We’re celebrating one year of charity partnership with Lives Not Knives

In our sustainability strategy, we said that we’d build partnerships and volunteer with local organisations, as we believe we can use our collective skills and experience to make a genuine impact in the community. 

Last year, our colleagues chose to support local charity, Lives Not Knives. Set up in 2007, the charity works to prevent knife crime, serious youth violence and school exclusions in Croydon and London. They do this by providing tailored mentorship and advice.

Their mission statement is split into three goals: 

Engage – To successfully engage as many young people as possible through school roadshows, workshops, referrals from schools and pupil referral units, and to further develop these relationships through the Lives Not Knives youth hub and summer programme. 

Educate – To use workshops, roadshows, one-to-one mentoring and group mentoring to educate 9-18 year-olds in schools and pupil referral units as the instruments to inform young people about the effects of knife crime in order to discourage them from engaging in anti-social activities, particularly serious youth violence. 

Empower – To empower young people and the wider community towards a more positive future by delivering training, offering mentorship and relationships advice, preparing them for work, and supporting successful engagement in education, apprenticeships or employment. 

So far, our colleagues have raised over £5000 for the charity and supported various Lives Not Knives ‘Engage Programme’ events throughout the year.   

Eliza Rebeiro, Lives Not Knives CEO, has said: “[The PPF] have been extraordinary in supporting our charity's mission. 

“There have been so many events where [the PPF] have really worked hard to raise money for us. You’ve fundraised to make these young people’s lives better.” 

“We appreciate your efforts immensely and thank you for helping us to engage, educate, and empower.” 

Jasmine, a Youth Mentor, said: “We really appreciate having the PPF around during the half-term programme, their presence makes our days run a lot smoother with that extra helping hand. They are always friendly, and our young people love having the PPF at the unit with us.” 

We’re looking forward to continuing our partnership for another year and supporting Lives Not Knives' work.    

If you would like to donate to Lives Not Knives, you can do so using our donation link.