Members of a women’s charity are “over the moon” after receiving £10,000 funding to continue a crime awareness project.

Bushra Tahir, chairman of Awaaz, said the group was excited to receive the money for Project Involve, a scheme aiming to tackle gang crime and knife crime.

The funding, from the Big Lottery Fund’s Awards for All programme, will sustain the initiative for a year.

Mrs Tahir said: “We are over the moon and so pleased we can carry on with this work. The funding will be a great help.

“The project was successful and it was demanded by people – they were asking us when we were going to have more advice sessions.”

The scheme, which first ran between 2012 and 2013, aims to educate parents on gang crime and knife crime.

Workshops

The Ilford based charity will be running coffee mornings with them every month and also providing workshops, which Mrs Tahir said will be both informative and fun.

The charity hopes to build on the positive response its project has previously received.

“We had good feedback from parents and it took some of their worries and fears away. They said it was helpful and made them more aware.”

Awaaz is set to team up with the police and other organisations for the project and hopes to eventually set up a “task force” of parents who can raise their voices together.

Mrs Tahir said: “It is not about my safety or your safety; it is about the community at large’s safety.

“We want to make Redbridge a safer place.”

The charity has also set up a number of new activities. Free dance classes have begun at the Vine Church, in Holstock Road, Ilford, and sessions for women who do not speak English have also started.

For more information on Awaaz, email awaazgroup@hotmail.com or visit awaaz.org.uk.