Tom's Trust has supported

Courtesy of Art Against Knives

Art Against Knives
This charity, set up in 2014, aims to intervene early to prevent young people from becoming victims or perpetrators of violent crime. Based in Barnet they provide creative spaces in London’s most isolated communities, co-designed with young people, to create opportunity and stimulate ideas. These award winning spaces include a music studio and multiple nail bars, all open 48 weeks of the year. In these spaces a team of creative, highly skilled professionals provide skills training, mentoring and specialist support.

They help young people to come forward about major problems they experience, and access the support they need - putting them in the lead in safe and trusted environments and connecting them with multi-agency support.

They are fully rooted in the local community and at the same connected with industry and specialist support. They work with participants long-term as their needs cannot be met through short-term, one-off interventions; they always co-produce their programmes and enable young people to shape the support they need. They build trusted relationships, resulting in participants’ active engagement: they seek support when they face significant risks and challenges.

Tom’s Trust gave AAK a grant in December 2019 to help them with this valuable and necessary work.