Six crime reduction and community safety initiatives are to be launched in Croydon after the Mayor's Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC) gave £600,000 funding to Croydon Council.

The focus of the funding is to get young people away from gangs, and £105,000 has been contributed towards helping 18 and 25-years-old turn their lives around and reducing gang-related re-offending.

The young people will get help with education, skills, training, personal development and apprenticeships.

The money will contribute to the Growing Against Gangs and Violence programme, a schools based initiative aimed at getting in early and preventing pupils joining gangs and committing serious youth violence.

It will also support intervention work by the Safer London Foundation with £57,240 awarded to help its work with young people affected by gang-related violence and/or sexual exploitation.

The borough's highest risk group of 50 young people will also benefit from £65,000 to provide assessment and intensive intervention work to 15 to 18 year-olds who are involved in gangs and serious youth violence.

The Breaking the Cycle scheme provides a chance for them to move away from through one-to-one support, mentoring, coaching, basic education and help to prepare for work.

Young people will also be diverted from the criminal justice system by the triage prevention service, which aims to reduce serious youth crime through early identification, which has received £65,000 towards its work.

Cabinet member for community safety, Councillor Simon Hoar, said: "The Breaking the Cycle scheme has already seen good success, and this money will help encourage more young people back in education, training or employment."

Westminster Drugs Project will receive £231,000 for its pathway to treatment plans, which will track and engage drug misusing offenders.

The cash will help to reduce crime and to support offenders to address their substance misuse and prevent reoffending by supporting access to education, training and employment.

Help will also be given to reduce the number of victims of crime, such as domestic burglary, with an £80,000 budget contributed to Croydon’s integrated offender management work.