Source: London Assembly
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today met Croydon community and youth leaders following the tragic death of Elianne Andam to talk about the ongoing efforts to tackle violence.
The Mayor met with youth workers, young people and the police at The Wellness Centre, who have been part of the joint response and support provided to the community after 15-year-old Elianne was killed on Wednesday morning.
The Mayor has been supporting the community through his Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) and its £6m MyEnds programme. The MyEnds network has been working in partnership with community leaders, youth leaders and the emergency services to provide support in the aftermath of the incident.
The community-led network is funded by the Mayor to provide mentoring for young people, parent support, youth work, training for young people dealing with trauma and mental health issues and community leadership programmes for local people.
Today’s visit comes after the Mayor joined local MP Sarah Jones, youth workers, community leaders, police officers and first responders in Croydon yesterday.
The Mayor is committed to driving down violence by being tough on violence crime and tough on its complex causes. In the face of Government cuts, he has invested records amount in the Met police and London’s VRU, which in partnership with others across London, helped to see the number of murders in the capital fall last year to its lowest level since 2014.
The Mayor’s investment has helped to boost officer numbers by 1,300 and recruit 500 new Police Community Support Officers to revitalise neighbourhood policing in our communities. Against the backdrop of devastating Government cuts which have decimated youth services in London and across the country, the Mayor set up the VRU to lead prevention and early intervention work which has led to funding more than 150,000 positive opportunities for young people already. This includes £2m funding in Croydon to tackle school exclusions, provide support and activities after school, at weekends and during the school holidays and mentoring support of almost £1m to provide over 1,000 young residents of Croydon with a mentor.
However, the Mayor is clear that there is more to do and will continue to do everything in his power to drive down violence, and urges the Government to match his commitment and undo the damage of cuts that have seen more than 700 fewer youth workers and the closure of more than 130 youth centres across London.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Today I’ve met with youth workers and young people in Croydon following the devastating death of 15-year-old Elianne Andam.
“Everybody here is shocked, heartbroken and traumatised, and my heart goes out to Elianne’s family, friends and all those affected in Croydon. I can only imagine, as a father of two daughters myself, what her family and friends are going through right now.
“I’m committed to driving down violence by being tough on violent crime and tough on its complex causes, and will continue working day and night to do everything in my power to end the scourge of knife crime in our city. This means supporting the police in tackling violence and providing record funding to young Londoners for prevention and early intervention, through my Violence Reduction Unit, as part of an approach to build a safer city for all Londoners.”