- £5 million to keep youths away from crime through sport
- Charities bid to fund grass-roots activities teaching
resilience and discipline
- Part of largest youth justice funding package in a generation
- making streets safer
Charities across England and Wales will be able to bid for new
money to run programmes designed to steer young people away from
law-breaking and into positive activities aimed at teaching
teamwork, resilience and discipline.
While the number of young people in custody remains at a record
low, statistics show around 80% of prolific adult offenders begin
committing crimes as children – with the economic and social
costs of reoffending costing the taxpayer an estimated £18
billion per year.
The new funding announced today builds on the government’s work
to catch and prevent youth offending earlier than ever – helping
to prevent these young people becoming involved in crime or
anti-social behaviour.
Earlier this year, the Deputy Prime Minister announced the biggest
funding package in a generation to tackle youth offending and cut
crime, including £60 million for early intervention.
Today’s news also delivers on the commitment made in the Prisons Strategy White
Paper – published in December last year – to introduce
further measures for early intervention to cut youth crime, keep
streets safe and create fewer victims.
Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary,
, said:
I have seen first-hand how local sports projects can transform
the lives of young people from tough backgrounds, getting them
off the streets and teaching them life skills including teamwork,
discipline, and resilience.
That’s why we’re investing £5 million in innovative sporting
schemes up and down the country. It is part of our £300 million
investment to support every council across England and Wales in
catching and preventing youth offending earlier than ever, making
our streets safer.
Charities and organisations wanting to deliver the sports
programmes will be able to bid for the money – with hundreds of
organisations expected to benefit from the funding.
The Ministry of Justice will work closely with its delivery
partner – StreetGames and consortium partners the Alliance of
Sport in Criminal Justice and the Sport for Development Coalition
– to oversee the application process and delivery of the funding.
Stuart Felce, StreetGames Director of Sport and Community Safety,
said:
We’re really excited to be partnering with the Sport for
Development Coalition and the Alliance of Sport in Criminal
Justice to deliver this ambitious new programme from the Ministry
of Justice.
These funds are a vote of confidence in the power of sport to
provide young people with a positive pathway and to help prevent
them from falling into the criminal justice system.
Notes to editors
- StreetGames and the Ministry of Justice will open the bidding
competition on Friday 4 November. It will run until Monday 5
December.
- More information on the Ministry of Justice’s previous
Youth Justice funding
announcement.
- Two additional organisations with deliver the fund in
conjunction with StreetGames and the Ministry of Justice. These
are the Sport for Development Coalition, a membership
organisation of partners who use sport to tackle key health and
societal inequalities, and the Alliance of Sport in Criminal
Justice, a charitable incorporated organisation that seeks to act
as a change agent for the impact of sport in the Criminal Justice
System.
