The announcement was made by the Home Secretary while she was in Liverpool.
Following the devastating shootings in the city, the Home Secretary has today announced a £150,000 package to aid the communities of Knowsley and Liverpool.
This will provide local schools with specialised trauma-informed support as well as mental health services for those who will be most directly impacted.
The Home Secretary also pledged £350,000 to extend the “Clear, Hold, Build” pilot to additional areas in Merseyside plagued by Serious and Organized Crime in the wake of the horrible murders of Sam Rimmer, Ashley Dale, and Olivia Pratt-Korbel in Merseyside within a week of one another.
In the pilot, proactive policing measures and multi-agency collaboration are used to support the communities most adversely affected by organised crime groups and build their resilience and susceptibility to their actions.
Priti Patel, the home secretary, said:
The recent wave of violence in Liverpool, which unfortunately resulted in the deaths of 9 people, including 9-year-old Olivia, outraged the entire nation.
Because of the significant effects on the larger community, we are funding specialised trauma and mental health treatment for individuals who require it and expanding the “Clear, Hold, Build” pilot to dismantle Merseyside’s destructive and lethal organised crime groups.
To reduce serious violence and make sure that fewer families have to experience the sorrow of losing a loved one in this way, we will do everything it takes.
The experiment, which was started in the Merseyside neighbourhood of Birkenhead in January 2022, has concentrated on reducing knife and firearm crimes while boosting community confidence and providing preventative programmes to more than 2,000 local youth.
Priti Patel made the declaration while in Liverpool today. She met with the chief constable of Merseyside Police to get an update on the inquiry and then with the local policing commander to learn how the violence has affected the neighbourhood and what resilience strategies are being implemented.