Photo by Wendy Sloane
By Elspeth Chapman and Lilly Fryer
Patrick Green, CEO of the Ben Kinsella Trust and former Home Office’s Serious Violence Crime Taskforce member, has helped shaped the way that Islington targets knife crime. With over two decades of voluntary work under his belt, Green says the Trust are “experts by experience”. He is driven by his passion for the safety of today’s youth.
Green’s work as CEO of the Ben Kinsella Trust has propelled it from a small local organisation to a national leader in the anti-knife crime movement. As a prominent voice advocating to tackle youth violence, Green has joined forces with actor Idris Elba in the ‘Don’t Stop Your Future’ campaign.
“We all feel the pain when we see it on the news… let’s do something together”
Green has taken part and volunteered in several events across the capital to take a stand against violence and knife crime. In 2019, he was invited by the Prime Minister to be a part of the Serious Youth Violence Summit at No.10.
The Trust provides educational programmes for both young people, parents and professionals. Green works to raise awareness of the consequences of knife crime, promoting positive choices and encouraging all to challenge negative influences.
Educating young people
Initiatives driven by Green have emphasised the importance of educating youth. His Choices and Consequences workshops, which ran in 2024, saw 7,204 young people participate in highlighting the importance of educating the youth and campaigning for a safer and more informed community.
“We work with young people in schools, teaching others how to detect dysfunctional behaviour and dysfunctional thoughts around knife crime,” Green told a panel on knife crime at London Metropolitan University yesterday.
As of 2024, Green has partnered with local communities, charities and businesses. Most recently, the Trust has partnered with Arsenal and Adidas to promote their No More Red campaign, taking an unprecedented step of replacing their iconic red home shirt with an entirely white kit for individuals who are making a positive difference in the community.
Both Green and Arsenal continue to work towards tackling the root cause of youth violence, promoting positive safe spaces and providing more opportunities for young people.
“If you provide more sports grants if you provide more positive mentoring … for young people, they thrive,” Green told the panel.
Video by Elspeth Chapman and Lilly Fryer
Green highlights the issue of the widespread normalisation of knife crime from the media and film industries too. The “media has normalised, glamourised and desensitised young people to knife crime”, he said, adding that he hopes in future that his work alongside the Youth Parliament can support “holding social media companies to account and pressing government for more action”.
On May 19th, the Ben Kinsella Trust is running national Knife Crime Awareness week, which aims to teach others what we can do as a community. Green aims to help “people understand what they can do, no matter they are a teacher, parent or sports coach”.
Video by Elspeth Chapman and Lilly Fryer
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