make the model a long term commitment for LNK, but also a collective programme for all users to be able to contribute to the sharing of best practice. Therefore creating an eco-system, that can be easily tracked, whilst measuring the impact of the programme.
However, some schools are run on very tight budgets and are unable to pay for the resources. This is where Corporates and individuals can make a big impact!
It’s is clear that the resources are needed, and there is evidence to prove the correlation between school exclusion and young people entering the youth justice system.
Your contribution could help reduce youth crime and lift young people out of the socioeconomic poverty gap.
Understanding the impact of your contribution
LNK has worked with 6887 young people on a 121 basis over the last 2 years, many of whom identified with multiple needs due to socioeconomic circumstances. LNK have improved their life chances by keeping them in education, lowered their chances of becoming involved in youth crime by educating them on the consequences of youth crime and encouraged them to find a pathway to a career by exposing their talents to close the evident social and health gap.
LNK offer support to young people who suffer from issues such as,
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Anxiety
- Oppositional Defiant Disorder (OOD)
- Depression
- Low Self-esteem.
LNK offers support to young people exposed to domestic and sexual abuse, neglect, grooming and gang culture. By keeping them in education we have reduced the risk of them becoming involved in criminal activity and have changed their outlook on educate, life goals, self-esteem and looking to better their life chances.
“March 2022, there were 19,555 cautions and convictions made for possession of a knife or offensive weapon. Juveniles (aged 10-17) were the offenders in 18% of cases. The number of fatal stabbings in England and Wales is at its highest level since records began more than 76 years ago. - Looking more closely, the ONS reports that there were 51 homicides where the victim was aged between 13 and 19, all of which prompt concern for the safety and security of our schools… - ”
LNK strength comes from qualified passionate youth workers with lived experience who want the next generation to have a safer childhood, with greater life expectations. LNK are embedded into the community, working in schools, with other local charities and trusted, specialised children’s services for the past 15 years.LNK identifies and fills the gap in provision for young people in Croydon, which has been made substantially greater since the recent declaration of bankruptcy by the local authority causing funding cuts, closure of social services and charity closures, which were also forced by covid.
LNK Educate is a programme focused on prevention.