London

Since April 2021, the London Violence Reduction Unit’s place based MyEnds programme has been providing support and funding for communities to lead and deliver interventions across eight neighbourhoods affected by high and sustained levels of violence across London. Active Communities Network lead on the Southwark partnership, working with a system of youth and community partners to deliver the work.

Following the promising first year of the programme, a further £9 million funding for the VRU flagship community-led programme to tackle violence and deliver positive opportunities for young people was announced. This allowed the VRU to extend the delivery of the MyEnds programme across all eight currently commissioned neighbourhoods for a further 15 months until 30 June 2024.

We continue to see many young Londoners affected by violence. Sadly, in some cases, this results in the devastating loss of young lives. In recognition of the need to act, our Unheard Voice project became one of eight MyEnds programmes funded by the London Violence Reduction Unit.

Low-income communities across London have been historically isolated from institutions such as museums and theatres, because of how the arts sector presents itself.

We are working to close this gap by exploring better ways to connect unreached communities from culturally diverse backgrounds with the art world at their doorsteps.

To help dismantle stigmatisation, we support young people to complete a volunteering programme focused on connecting sport and art and exploring how these are inextricably linked. As part of this work, young people are creating volunteering roles using arts methods to benefit their peers and others in the community.

Positive Futures is funded through Southwark Council and ensures young people have an opportunity to participate in peer group activities and build trusted relationships. The programme harness skills of young people not fulfilled by formal education and provides safe places for them to come together, be supported and have fun. We use sport, media and arts to engage young people. The programme is delivered across 3 key localities, Borough, Elephant and Castle and Walworth where we run youth clubs, sport sessions, in-school sessions and street based outreach.

We carry out delivery on the following sites: Rockingham Estate, Living Space Community Centre, Marlborough Sports Garden, Oxford and Bermondsey Club, The Castle Centre, Ark Globe Academy, Ark Walworth Academy, Haberdashers’ Borough School, 231 Old Kent Road, Mentivity House, Bethwin Road Adventure Playground, Ark Walworth Academy and the Damilola Taylor Centre.

As part of the Mayor of London’s New Deal for Young People initiative, we have been funded to upscale our work with women and girls. The Girlhood Active programme, funded by Propel London, has been designed by women and girls following extensive consultation.

The project will train, support and scale the community of women-led organisations that currently support young women and girls across London. We are delivering the programme across 11 boroughs, supporting trusted women from the community as they mentor 550 young women and girls.

We are also building a new forum and policy advisory group from this community of women leaders to amplify their voice, create solutions to systemic challenges and inform the debate about ‘what works’ and how to address imbalance of investment in women and girls work.

ACN London offer a range of workshops, short courses and qualifications for the youth and community development/sport workforce and young people themselves. We build a tailor-made learning journey for each group or individual.

As well as directly delivering or commissioning courses, we have a pool of expert practitioners and trainers in our network whom we match with each group or individual to ensure their needs will be met.

We target our offer to three distinct groups:
– Young People who are looking to volunteer in the youth, sports or community sectors

– Workers and volunteers who have had no previous investment in their skills

– Professionals already working in the youth, sports and community sectors who require additional skills training