Charles and son join forces to fight youth gang culture
PRINCE Charles and his son, the Duke of Sussex, are to join forces in an attempt to combat youth violence.
They will meet reformed gang members and families of knife crime victims at Clarence House in London on Wednesday.
Charles, 70, has worked to cut youth crime since setting up the Prince’s Trust in 1976.
He and Harry, 34, have been concerned by a big rise in knife crime.
There were 40,417 knife offences recorded in England and Wales in the year to March, an increase of 16 per cent. In London there have been 123 murders so far this year, more than the 118 in the whole of last year.
Harry, who has spent several years working with young people in the deprived St Ann’s area of Nottingham, spoke about striving to combat knife crime at the Royal Foundation – the forum set up for his and Prince William’s charitable ambitions.
Harry has attended meetings with young people as part of his research.
“At the back end of last year, knife crime skyrocketed,” he said in February. “I spoke to some of the people at the Royal Foundation and said right, knife crime, let’s look into it.
“But in reality knife crime is a symptom of a cause.
“So therefore go and speak to the young people, which is what we’re doing.”
He added: “Speak to those communities and listen to what they think the problems are and then rewind it all the way back to what the root cause of all of this.”
He and his father’s approach may be seen as a sign of things to come when Charles is king. Aides say Charles is a strong believer in a more active monarchy to make a positive difference to the lives of ordinary people.
“He is a strong believer in hearing directly from young people as to what the issues are,” an aide said.
“The new thing is that the Prince and Duke are doing this together.”