Kick London Vision
Kick London, a Charity and Company limited by guarantee, aims to “Transform young people’s lives with God’s Love through football”, combining football and life skills, underpinned by Christian values.
A chartered ministry of “Youth for Christ”, Kick London is working in the London Boroughs of Richmond, Croydon, Bromley, Hounslow, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Kingston, Lambeth, Newham and also Spelthorne Borough in Surrey.
The initial success of Kick London’s work, and especially the development of schools work, led the Board of Kick London in late 2006 to develop the objective of “reaching 30,000 young people per week in London by 2012 through football”, across 33 London Boroughs. To achieve this objective, Kick London will continue to develop its services and coaches to deliver its work. Kick London believes that it is essential to ensure that in whatever environment it operates, e.g. churches, schools or young offenders institutions, its work is integrated into the objectives of those organisations. Therefore in its work within primary schools, for example, the National Curriculum and SEAL (social, emotional, aspects of learning) are key initiatives, with which Kick London aligns its services and delivery.
Charitable focused activities
Kick London has charitable objectives which underpin the focus of its work. As a not for profit organisation, Kick London’s focus is to maximise the value of its activities for young people. To this end, Kick London seeks to provide a quality service to young people, wherever they are – churches, schools, community or academies.
Currently Kick London’s charitable activities are mainly weekend academies, holiday clubs and ad hoc events. As the resources and work of Kick London grow every opportunity is being taken to increase these activities.
Kick London started as a church based charity with a view to providing an alternative form of Sunday school to young people ‘where they are’ (or where they might prefer to be) on a Sunday morning i.e. on a football pitch. This is on-going and Kick London sees the development of its church based work as a crucial means of supporting the church, reaching both churched and un-churched children.
Business activities to help fund charitable activities
When Kick London was established, the charities work was funded entirely through the generosity of gifts by individuals, churches and Trusts, which enabled Kick London to employ its first two employees. Some of these funds were specifically limited to a start-up period and not available for long-term support.
Working to develop a professional level of delivery has enabled Kick London to sell its charitable activities, into schools. And Kick London now believes that a growing, financially sustainable charity can be developed by integrating the charitable activities and mission, to a professional environment, that pays Kick London for its services.
Delivering quality services to schools and other similar institutions provides Kick London with the income required to employ more coaches, deliver more sessions and deliver transformational sessions to young people. It should be clearly noted, that even where Kick London is being paid for sessions, the charitable objectives of Kick London are being met, through the delivery of football and life-skills, underpinned by Christian values.
Underpinning activities
The effectiveness of the delivery of Kick London will only be as strong as the foundations upon which it is built.
Therefore, as well as focusing on the front end delivery, Kick London is committed to develop an infrastructure of underpinning activities, that ensures that Kick London is sustainable and delivers quality. To this end, an Operations and Development Manager and also a Sales Manager have been recruited and Trustees continue to give freely of their time and expertise.