'Having a mentor keeps me out of trouble'

Harry Low ,Londonand

Helen Drew ,London political reporter

"It keeps me busy, keeps me out of trouble, keeps me doing something and with the work we do as well, it gives me a different sense of what I want to do in the future."

Dan, 17, was speaking in Croydon, south London, about a scheme called My Ends, funded by the capital's Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), which helps young people by pairing them up with a mentor.

He said: "I think if I'm bored and I didn't have someone like James, I'd be going out and I'd be doing all sorts, like maybe selling drugs, maybe involved in things I shouldn't be involved in.

"So for me personally [I can focus on] construction, in college, but then also I like music, so music's another aspect of that as well."

'Poverty and violence'

His mentor James Watkins, who is the founder of Mainzworld, described his work as "incredibly fulfilling and really important".

He said: "A lot of these young people need a lot of engagement and robust initiatives for them to turn their lives around, and some of them just need support.

"Some of them haven't really fully gone down the wrong path but are at risk because of the area and environment that they live in."

VRU data indicates violence with injury is down. There were 6,000 fewer incidents (8.5%) in the year to October compared to last year, along with knife crime which has fallen by 12.6% to 2,104 incidents.

During the same time period, NHS hospital admissions in the capital dropped 7% and the number of teenage homicides fell to seven in 2025, compared to 11 at this stage last year.

However, overall offences involving a knife - such as homicide, threats to kill and robbery, have remained the same in the year to June, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

VRU director Lib Peck said: "I think all that tells us is that we need to be making sure we don't take our eye off the ball in relation to prevention, that what we absolutely require is... to look at long-term investment and funding for prevention and build on the many programmes we know are having impact and working.

"Often it's the opportunity and the confidence that a youth worker or a mentor can bring and it's making sure that the system works and joins up around that young person.

"That can be in a hospital, that can be in a custody suite, that can be in a community like we're in where there's intractable issues around poverty and violence, and it's only through long-term prevention work that you're going to make a difference."

Joseph Amuah, chief executive of Ignite Young Minds, said the decline of places for young people to hang out in was being felt on the streets of the capital.

"Times have changed drastically from when I grew up in terms of there being a lot of local youth clubs, which was a really, really good thing for us to be able to attend.

"There wasn't the problem of what you could say postcode rivalry or anything like that: I could go anywhere.

"I could go to Croydon, I could go to Streatham, I could go to Norbury, I could go to Brixton. It wouldn't be a problem."

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A Home Office spokesperson said the government was taking "strong, practical steps" to halve knife crime within a decade.

"We are introducing new laws to stop knives being sold illegally online and strengthening bans on zombie-style knives, machetes and ninja swords. Nearly 60,000 knives have already been removed from our streets.

"Our multi-agency approach to tackling firearms trafficking and misuse has reduced offences to their lowest level since 2015.

"We continue to support the London Violence Reduction Unit in its work to prevent and reduce serious violence across the capital."