We Love Local: Kids Company London

About Kids Company:

Kids Company is a charity organisation dedicated to bettering the lives of children in need. They work through four centres, as well as a therapy house in London, and also offer therapeutic and social work services in over 40 schools.

Kids Company was founded by Camila Batmanghelidjh in 1996. The organisation now reaches 36 000 children across London, Bristol and Liverpool. These children are some of the most at-risk in the UK, often facing abuse on top of financial, practical and emotional challenges. Kids Co provides these children with a safe, caring family environment where support is tailored to the individual.

The organisation employs a team of professionals with a wide range of skills best suited to work with kids at street level. Their aim is to care for children, first by meeting their practical needs, before helping them to address emotional and behavioural difficulties that they may face. Once they have addressed these needs, Kids Company helps children to explore their talents and interests so that they can develop their aspirations for the future.

A unique way of caring for children:

Unlike most traditional approaches, Kids Co employs a wraparound model of care for each child. This means that all of a child’s issues are dealt with by one team in one place, removing the need for referrals and waiting periods, which could make life more difficult for children.

This unique multidisciplinary approach combines health, housing, emotional wellbeing, mental health, arts, sports, youth justice, education and employment. These interventions are designed to strengthen, supplement or substitute the child’s parenting experience.

Give the gift of Christmas this season:

This festive season, we urge you to help Kids Co by giving the gift of Christmas to thousands of vulnerable children and families. Come the 25th December, Kids Company will be working with some of the most traumatised and abused children and young people to bring them the gift of Christmas. For most of them, Christmas is an exceptionally difficult time. Kids Company is in the process of running a crowd funded campaign in order host the biggest children’s community Christmas dinner in the UK for over 4000 vulnerable children, young people and carers. The party willprovide warm meals, face painting, presents and nourishment to take home so that these children can have a Christmas day that they can look forward to.

“When you are left alone on Christmas Day, the most painful shame takes over. No family or friend to turn to on a day when everyone is gathered together. It is for the children, young people and traumatised carers who are terrified of Christmas that we open on Christmas Day at Kids Company. It’s a joyful, mad, ramshackle day enriched by the generosity of complete strangers. On the 25th of December we bring together those who have needs and those who can meet them in one big celebration” – Camila Batmanghelidjh, Founder and Chief Executive of Kids Company

In partnership with 3000 volunteers, the dedicated team at Kids Company are giving up their own Christmases so that they can act as a substitute family for those kids in need. In addition to the 4000 children that are going to Kids Co on Christmas day, they are also providing food bags for 12 000 of their poorest kids.

During the festive season Kids Co provides emergency child protection, mental health and food cover, all of which take money. Here is where you can help. If you would like to donate to this worthy cause, please click through to their Crowdfunder page here and help them give a child the gift of Christmas this December.