EXCLUSIVE: Community groups in South Yorkshire fear gun crime 'will always exist' locally
We've been given exclusive access to the 'Reach Up Youth' club in Sheffield to explore how youngsters growing up there have been affected by it
Community groups across South Yorkshire tell us they fear gun crime 'will always exist' locally.
One suburb where shootings have happened quite a lot over the years is Burngreave in Sheffield.
Recently - a man had to have his leg amputated after getting shot there last month.
We've been given exclusive access to the Reach Up Youth club - which is held at the Verdon Street Recreation Centre in Burngreave - to see how they're trying to keep youngsters off the streets.
Safaiya Saeed been running the Reach Up Youth club for several years now - which offers youngsters the chance to get involved in sports & work on things like CV's:
"For me, gun crime will always exist, as long as the system is being designed by people who aren't including communities at a grass roots level. That's the problem.
"We know here what our communities need and how we can prevent certain negative social issues.
"Before we even get to the gun crime, it's preventing young people from getting trapped into a system that's designed against them.
"So sometimes, you just feel that young people from certain backgrounds are set up to fail.
"Not everywhere is inclusive. There's not a lot of mentoring, there's not a lot of leadership.
"I've seen what gun crime can do to an entire family.
"I've seen what it can do to a group of young people.
"The level of giving up in their lives is so bad, but their level of loyalty to each other is so high."
23-year-old volunteer Abdul Malik has been going to the youth club since he was a teenager:
"Projects like this sort of attack the problem before it starts.
"When I was like 13 or 14, with nothing to do after school, instead of going down the wrong path I was able to come here.
"I was able to play sports here as a teenager, work on things like my CV, and get some volunteering experience under my belt."
Work's also being done to try & build bridges between the local community & South Yorkshire Police.
Neighbourhood Sergeant for Burngreave & Pitsmoor - Ben Hall - is putting on weekly boxing classes here for children while they're off school:
"Having this centre here, where there has been pockets of anti-social behaviour and violent crime, it provides local kids with all kinds of opportunities and steers them away from any criminality.
"I used to do a lot of boxing when I was younger, so activities like this can help out in the summer holidays when kids have got more spare time on their hands.
"Hopefully, it'll help some of the local parents out too."
This all follows on from Prince William's Royal visit to the youth club earlier this summer.