TackleLondon, Community Rugby and the Fight Against Knife Crime
Knife Crime Awareness Week, 18–24 May 2026
This week is Knife Crime Awareness Week – the annual national campaign led by the Ben Kinsella Trust, running from 18 to 24 May 2026, that brings together communities, charities, schools and organisations across the country to take a stand against knife violence. Its message is one of shared responsibility: knife crime is not inevitable, and it is everyone’s job to prevent it. “Through raising awareness, educating others and taking action,” the Trust says, “we can all be the change that is needed.”
In south and west London, a small but growing charity is putting it into practice: on a rugby pitch, in schools, and in the lives of over a thousand young Londoners.
The Numbers Behind the Crisis
Progress is being made, but the scale of what remains should stop us in our tracks.
In England and Wales, there were 49,151 police-recorded knife offences in the year to December 2025.¹ In the same period, 205 people were murdered with a knife or sharp instrument, and 52 of them were under the age of 25. Fourteen were under 16.¹
In London, 48% of all knife-enabled crime victims across 2024 and 2025 were aged 25 and under.² These are not abstract figures. Behind every one of them is a life cut short, a family shattered, and a community left to pick up the pieces.
The encouraging news is that the picture is shifting. London has seen a 17% decrease in knife crime offences.³ Knife-related homicides fell by 21% in the year to March 2025, reaching their lowest level since 2015.¹ As Patrick Green, CEO of the Ben Kinsella Trust, has noted, this progress is real, and it has not happened by accident. It is “the result of long-term commitment to prevention, partnership and public health.”³ But it is also fragile. Every time sustained investment has been withdrawn, knife crime has returned. The lesson from the data is clear: what works is consistent, long-term support for young people, and the communities around them.
The Hours That Matter Most
There is a reason youth violence peaks between 3pm and 7pm. School is out. Structure falls away. For young people without safe, positive spaces to go to. Without a trusted adult who is expecting them, week after week that unstructured time can become dangerous. Not because young people are inherently at risk, but because exploitation, peer pressure and boredom fill vacuums.
The Ben Kinsella Trust’s own guidance for parents and carers highlights the drivers: peer influence, online culture, the normalisation of knife-carrying through social media and music, and the complex links between trauma and exploitation.⁴ These are not problems that resolve themselves. They require adults to show up consistently, with care, and with something better to offer.
TackleLondon’s answer is direct: give young people somewhere to be, someone to trust, and something to work towards.
Rugby as a Gateway, Mentoring as the Mission
TackleLondon is a youth development charity operating across south and west London, co-delivered by The Atlas Foundation and The Matt Ratana Rugby Foundation. Founded in 2023, it provides free weekly rugby coaching in schools, connects young people to community clubs across the area: including Beccehamian RFC, Bromley RFC, Old Whitgiftians RFC, Staines RFC, Streatham-Croydon RFC, Trinity RFC and Warlingham RFC. We run structured after-school provision that gives young people a safe, positive environment outside school hours. Since its founding, it has supported over 2,000 young Londoners aged 6 to 24.
But rugby is only the vehicle. The real work is mentoring. The same coaches show up every single week: not for a term, not for a one-off session, but for months and years. In a city where, as TackleLondon’s Education and Schools Manager, Dr Amy Atkinson, observes,
"there appear to be fewer and fewer safe places for young people in our communities,"
that consistency is itself an intervention. A trusted adult who is reliably present in a young person’s life is one of the most powerful protective factors known to researchers and practitioners alike.
The Ben Kinsella Trust, in its guidance on knife crime prevention, emphasises the importance of meaningful conversations, understanding trauma, and creating environments where young people feel safe.⁴ TackleLondon builds those environments, week after week, on pitches and in school halls across London.
The results are tangible. Jonathan, 15, from Streatham-Croydon, had been getting into dangerous situations and struggling to manage powerful emotions. Through TackleLondon, he learned to walk away from conflict. His mother’s words are the simplest possible summary of what this organisation provides:
"When I come to rugby, I know Jonathan is going to be safe. As a parent, it is like a lifeline."
- Elaine, Jonathan's Mum
Max, at Staines RFC, arrived nervous and angry after a childhood disrupted by a serious illness. He is now the one telling his teammates to calm down. His mother: “Rugby has basically changed his life. Eighteen months ago I never would have thought that.”
And Kamran, 15:
"I used to be scared to stand up and speak. I'd be shaking, thinking everyone would laugh at me. But now I feel more confident. Playing this sport has helped my wellbeing."
The Matt Ratana Schools Cup Tournaments: Where London Comes Together
I’ve personally been to the Matt Ratana Schools Cup Tournaments on a multitude of occasions.
That kind of belonging doesn’t stay on the touchline. It travels home.
This is not incidental to TackleLondon’s mission, it is central to it. Young people who might never encounter one another are brought together in shared endeavour, subject to the great democratising force of team sport. The mutual respect and friendship that grows in those moments is exactly what the Ben Kinsella Trust’s Knife Crime Awareness Week is calling for: meaningful connections, across divides, that make violence unthinkable.
A Name That Carries Weight
The Matt Ratana Rugby Foundation carries particular meaning in this story. PC Ratana was both a police officer and a rugby coach: someone who understood instinctively that the most powerful crime prevention happens not through enforcement alone, but through community. The TackleLondon programme’s MRRF Academy provides a free, structured development pathway for young players who are ready for the next step: many of whom, months or years earlier, had no positive outlet at all.
Named after a man who lost his life in service of his community, the Foundation and TackleLondon together represent exactly the kind of grassroots, long-term, relationship-driven work that Knife Crime Awareness Week exists to champion.
What Knife Crime Awareness Week Is Asking of All of Us
The Ben Kinsella Trust’s campaign this week is directed at every one of us. For schools and young people, it means taking a pledge, attending workshops and raising awareness. For businesses and organisations, it means providing education and resources to staff and communities. For the public, it means having honest conversations, supporting prevention work, and recognising that this is not someone else’s problem.⁵
Ben Kinsella (pictured) was a young man, 16 years old, who grew up in Islington, London. He was stabbed to death on 29th June 2008.
Ben Kinsella went to Holloway School in Islington and wanted to be a graphic designer one day. He loved Art, Music, Arsenal FC, his dog Teddy and making people laugh.
This year’s training programme with the Ben Kinsella Trust includes specialist sessions for youth workers and frontline practitioners equipping those working directly with young people to recognise early signs of exploitation and respond using trauma-informed approaches. Additionally, they are holding a parents and carers workshop, Helping Our Children Stay Safe, which covers the drivers of knife crime, the signs of gang involvement and exploitation, and how to have meaningful conversations with young people about difficult topics.⁶
For young people who need support right now, the Ben Kinsella Trust also points to a network of services including Childline (0800 1111), St Giles Trust’s SOS+ service, Young Minds, and the Fearless anonymous reporting platform (0800 555 111), among many others.⁷ And for those who want to get involved in something positive, TackleLondon is waiting.
The Case for Investment
Knife crime falls when communities invest: in people, in places, in programmes that give young people something to belong to. It rises when that investment is withdrawn. The Ben Kinsella Trust has made this case repeatedly and the data bears it out.
TackleLondon is free at the point of access. Its coaches are present every week. Its schools provision reaches young people in the boroughs that need it most. Its after-school sessions fill the most dangerous hours of a young person’s day with structure, sport, mentoring and community. And its Matt Ratana Schools 7s Cup is building connections across London’s divides that no policy paper alone could achieve.
During Knife Crime Awareness Week, we are asked to turn awareness into action. Supporting TackleLondon, and organisations like it, is exactly that.
To find out more about TackleLondon, visit tacklelondon.org.
To take the Knife Crime Awareness Week pledge and learn more about the Ben Kinsella Trust’s training and resources, visit benkinsella.org.uk or knifecrimeawarenessweek.org.uk.
Sources
¹ Ben Kinsella Trust, Knife Crime Information, benkinsella.org.uk/knife-crime-information/ — headline statistics: 52 young people under 25 murdered (14 under 16); 49,151 recorded offences to December 2025; 205 knife homicides in the year to March 2025.
² Metropolitan Police Service, MPS Data Bulletin: Knife-enabled Crime in London (November 2025), met.police.uk — “across 2024 and 2025, 48% of knife-enabled crime victims were aged 25 and under.”
³ Ben Kinsella Trust, London’s falling homicide figures: A statistical blip or a sign of real and lasting change?, benkinsella.org.uk — London 17% decrease; Patrick Green quote on sustained investment.
⁴ Ben Kinsella Trust, Parents & Carers Knife Crime Training, benkinsella.org.uk — covering drivers of knife crime, peer influence, online culture, exploitation and trauma.
⁵ Ben Kinsella Trust, Knife Crime Awareness Week 2026, benkinsella.org.uk/knife-crime-awareness-week/ — 18–24 May 2026; calls to action for schools, businesses and the public.
⁶ Ben Kinsella Trust, Knife Crime Awareness Week marked with National training sessions, benkinsella.org.uk/knife-crime-awareness-week-marked-with-national-training-sessions/ — youth worker training 19th May; Real Stories, Real People Live Q&A 21st May; Helping Our Children Stay Safe workshop.
⁷ Ben Kinsella Trust, Help, support and guidance for young people, benkinsella.org.uk — Childline 0800 1111; Fearless/Crimestoppers 0800 555 111; St Giles Trust SOS+; Young Minds; Samaritans 116 123.