Mentor pledge for every at-risk young Londoner by mayor

A £7.2m funding pot will provide grants to expand mentoring and personalised support across London

It is hoped every at-risk young Londoner can be offered a dedicated mentor by 2024 under a new scheme started by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.

City Hall estimates 100,000 youngsters aged 10 to 24 need support having experienced domestic violence or poverty, having been excluded from education or being in care.

Groups will be able to apply for funds from a £7.2m pot to expand mentoring.

It will prevent youngsters being sucked into gangs and violence, Mr Khan said.

He added he was "determined to put young people at the heart of London's recovery efforts" following the pandemic.

London's Violence Reduction Unit will invest £2.4m of the funding in a three-year mentoring programme for children at risk of exclusion.

City Hall said the cash being invested was "to kickstart a London-wide campaign to boost mentoring".

'No positive role models'

The remaining money will be split between projects that expand mentoring for young people in science, technology, engineering, arts and maths (STEAM), and a programme focussing on employability and in-work training.

The Mayor of London said the project will "provide a helping hand for Londoners to reach their potential"

Kamal Khan, a senior mentoring officer at the Osmani Trust - a youth and community centre in Tower Hamlets - told the BBC that mentoring can teach young people "about resilience and how to overcome conflicts and challenging situations".

He said: "A lot of our youth don't have positive role models.

"This whole borough is so influxed with drug dealers and other criminal activities - and young people see only those people, not the people who are working.

"So coming to a youth club is a place where they can come and see good role models."

Councillor Georgia Gould, chair of London Councils, added: "With four in 10 of London's children living in poverty, adult mentors can help navigate some of the challenges that they face."

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