Community groups across the county will benefit from nearly £340,000 of funding from South Yorkshire’s Mayor Oliver Coppard to deliver projects that are aimed at preventing young people from becoming involved in violence.
This is the latest round of the Violence Reduction Fund which has so far seen nearly 200 organisations across Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and Sheffield receive over £2.3 million of funding from the South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) since it was established in 2019.
Mayor Oliver Coppard has recently taken over the functions of the Police and Crime Commissioner, which includes the VRU and chairing the Serious Violence Reduction Executive Board.
The Violence Reduction Fund focuses on supporting community-led projects working with young people aged between four and 25 to reduce and prevent violence by providing a range of initiatives to help them develop skills and strengths to reduce their risk of developing offending behaviours and becoming involved in serious violence.
In this year’s grant round, 19 organisations will receive funding to develop and deliver projects across communities.
Projects supported include Barnsley Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Services, Dinnington Community Boxing Club, Cricket Arena in Darnall, and Doncaster MIND.
The supported projects will deliver a range of interventions to support young people, from diversionary sporting activities such as boxing, cricket, and football; to educational workshops on community safety, anti-social behaviour, violence prevention, and mental health support; and therapeutic wellbeing support for young people suffering from trauma.
South Yorkshire’s Mayor, Oliver Coppard, said: “Serious violence destroys lives and rips apart communities. But everyone has the right to feel safe and secure, wherever they are in South Yorkshire.
“As Mayor, I’m particularly committed to making sure we are giving the next generation of young people the chance to grow up in a place where they don’t feel the fear of violence; of breaking the cycles of that violence.
“That’s why I’ve made tackling knife crime a priority. And it’s why I’m so pleased to be able to announce support for 19 organisations working directly with young people across South Yorkshire.
“Those organisations are helping to provide positive role models, mental health support and activities that divert young people from crime and violence. I look forward to seeing their work first hand and working with them to give young people across South Yorkshire every opportunity to live their best lives.”
The funded organisations are listed below:
- Barnsley FC Community Trust (Barnsley)
- The Youth Association (Barnsley)
- Barnsley Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Service (Barnsley)
- Doncaster MIND (Doncaster)
- Doncaster Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Service (Doncaster)
- Worth Unlimited (Doncaster)
- Club Doncaster Community Sports and Education Foundation (Doncaster)
- Jade Youth and Community (Rotherham)
- Dinnington Community Boxing Group (Rotherham)
- Our Community Matters (Rotherham)
- Cricket Arena (Sheffield)
- Sheffield Music School (Sheffield)
- Olympia Wellbeing Academy (Sheffield)
- Sheffield Wednesday Community Programme (Sheffield)
- ReconnectEd (Sheffield)
- Mums United (Sheffield)
- Grow (Sheffield)
- Young Women’s Housing Project (Sheffield)
- The Family Works (South Yorkshire-wide)
For more details on the projects, click here.