Established in 1996 by Camila Batmanghelidjh. Kids Company

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The emotional economy
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Kids Company
Our approach
Key worker model
Project-based learning
See the child. Change the system
What is Kids Company? Why does Kids Company
exist?
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Established in 1996 by Camila Batmanghelidjh.
Kids Company provides practical, emotional and educational support
reaches over 36,000 of London and Bristol’s most deprived and at risk
children and young people.
We provide a safe, caring, family environment where support is tailored to
the needs of each individual.
•Children recover with unrelenting love.
The need for Kids Company
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More than 95% of the children and young people we support come to us
seeking help, or are referred by their peers; 97% say that Kids Company is
effective.
Research shows that young people coming to Kids Company face the following
difficulties:
87% - emotional difficulties and mental health problems.
84% - homelessness - a deeply traumatic and destabilizing experience.
83% - sustained, complex trauma during childhood.
82% - substance misuse - this is often a reaction to emotional distress and can
indicate a child’s vulnerability to being drawn into the criminal world of drug
dealing and taking.
81% - criminal involvement, often to feed and clothe younger siblings.
39% - young carers struggling to cope.
Kids Company’s approach – what makes us different?
Kids Company works with an absolute focus on the
child and total commitment to the power of healthy
attachment to change lives.
We act as parents by proxy supporting the client
unconditionally and providing nurturing and loving
relationships.
Where do we work?
10 street-level centres and in 48 schools in London and Bristol
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ARCHES II
Street-level centre in South London
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TREE HOUSE
Street-level centre in Kilburn
• MORGAN STANLEY HEARTYARD
• Therapeutic Sanctuary providing intensive
emotional and psychological support in
• South London
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THE URBAN ACADEMY
Post-16 education and life skills academy in
South London
•KIDS VENTURE
•New adventure playground space and street level
centre in South London
•SCHOOL INTERVENTION MODEL
•We currently work in 48 inner-city schools in
some of the most deprived areas of London and
Bristol
•BRISTOL
•Three under 16’s alternative education provisions
•The Island: drop in centre
•Le Coeur: A therapeutic sanctuary
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Each Young Person’s journey at Kids Company starts with an assessment by
one of our assessment team (H&S Care, R2H team), which is based on
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
Children recover with unrelenting love.
“Substitute/surrogate family and
home”
The Arches: after school club dinner
Principles of key working model
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Flexibility
Parenting by proxy
Re-writing the self
Boundary crafting
Commitment and continuity
Making the invisible visible
Hanging out
Hanging on
Moving on
The Power of Relationship:
A study of key working as an intervention with
traumatised young people (Lemma, A 2010)
“I think the essence of our work is having this
bond and having the attachment and working
with it”
“She picked me. I wasn’t assigned to her. We
started off establishing a friendly relationship,
then she tested the ground to see if I was to be
trusted. She would challenge me all the time”
Objects of hope
“My key worker....she was a guardian angel. It
was...(cries)... If it wasn’t for my key worker I
don’t know where I would be... (cries)... She
made me realise this is my life and no matter
what happens I’m the only one that can move
it forward. And basically that I’m okay and
there’s something good in all of us really. My
key worker basically made me see my talents
and believe in me”
Project work: Hampton Court Flower Show
From this…
To this…
The Dream Team….
See the Child. Change the System
Children’s Task force
• Reconceptualising children’s social services
and mental health services.
• See www.seethechild.org for more
information
• Email: gabriella.brent@kidsco.org.uk