People have been askling what good tomorrow's match can do.
Please have a look at the website of
The Chris Cave Foundation named after the teenager killed as a totally innocent victim of knife crime - but have a look at all the intervention work and training they offer as a charity. This is direct action against knife crime. Working with kids, working with the community, training the professionals, police etc.
The money raised from the auctioning off the white shirts is being split between The Chris Cave Foundation and MFC Foundation's Premier Kicks - this is a programme where MFC Foundation coaches work with police and other agencies to offer football and other sporting activities, taking kids off the streets after schools and giving them a safe environment, somewhere to let off steam, with their mates, make new mates and build trust with police etc and a find a place to thrive in communities that can otherwise be a struggle. It is incredibly successful and as Theresa Cave said this week Kicks really is amazing and it needs to be everywhere.
This youth work is absolutely vital. It works. But only when funded and tomorrow's match will raise money to make a big difference to kids locally. And hopefully through the match and all the publicity other partners will come forward to help in these youth projects. That could be businesses or it could be individuals. And this will in turn take more kids away from knives and into a much better, safer, more productive environment.
So, this is all about awareness but equally it is about intervention and positive action.
. It's not something to be trivialise. The frightening thing is the age of the perpetrators and victims of knife crime. Especially the perpetrators in their early teens. Surely for 1 match it's not that much of an inconvenience to leave red at home, out of respect to the victims.
