We are very pleased to announce a partnership with Knight's Youth Centre (KYC). At NERDS, our mission is to support marginalised, unrepresented and under-resourced youth within the city we've grown up in. We're proudly supporting KYC with annual donations to facilitate their invaluable work in South London.
Having run for nearly 100 years and based south of Brixton in London, Knight's Youth Centre aims to transform the lives of children and young people throughout Lambeth through physical, social education, recreational, training and cultural activities. Their mission is to help children and young people develop their physical, mental, cultural, educational, moral, emotional and spiritual capacities, helping them to play a positive role within their community. Activities include weekly sessions, cooking together, football, basketball and other sports, outdoor sport activities including kayaking and climbing, summer residentials, girls club, music studio sessions, career development, healthy relationships, mentoring and developing young people to become youth workers themselves.
KYC offers a youth service to all children and young people in the local area. Children and young people attending the youth centre in Streatham Hill live in an area of London greatly affected by violence and poverty and frequently tell their workers it’s the one of the only safe places in their lives. The positive activities & trusted relationships that are on offer provide a preventative approach to reducing the risk of violence and wider harm. During the pandemic the centre dropped food parcels across the local estates and were able to provide online support to children and young people. By also engaging with the wider families and parents of children and young people attending the centre, and doing assertive outreach on the local estate, KYC aims to and is a "family" for children who attend.
