Don't Stop Your Future - Progress

A year ago today, as MPs returned to Westminster, Idris Elba stood on Parliament Square alongside bereaved families and anti-knife crime campaigners with a backdrop of folded clothes symbolising the lives lost to knife crime the previous year.

The aim was to highlight the human cost of inaction on serious youth violence and spur Parliament into action.

2024 was monumental for the Don't Stop Your Future campaign in its relentless fight against serious youth violence. As Idris says, tackling this issue is a marathon, not a sprint. However, since the campaign issued its three critical demands to Government and Parliament, significant progress has been made:

1. The previous Government announced that they’d speed up a ban on the sale of zombie knives and machetes, which came into effect in September, after the campaign called for them to do so. The current Government has subsequently committed to banning ninja swords after tireless campaigning by the family of Ronan Kanda and others.

2. The current Government also introduced the Young Futures Programme, which includes funding allocated to deliver Young Futures Hubs to support those young people most at risk of being drawn into crime. This is in line with a key pillar of the campaign, a call to invest in youth services after they have been underfunded for too long, to help give young people the bright futures that they deserve.

3. The Government also responded to the campaign’s call to establish ‘The Coalition to Tackle Knife Crime’, a cross-ministerial coalition to drive ongoing solutions. The Coalition was launched at an event chaired by the Prime Minister at Number 10 alongside Idris, anti-knife crime campaigners, statutory bodies, and the families of those who have lost loved ones to knife crime, and meets regularly to break down the barriers preventing collaboration.

Since the conception of the campaign launch and throughout 2024, Freuds has worked closely with Idris, his team and others including the @BenKinsellaTrust to develop a media and policy strategy aimed at engaging those with the power to change things, giving a voice to the communities most impacted by serious youth violence, as well as garnering widespread attention of this important issue.

The year has been filled with remarkable moments, from Idris performing at Glastonbury alongside incredible young talent Romaya Sorzano, to a landmark meeting with His Majesty King Charles which led to the creation of The Kings Trust and Elba Hope Creative Futures, a programme empowering the next generation of creative talent in Manchester.

There is still much more to do, and more to come from the campaign this year. We will never lose sight of those most impacted by these crimes - victims, their loved ones, and their communities - and will proudly continue to support Idris and DSYF in 2025.

Leah Kreitzman - Partner, Freuds