Kids Company is a charity founded by Camila Batmanghelidjh in 1996 to provide practical, emotional and educational support to vulnerable inner-city children and young people.
Many of the 13,500 children reached by Kids Company’s services have experienced severe and multiple trauma. Often they are ‘lone children’ living in chronic deprivation, with little or no support from the adults in their family. Kids Company provides a safe, caring, family environment in which support is tailored to the needs of each individual. We offer unrelenting love for every child, whatever it takes: no matter how disturbed a child is, they will never be turned away. It is our belief that rather than being frightened of these children, the public need to be frightened for them.
Over 95% of the kids we support come to us seeking help, or are referred by their peers. Research shows that young people coming to Kids Company face the following problems: homelessness (84%), criminal involvement (81%), substance misuse (82%), emotional and mental health difficulties (87%), sustained trauma during childhood (83%).
Our support has enabled 89% of our young people to improve their anger management, 94% to reduce substance misuse, and 91% to reintegrate into education. Of young people with a history of criminal involvement, 90% moved away from crime due to Kids Company’s influence (University of London, 2008).
Kids Company operates through two street level centres in South London, as well as offering therapeutic and social work services in 37 schools. In 2007 Kids Company was awarded the Liberty and Justice Human Rights Award.
In April 2008 Kids Company was awarded a £12.7m YSDF Pathfinder grant through the Department of Children, Schools and Families. This money, to be distributed over three years, is funding our work with the 400 most disturbed young people who access our drop-in centres. Under the terms of the grant, we are developing a package of training and resources which will enable the Kids Company model to be replicated on a national scale. This replication will begin with the opening of a third Kids Company centre in Camden, north London, in autumn 2009.
Dawn Howley, a care leaver who has witnessed Kids Company’s work first hand, describes the charity’s philosophy, and why it works for thousands of vulnerable children for whom so many statutory provisions have failed.
‘I’m a care leaver, so I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. I was not a member of Kids Company as a child, but Camila Batmanghelidjh entered my life three years ago and she mentors me and helps my younger siblings.
‘If you log in to the Kids Company website at kidsco.org.uk, you will read the following in the ‘About Us’ section: “We are constantly inspired by the courage and dignity expressed by vulnerable children in the face of overwhelming challenges, and in everything we do the child is put first.”
‘The key here is that the vulnerable child is put first, not the adults who so often fail them. Kids Company does help parents too, but ultimately our aim is to return these children to the childhood they so often miss.
‘What is incredible at Kids Company is this ethos that we won’t give up, just like a caring parent wouldn’t give up. Children get into battles with staff, often stemming from their past experiences of pain and anguish related to adult failings, but workers keep going, maintain the relationship, and see it through the rough patches. I witness amazing staff who build the most incredible relationships with traumatized children and young people. Camila’s office is adorned with children’s art and the odd certificate of achievement, perhaps a GCSE or an accounting qualification. These young people don’t have a happy family home, so they want to know that these signs of achievement are displayed in a place where they feel cherished.
‘Although Kids Company is a not residential facility, 84% of our kids have been homeless, so staff often find housing for young people and help them to set up new homes. So often a child crosses a threshold, for example in the care system, and they may end up moving placements or going into a secure unit. We stick with children throughout these changes, and on into early adulthood, just as a parent should.
‘Kids Company restores dignity to children’s lives on so many levels. We buy them basics such as shoes and underwear, provide daily meals, and in the summer we send kids on short breaks in the country, many of whom have never left London. Kids Company deal with the whole problem, they don’t just provide a place to hang out. We try and make children’s whole existence worthwhile. We re-decorate their homes, some so horrible that you can’t believe children live there; we drive them to college and university and attend endless, frustrating appointments at housing offices that could make the most stable human being tip over the edge.
‘The real key to all the work at Kids Company’s street level centres is human relationships. You see, many of these kids have lost all faith in adults and the society around them. This is because as they were growing up abused, neglected and forgotten, civil society failed them. This means that our key workers have a massive job: they have to consistently prove to the children that they are valued. It’s not just about making the children feel that they exist within the world, it’s about equipping them with the tools for life. We want them to grow and develop, to make healthy relationships and to somehow be able to get over their traumatic childhoods. In conclusion, we restore dignity and give hope for a new life, with love and compassion.’