A SCHEME has been launched to recruit an army of volunteers to tackle knife and gun crime in the capital.

The Enough! group is made up of community organisations in Lewisham, Lambeth and Southwark.

It launched yesterday (October 23) at the Royal Festival Hall with a call for volunteers to increase the work of, and funding for, voluntary groups dealing with young people across London.

The group is now calling on the Government to release more funding for organisations which deal with gangs and youth crime.

Councillor Pete Pattisson, a Liberal Democrat on Lewisham Council, is co-ordinating the borough’s branch of the campaign.

He said: “This stemmed from our shared concerns around knife and gun crime.

“Our first aim is to try and make sure funding is directed at existing projects - getting money for schemes which are already working.

“There’s also a real concern from youth groups and young people in Lewisham that we should keep promoting positive messages of young people.”

Youth projects already involved with the scheme include the Ilderton Foundation charity in Grinstead Road, Deptford, and the Irie! Dance theatre group, based at The Moonshot Centre, Fordham Park, New Cross.

Cllr Pattisson added: “We also want to involve new groups of volunteers to support this kind of work. We hope enough will be a sort of hub for those people.”

For more information visit enoughlondon.com In June, News Shopper launched its own Voices Against Violence campaign asking for your views on youth crime.

We delivered more than 1,000 of your comments to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's office.

We also ran six weeks of features looking at violence in our area.