£1.8m of Home Office funding goes into local partners as part of the ongoing drive to help tackle serious violence in the Thames Valley.
Serious violence and knife enabled crime is falling in the Thames Valley, but further work is taking place through the process of delivering social value within public procurement. All part of the Thames Valley drive to prevent serious violence by focusing upon underpinning the development activities inside communities - through charity providers and the various partnerships across the region.
This £1.8m funding, made up of two grants (the Serious Violence Duty Grant and the Violence Reduction Unit Grant) will act as a base upon which to build more business social value reinvestment from within Thames Valley's public procurement (police, fire & rescue, local authority, NHS and criminal justice services).
Far from being an isolated funding round, this is very much part of the long-term push (with ongoing financial and in-kind contributions from suppliers to public bodies) to support the important violence prevention activities of charities and partners.
Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Barber said: “There is no single solution to preventing serious violence. Its impact on individuals and communities can be devastating and we continue to work collaboratively as part of the Violence Prevention Partnership to try to address root causes and support those most at risk. The funding awarded to partners across the Thames Valley aims to deliver against our shared goal to reduce violence in our communities and stop our young people being drawn into offending".
Matthew went on to say that “Funding will extend the delivery of some existing projects as well as test new approaches. I am pleased that the majority of councils have accepted funding to implement new Focused Diversion activity for young people in their areas, the output and learning from which will be shared across the Thames Valley to help inform future activity.”