KCBNA's HAF Story
What is the community/area like that you work in?
Having grown up in the community all my life, I can see how the community has changed and become more disconnected. The local community is predominantly Bengali Muslim, with a lot of families from global majority backgrounds such as Somali and Afghan. There has been a disconnect between these different groups that I have seen through the young people we work with. Young people gravitate towards other young people of the same ethnicity and faith, and from my experience this is a generational pressure that comes from the elders in the family.
What takes place at this club on a day-today basis - what does HAF look like at your centre? E.g. have you worked with any partner organisations?
During our HAF programme, we have a timetable of 2 centre-based sessions and 2 trips each week of HAF delivery. These trips are the most popular and engage up to 45 young people of all backgrounds, with trips such as ice skating, flip out trampolining, bowling and more. The 2 centre-based sessions will have a range of activities from board games, team games, sport & physical activity, digital gaming and more. In the past, we have partnered with other organisations, however, since I have been in post, collaboration has been difficult, even with existing partners as each organisation has their own pressures, so we now chose to operate on our own and allow our young people to dictate programmes. We allow our regular core users to input into the timetable when it comes to the choice of activities and food menu, whilst ensuring we have the flexibility to adapt things as we go to allow us to best support the uniqueness of everyone that attends.
Tell us about the children and families that you work with.
We work with children and families who are predominantly from global majority backgrounds. A lot of the young people face some form of disadvantage in life such as: low economic background, lack of access to educational support, risk of underachieving, refugees, single parent households, food insecurity, lack of positive role models, risk of involvement in crime, risk of involvement in substance misuse, overcrowded social housing and more. These disadvantages mean our young people present with low self-esteem, confidence issues, mental health concerns (anxiety, depression etc.), lack of ambition, behavioral issues and more.
What has been the impact of your HAF programme on the community that you work in?
The standout impact for our HAF programme has been the cohesion of young people within our setting. In the past, we had conflict and even bullying between the different groups of young people at KCB, as they all felt entitled to the space and were threatened by any new group of children. These conflicts even occurred between young people who went to the same school. With the HAF programme providing space for large joint activities and meals, this has gone a long way to developing a connection amongst our young people. In addition, allowing our core users to dictate programmes has given them a sense of ownership of the programme, and now their attitudes have developed to welcoming and inviting newer groups of young people into the youth centre. To summarise, when we had 30 young people on our HAF programme, we had so many behavioral issues stemming from lack of cohesion. Now, we have 45 young people on our HAF programme and the energy in the space is nothing but positive and welcoming to others as they all know they're in for an amazing day, all possible thanks to YCF and HAF.
What do you think children and families would be doing in the holidays without your support?
Without our holiday programmes, the vast majority of our young people will be sat at home doing something unproductive or hanging around with their friends on estates and on the street, with a higher risk of making bad decisions. This has been fed back to us by young people in the past when we had to cancel sessions in emergency situations. For a lot of the young people we engage, we are the only safe space that they have and without our holiday programmes, they experience adverse mental health stemming from lack of engaging activities and lack of social connection.
To find out more about KCBNA and the work that they do, visit their website
What do young people and parents think about KCBNA?
"I be so honest the vibe is there the activities are there i think there's nothing to improve because its that good"
"Excellent programme that kept all four of my kids busy happy and entertained. They loved it. Especially the residential term that was amazing. They loved the food. The staff are excellent and always took care of the kids and kept their communication updated. Wonderful crew with great activities done with the kids, plus great food"