Campaigners are urging the new government to invest in youth clubs, as cuts over the last decade have forced 750 centres to close.
As the summer holidays get under way, Mentivity House has just opened its doors on one of Europe's largest estates.
Based in south London, the new youth club is run by mentorship charity Mentivitity and it provides activities and workshops.
But former teacher turned mentor Patrick Egbuchiem says youth clubs provide so much more than just games for children outside of school.
He tells Sky News: "We look at emotional intelligence, we look at sharing, we look at teamwork, all those soft skills which will enable you to go into any space and feel confident about who you are and what you can achieve."
Mentivity House is a new state-of-the art facility which has classrooms and a sports hall, where children are closely supervised by mentors.
Beata Baiten, 10, says the club is just round the corner from her home.
"There's a big community here, they're building a lot of houses and there'll be a lot of children around here so all of those teenagers or tweens can come to this place and enjoy it and have fun," she explains. "It's free as well, it doesn't cost a dime."
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Tap hereWhile these doors have just opened to the local community, the YMCA says youth services funding has been cut by £1.1 billion since 2011.
Many campaigners argue the closure of youth centres has helped fuel crime among young people.
Teenagers are now twice as likely to be fatally stabbed than they were 10 years ago and there were around 59,000 arrests of children in 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Sayce Holmes-Lewis, the founder of Mentivity, says children need more support to prevent them from being exploited by gangs.
"What we're seeing now in the communities across the UK is violence, youth violence," he says. "This is something that we really have to focus on because we have to invest in the earlier stage.
"We have to provide that support to young people so they don't get to that point where they can pull out a knife or hurt somebody."
The Mayor of London has just announced an extra £2 million in funding for activities to divert young people away from crimes in the capital this summer.
But Jacob Diggle from charity UK Youth says there is a regional disparity when it comes to youth clubs.
"We know that in the most affluent areas of the country there's twice as much youth work as in the most deprived areas of the country and that means those that would benefit most from youth work are missing out," he said.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said that Labour will bring in a youth programme to prevent young people from being drawn into crime.
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