Strategic Initiatives

Fear and Fashion - Tackling Knife Culture 

Sadly, knife crime continues to feature prominently in news headlines. Some 90,000 weapons were produced in a single month-long knife amnesty. Whilst this of course is welcome, there are a great many more weapons still readily available in everyone's home.

Young people say that they carry knives as a means of self-defence. Too often young men are both the victims and the perpetrators of knife crime. Carrying a 'blade' may also be a status symbol, a fashion accessory and the young person will claim that they never planned to use it.

Single-source solutions can't solve this complex social problem. That's why working collaboratively with four other funders - City Parochial Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, John Lyon's Charity and Wates Foundation - we are supporting four different ways of working with young people.  Leap Confronting Conflict, Crime Concern, Rainer and Paddington Development Trust are piloting a range of approaches, awareness-raising, anger management, alternatives to violence, conflict resolution plus music, art and culture.

Lessons learnt, the latest research and facts and figures will be shared on the Fear and Fashion website which was launched by Lemos and Crane in Autumn 2007. Action-learning and wide dissemination are built into the initiative from which we hope to establish an evidence base on what works and provide a positive contribution to the national debate.