Our fight against knife crime

Amongst a backdrop of rising knife crime, the AP Foundation educates more young people about the dangers of knife crime than ever before 2022 was yet another tragic year for knife crime. From January to June 2022, knife crime has increased by 8% to 49,991 offences. This includes a rise in police recorded offences for the "possession of an article with a blade or point" which increased by 13%, to 22,340 offences.

Education is important. Young people tell us every day that they think people carry knives "for protection".

Our mission is clear. We educate young people so that they can make positive choices to stay safe. Our award-winning workshops change young people’s attitudes to knife crime; debunking the myth that carrying a knife will protect you. They strengthen peer values; ensuring young people give better advice to each other and challenge peers who are carrying, or thinking of carrying a knife.

In the academic year to August 2022, we educated 5,115 young people in our Choices & Consequences exhibitions - a new record!

As we re-opened our workshops following the pandemic closure, we were absolutely thrilled to welcome schools and young people back and to see our exhibitions busy again! October 2021 also saw the opening a brand new exhibition in Barking & Dagenham, which welcomed over 2,000 young people in the academic year!

With over 5000 young people visiting this academic year, it was our busiest and most successful year ever - a 28% increase on our previous best year (2019) bringing the total number of young people who have attended a Choices and Consequences workshop to 24,057!