The Arches II

The Arches II is a multi-disciplinary children’s centre in Lambeth, South London, through which Kids Company supports up to 2000 children and young people aged between 0 and 23. The centre provides a comprehensive package of care to exceptionally vulnerable children, most of whom refer themselves or are referred by their peers. Many of these children and young people have been drug couriers, members of gangs, or in prostitution.

These children use the Arches II like a substitute family environment and many attend six days per week. All of their practical and emotional needs are met on site by a team of keyworkers, social workers, youth offending workers, teachers, employment advisors, psychologists, nurses, alternative health therapists, arts therapists, and a GP. The centre also offers after school sports, art, music and drama clubs, and arranges trips to out in evenings and holidays. The services provided at the centre are assessed, designed and delivered according to the individual service user.

The aim of the Arches II is to provide children with an experience of sustained care which helps repair their sense of abandonment and enables them to work through the trauma many have experienced through physical and sexual abuse. These are the children that local authorities struggle to manage, because their behaviour is so disturbed and their needs so complex.

The key services we provide:

Support and advice through social work, psychotherapy, counselling, employment advice, housing advice, youth offending programmes, drug prevention advice and sexual health advice
Practical support through necessary provisions, a needs-tested living allowance and three nutritional meals a day
Support in accessing, negotiating and maintaining relationships with other statutory and voluntary sector service providers (e.g. GP registration, optician, sexual health and mental health)
Leisure activities, day trips and residential trips
Educational facilities in order to assist young people with their return to mainstream education, including the support of a full-time on-site clinical/educational psychologist who can formally assess and cater for a young person’s special educational needs.
Alternative and emotional therapy

The National Children’s Bureau (2001) evaluation found Kids Company service users gave the organization a 100% impact rating and 95% satisfaction rating. 90% of the children using the Arches II programme described it as different from other provisions because it had a family atmosphere and the ability to meet individual needs.