Private equity foundation Impetus has been selected to "help drive a generational shift away from youth violence" as part of the government's long-term Serious Violence Strategy, the department said.
Working with think-tank the Early Intervention Foundation and the Social Investment Business across England and Wales, it will fund and support programmes and community partnerships working with children and young people at risk of being drawn into crime and violence.
The crime prevention strategy aims to intervene to help young people "as early as possible, to get on a positive path and succeed".
The organisation said it would do so by:
- Finding, supporting and evaluating programmes working with young people most at risk of involvement in crime and violence — providing funding, capacity building and evaluation support
- Generating and promoting new knowledge and practice to transform local and national responses to tackling youth offending, and supporting the best-evidenced programmes to have an even greater impact
- Developing an approach to working with local communities to prevent youth offending — driving long-term, sustainable change in those communities
The news follows the government's recent announcement of an extra £100m for policing knife crime, amid reports of growing youth violence, with 10 teenagers killed in knife attacks across England this year, including five in London.
Supporting the moves, Prime Minister Theresa May said that tackling the problem requires a "cross-society approach", adding that early intervention is "vital".
- Serious Violence Strategy: experts advocate earlier interventions
- Experts look to public health model to tackle surge in youth knife crime
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said: "Intervening early in the lives of vulnerable children and young people is a central part of our approach to tackling serious violence.
"It's vital we do everything we can to equip these youngsters with the skills and resilience they need to lead positive lives and prevent them from offending in the first place.
"Our £200m Youth Endowment Fund is a key part of this approach and will help us tackle the root cause of this scourge.
"It will work with local communities to ensure that support reaches those at most risk, diverting them away from crime and violence to lead fulfilling lives."
In addition to the £200m injection, Impetus will work with other funders to seek to grow the fund to a potential £300m through donations and investments.
Delivered over 10 years, the fund will support the public health approach to tackling serious violence and in which a statutory duty will shortly be open for consultation.
Chief executive of Impetus Andy Ratcliffe described the fund as a "significant and sustained investment that puts prevention at the heart of efforts to tackle youth crime and violence".
"The Youth Endowment Fund will be working with frontline organisations to provide the support they need to put young people on the right track," he added.
The fund will be used to evaluate the impact of interventions so that the most effective ones can be scaled up and delivered more widely.
Impetus aims to award the first round of grants in the autumn.
