People Features

Although the SLF keeps close links with the Metropolitan Police - the Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson is the President - it operates as an independent charity.

"They give us money but apart from their role on the board they have no direction on what we should do," says the SLF chief executive Tony Shepherd.

Safer Neighbourhood Teams

At the same time that the SLF was launched, the Met also set up the Safer Neighbourhood Teams.

A Safer Neighbourhood Team usually comprises of a sergeant, two police officers and three Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) who are based in that area and are accountable to a panel of local people called the Safer Neighbourhood Panel.

Following a successful pilot, the scheme has now been extended to cover every single electoral ward in the capital.

The SLF's role is to support the Safer Neighbourhood Panels, and act as a broker between local communities and the police teams.

SLF's Tony Shepherd

"You will have the mobile phone number of the local sergeant and you can call him or her up," says Tony.

"The whole thing is based around those teams. They don't get taken away or arrive on a blue light, sort out the problem and then leave. They're part of the community."

Friends in the City

One of Tony Shepherd's biggest challenges is raising enough money to fund the overwhelming number of applications that it receives. A recent funding round had £4.5m worth of requests, when there was only £600,000 available.

The SLF's approximate £1m annual budget is split fairly evenly between 'recycling criminals' money' and donations from the business community. Mingling with business leaders to raise cash is a key part of Tony's job, but it is not just money that is given. Volunteering and making their expertise available is another way that business can contribute.

Currently the SLF has funded, or continues to fund, about 100 projects across the capital. A grant can be a few thousand pounds for a piece of equipment or tens of thousands of pounds to support the project over a number of years. The projects tend be small, innovative community-led schemes that can help reduce crime.

"There are people doing really great things in London that we don't hear about," insists Tony. "We hear the bad stories, but the charities that we support are people who are doing very quiet and remarkable work."

"We have a great project in Peckham run by a former gang leader. There came a point in her life when she realised she either had to change or spend the rest of her life in prison or die. And she decided to change…"

Jennifer Blake

A life of crime

Jennifer Blake is the former gang leader that Tony is referring to. She threw away a 'lovely childhood' and ran away from home when she was 13.

"I changed from this lovely intelligent girl that got good marks at primary school into a monster," she says.

As she got older, and became a gang leader, Jennifer's criminal activities began to catch up with her. By 25, she was a mother of two and her son was also being caught up on the wrong side of the law.

"The people I moved around with, the criminal life, you're going to mix and associate with certain people. My family got mixed up in it all… If they can't get to one person, they'll try to get another person to get the message across."

"I went through being kidnapped, raped, tortured and had death threats… In 2004 I'd had enough. I was suicidal and didn't know how to end this miserable life."

A change is gonna come

In her desperation, Jennifer discovered that she had the key to a better life all along.

"My family background was spiritual, my mum's a Christian and she brought us up in Church. OK, it took me 25 years or so to realise that but in 2004 I gave my life to God. That was my turning point."

The ELSC music studio

Today, at 41, Jennifer has reached a point where is able to use her experience to help others. In 2005 she set up the Eternal Life Support Centre (soon to be renamed Safe and Sound) in Peckham, which helps support young people with psychological and emotional problems on a range of issues such as housing, employment and education.

The music studio

Funding from the Safer London Foundation allowed Jennifer to build a music studio in her centre. The lack of a free studio for young people had been a problem because they would have rob or steal money to pay to use one.

In addition, the SLF has offered a three-year funding programme for the Eternal Life Support Centre, which has now grown to 12 volunteers and four full-time staff and it was able to offer support to 1,000 young people in the last year.

"They've been amazing," Jennifer says of the SLF.

"They've not just funded us and left us, but supported us. They got one of our young boys involved and he had a lunch at the House of Lords and he was given an award. Now and then they'll come and see what the studio is doing. We keep in touch with them and have a really, really good relationship."

Enemies and allies

Jennifer has gone from being an enemy of the police to an ally. She is now an independent advisor to the Met on knife and gun crime and is an accredited high risk mediator working with Serious Group Offenders (she makes the point of using this term rather than calling them gangs).

"I believe that I am giving back to society what I took out when I was a young person. It's something for me to give back. I've put people through misery… I feel quite privileged now that I am able to offer this kind of support to young people."