Sport and Activities Programme

Kids Company runs a daily after school ‘Club Time’ open to children aged 4-16. Many of the 400 children and young people who attend this after school club have severe emotional, behavioural and social problems, resulting from significant experience of trauma and neglect.

Children who are chronically traumatised often live in terror and relinquish their will to live as a way of surviving very difficult circumstances. By introducing them to joyful activities, we try and reconnect them to their desire to live, setting their imagination alight with new possibilities beyond the misery they’ve experienced. We provide hope and with it they aspire and enjoy achieving. Without Club Time, many children would be faced with the loneliness and fear of returning to an empty home with no food or care.

During Club Time, our caring, multi-disciplinary and highly trained team works closely with the children and their families to ensure practical and emotional development for each and every child. Each week we provide:

• 280 minibus pick-ups from local junior schools
• over 25 different fun activities
• 2000 nutritious meals

Our activities programme at Kids Company is hugely varied, and designed in direct response to the children’s interests.

At the moment we offer: football, cooking & nutrition workshops, gardening projects, horse riding, Arts Awards, ceramics, photography, fashion, massage, street dance, choir-singing, skateboarding, yoga, pool, rock climbing, nail & beauty treatments, circus skills, kick boxing, cycle maintenance and an exciting range of life-skill and educational workshops for the under-13s currently in development.

Sporting activities can make a powerful contribution to the lives of vulnerable young people and help improve the general wellbeing of inner city children. Our sports programme encourages and enables young people to reach out beyond what is familiar and comfortable for them.

Sport

Sport at Kids Company forms an invaluable part of our multidisciplinary approach to helping regulate and moderate disturbed children’s behaviour. It provides opportunities to promote unity, tolerance, teamwork and youth leadership; it engages young people in the organisation of sport and empowers them to coach others.

Our aims:

• To build young people’s self-esteem, and help them progress kinesthetically and emotionally in a safe and controlled environment
• To empower young adults with the responsibility of organising events and coaching others
• To increase the level of participation in local tournaments and the use of local facilities, such as gyms and school grounds.

Sports currently offered through Kids Company include: basketball, football, running, table tennis, handball, boxing and swimming. Several young people have completed the London and Madrid Marathons accompanied by Kids Company staff to raise money for the charity; it was truly inspiring to see them challenge themselves physically and mentally and support each other through the training and race itself.

Individuals are assisted according to their strengths. For example, we have one 16-year-old girl taking part in a local street football league and hope to involve her with the Olympic drive.

In the coming year we hope to:

• Provide professional support for young adults training to become coaches
• Provide equipment / kits for our teams and for new activities provided at our drop-in centres
• Be able to use local venues more regularly for both training and tournaments
• Set up fundraising tournaments for boxing and football.

Personal Development

We have sent some young adults on an induction course for Raleigh International and are thrilled to report that one of them successfully completed a 10 week expedition to Costa Rica this year, which he said has inspired him to find work and travel more. The expedition included community, environmental and trekking projects and is a unique adventure.

To find out more about supporting the Kids Company Activities Programme please contact Chris.