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Millionaire to tackle street violence
Businesswoman launches charity campaign to stop youth and gang crime in London
- Evening Standard
- Published: 00:08 June 20, 2008
London: A wealthy businesswoman who appeared on the TV show The Secret Millionaire revealed on Thursday how she is bankrolling a new campaign to help tackle knife and gun crime in the capital.
Emma Harrison, who has a £80 million (Dh579 million) fortune, has co-founded Through Unity, with Richard Taylor, the father of murdered ten-year-old Damilola Taylor, and Ian Levy, whose 16-year-old son Robert was killed trying to protect a friend in Hackney in September 2004.
New skills
Through Unity is a coalition of ten grassroots organisations working to stop youth and gang crime.
Members include groups such as the Flavasum Trust, which teaches teenagers music skills to keep them off the streets. It is run by Peter Sinclair, whose stepson, Tom Easton, 22, was stabbed to death in Islington in 2006.
Through Unity has drawn up a manifesto that includes supporting victims' families and providing mentors for young people. It will also act as a joint political lobby group and provide the groups with support. Harrison, 44, said that as a mother she was horrified by the spate of deaths. So far this year, 16 teenagers have been stabbed to death in London, prompting the Evening Standard's Beat Knife Crime campaign.
"Most of these kids were not looking for trouble," she said.
"That's why there needs to be culture change. You've got to get into the guts of this thing and people are going to have to be really brave about what is making young people behave like this."
Harrison, who has a home in Knightsbridge, will this year give around £100,000 (Dh723,491) to the charity. She said: "Through Unity was created by bringing together parties who were operating in their own space so they could create something powerful."
Over the next five years her company A4E will also offer £2 million (Dh14.5 million) worth of help through the Foundation for Social Improvement, which she set up last year.
London Crime figures command "almost no public faith", Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair admits. He says the way crimes are categorised has been changed so frequently they have become "bewildering".
The Commissioner suggests British authorities adopt the same system as New York - where crimes are recorded in a more straightforward way and the figures are trusted by the public.
Blair also says the media and politicians have also weakened confidence in crime statistics. He said: "Few question the crime figures in New York. Residents largely accept that their city is safer than it was."
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