The Mayor of London has donated thousands of pounds to St Mary’s Hospital to tackle youth violence.

A total of £150,000 has been committed by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) to the youth violence intervention project based at the Paddington hospital’s major trauma unit.

In 2012-13, 498 of the 2,500 patients at St Mary’s major trauma centre were aged 11 to 25 and more than a third of them were injured as a result of stabbings, gunshot wounds or wounds inflicted by blunt instruments.

There are also hundreds of young people brought to the A&E who may not be as severely injured physically but are victims of serious youth-related sexual violence and exploitation.

Stephen Greenhalgh, the deputy mayor for policing and crime, and a London mayoral candidate, launched the funding initiative this week at the major trauma centre at King’s College Hospital, in Denmark Hill, where a youth violence intervention service has been running for a number of years.

The move is part of a wider initiative where MOPAC is splitting £600,000 between the capital’s four major trauma centres which deal with the most serious injuries such as stab wounds and car crash victims.

The youth violence intervention project at St Mary’s was launched in October last year as a collaboration between both Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and the trust’s charity Redthread, a nine-year-old organisation helping children and young people change their risky lifestyles.

The three organisations work together in the major trauma centre to connect with the victims and perpetrators of violence then youth workers continue to help them in the community.

Other organisations which have funded the initiative include the J Isaacs Charitable Trust, the Home Office, the boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster and the North West London Major Trauma Network.

London’s four major trauma centres are at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, King’s College Hospital in Denmark Hill, St George’s in Tooting and the Royal London in Whitechapel.