Running from Monday 25th July to Friday 5th August, our Summer Social Development Project 2016 was a huge success and enjoyed by all that were involved. For the second project running we were able to provide our members with outings alongside fantastic challenging workshops; music, arts, drama, massage, gardening and much more.
A huge thank you to all volunteers, workshoppers, coordinators, parents and of course our members for your hard work and commitment throughout! We're already excited for Christmas!
Sunday afternoon saw our Summer Social Development Project's Meet & Greet day for new volunteers and our members. It was a great afternoon for everybody with a really great atmosphere and a lot of enthusiasm shown on a very hot summer afternoon!
We saw some great new bonds begin to form straight away and it has left us very excited for the project, that begins on Monday 25th July for two weeks! Fingers crossed for the great weather to continue!
Kith & Kids' annual family fun day was held on Sunday 5th June at Coram's Fields. It was a lovely day of workshops in the sun with arts & crafts, face paints, potion making, parachute games enjoyed as well as a fantastic drumming workshop that provided a great sound and atmosphere throughout! Photos to be added to added to our Facebook page shortly!
We are now recruiting participants for Ride London! This is a big event where thousands of cyclists complete a 100 mile cycle from the Olympic Park through London and the Surrey countryside, finishing on The Mall. Please inform anyone you know who may be interested in taking part. Simply follow the link on our homepage to find out more!
On International Women's day, we'd like to celebrate with our own tribute to an Inspirational Woman, Evelyn Renton. Evelyn (seen in the centre) is one of Kith & Kids' founding parents in 1969 and has shown tremendous commitment to us over the years since, helping lots of other parents with disabled children along the way. Now in her eighties, she still sings regularly with the choir and gets involved as much as possible.
Thank you Evelyn and all the women you have inspired over the years to help make Kith & Kids the place it is today!
What a lovely project it was, the volunteers and workshoppers really succeeded in bringing the project to life with all their energy and enthusiasm. This year we had three new workshoppers; Millie, Mycah and Holly, running Music, Drama and Massage workshops respectively. In the spirit of Winter, we played lots of 'Winter Wonderland' themed games such as parachute games with 'snow', a snowball fight and a skating relay.
As always the project finished with our final show, which included songs and dances about the seasons, such as 'Walking on Sunshine' and 'What's the Weather'. Thank you to everyone who was involved!
This December has been full of song! The Choir did some carolling at Bond St tube station, bringing smiles to tourists, Christmas shoppers and commuters alike, and raised a total of £530!
A few days later, they held a concert at the Irish Centre which was full of a range of different Christmas songs and carols, and a band completed the evening. It was a joyous occasion with some enthusiastic singing along, and was enjoyed by everyone. Jan Hawkins also led a choir in Highams Park Tesco and raised £529 with another choir – thank you all!
On the last day of the Autumn term, the SA Group went to Laburnum Boat Club for their end of term outing. We've done lots of things with Laburnum in the past and always found the skippers really friendly and helpful – they let you drive the narrow boats and operate the locks for a fun, interactive day.
It was pouring with rain but we didn't let it get us down as we made our way to and through Victoria Park. We ended the afternoon with a warming hot chocolate prepared by Ben to warm us up again!
We returned to Dell Farm, and whilst some of the activities didn't quite work out as planned (magic crystals didn't crystalise, rockets stayed earthbound and no wind when we went to fly our kites), we still had a wonderful time!
We built the highest ever Jenga tower, made puzzles of our faces and enjoyed the countryside walks. Here's to the next one in January!
Over 100 members, parents, volunteers and staff old and new, joined us for our annual BBQ on the 13th September. We did some bollywood dancing, street-dance and group games before tucking into our feast prepared by Jay, our chef! It was a great opportunity for everyone to get back together after our summer of activities.
Even when the rain started to fall (and didn't stop for 5 days) there was still a lovely buzz during the activities and days out throughout the week. We did trampolining, nature walks, orienteering, lots of arts and craft sessions, trips to Brighton and Guildford and a catapult battle where two teams launched sponge missiles at each other!
There is a full report of our wonderful Summer Camp in our newsletter.
Our Summer Project took place in the last week of July and the first week of August at Northumberland Park School. We had a whole range of workshops including music, massage, art, bubble art, street dance and beading! We also welcomed a new drama workshopper Louisa for the first few days.
Liz and Lydia led the Youth Group sessions where the theme was 'how to plan and organise a party'. They really enjoyed choosing their own themes and planning invitations, decorations and the menu! It was a great atmosphere and we're already looking forward to Christmas.
We held our annual D's Day yesterday (Sunday 14th June) at Coram's Fields in Central London. We had a drumming group, an arts and crafts station, face painters on hand and parachute games. We also had a climbing wall which Chrissie got halfway up!
It was cloudy but it stayed dry and meant we could stay outside all afternoon. As well as our members, a few families came along too, it was a great day out.
Following our Care Act 2014 Seminar on the 25th March, you can now find a full video recording of the day, and PDF notes to go with the recordings available from here.
At our second outing in May, our club had a day trip visiting Lee Valley Farm near Cheshunt, where members enjoyed watching the Meerkat feeding time and bird show as well as cows being milked. As well as getting a closer look at the animals, few of the members thoroughly enjoyed having a bounce together on an impressively big trampoline in the play area!
The other outings group went to Alexandra Palace and went on the boating lake, and treated themselves to ice cream afterwards enjoying the lovely weather!
During our Spring Social Development Project in April, our participants enjoyed a range of activities like craft, yoga with relaxing massage, creative beading and video workshops. Special mention must also go to Hannah's fun messy play and Roz's new electronic style music workshop! The members also did some swimming at the school's swimming pool to cool off!
The last day of the project was action packed. Kith & Kids Choir did a short performance, followed by a sports session. We were then rejuvenated by fresh-fruit smoothies courtesy of the Youth Group. The final show revolved around an Easter egg treasure hunt complete with real Easter eggs donated to us by Unite Student Housing.
The 26th April saw 28 runners take part in the London Marathon on behalf of Kith & Kids. Whilst it didn't stay dry, the rain was a welcome cool off! Our runners have raised a staggering £44700.95 so far! Special thanks to the staff at L'Ulivo for their hospitality and attentiveness, and our volunteer masseurs Conni, Zoe and Darren who were on hand to help ease some very sore muscles.
Sarah rocks with her shaved hair! Over the May bank holiday weekend, Sarah Brown, who started volunteering with us 2 years ago, shaved her long locks off raising a brilliant £1576.56. Thank you Sarah for showing us a creative and brave way of fundraising!
Marketing company John McAslan and Partners have opened a design hub in Tottenham offering work placements and training to local students. They held a bake sale for us and raised £200, thank you!
Kith & Kids are hosting a Care Act 2014 Seminar in London on Wednesday 25th March. Recent changes in legislation can be very complicated, so Kith & Kids have invited leading disability Law Professor Luke Clements to talk about the Act and what it might mean for families and their carers. See the flyer to the right for more details.
Dream-chasing good news from the Friday SA Group! Anthony got one step closer to his dream of being a graphic designer, as he added a new Kith & Kids banner to his portfolio which has already been out for several outings!
The group have also had 3 successful collections recently at Waterloo, Euston and Bond Street raising a brilliant total of £2322! We have several more collections coming up soon at Barbican (26th June) and Chancery Lane (10th July), come and say hello if you're passing through!
On the last day of the spring term, the Monday ELSP group went to Waterloo to visit the London Dungeon which is lifetime goal of Kevin, one of the members, to overcome his fear. At the end of the visit, he earned a medal and even wanted to apply a job there!
Not all the group members went to the dungeon; Kojo decided to visit London Aquarium instead, where he enjoyed seeing all the different types of sea life, but he enjoyed seeing the sharks the most! As this outing was double their usual budget, the next end of term outing will have to be free, but after seeing how much this visit meant to Kevin, the group agreed this outing would be a good idea!
A week in the Kent countryside is perfect for sunny spring, that's where our Self Advocacy group headed to for their spring residential in Cudham. Our theme for the week was the Crystal Maze, members and their volunteers formed teams to take on a number of challenges to win crystals, encouraging team work and healthy competition!
The highlight was our spooky visit to Chislehurst caves, frightening but exciting! We were led with lanterns through the dark tunnels and told of the ghosts that lurk in the caves. The week was so much fun and we can't wait to do it again!
The Christmas Project of 2014 took place during the last five days of December, and it was a fun-filled, festive event that was described by many at the end as "the best project yet".
Over the course of the week, members and volunteers took part in a range of activities. Some were familiar and some new, such as Hannah's messy play which went down really well and left those involved covered in glitter, as well as Pien's mystery craft which required serious concentration and resulted in some fantastic boxes and butterflies being produced. Roshi got everyone involved in her music sessions and there were some imaginative creations from Richard's art workshops such as new door signs, masks and a large gift-horse that was later used in the play.
The end of project show was a lovely end to the week, including a performance of 'lean on me', poetry, a dance to Abba's dancing queen and Mat and Alan's cunning disguise as the gift-horse...
Overall the project was a great success, so a massive thank you to all members, volunteers, families and work-shoppers who were involved, with a special mention to Sam Bowles who gained his certificate for being a Kith and Kids volunteer for ten years!
The outings club of this term took place in November. A particular highlight was a trip to Laburnum boat club where we had two narrow boats going down the canals, and members got the chance to steer the boat and operate the locks!
We also had bowling and swimming sessions. A great time was had by all, and with only a couple more weekend clubs this term we're looking forward to the Christmas project!
On Friday 26th September, 5 members from our Friday SA Group went down to MUSI in the City. They spent the morning working individually with volunteers from MUSI, getting to know each other and playing ice-breaker games including a fun one where we had to make a pyramid with just an elastic band and a few pieces of string!
Then they worked on individual tasks together related to the Friday group eg. organising a car wash rota, researching Christmas card materials and images and selling items on Ebay.
After a lovely lunch, we divided into two groups and each had a brainstorm about a potential new activity that the Friday group could be involved in; there was everything from opening cafe, to an allotment, and getting even more technical – devising an app!
Kith & Kids is hosting a Jazz and Blues evening in aid of the KLASP project on Friday 10th October at 7.30pm. Featuring The Joe Bickerstaff Sextet and Stayhorn as well as vocals from Kith & Kids ex-staff member Helen Robertson, parent Pernell Adams and James Lawrence, it looks set to be a great musical night!
Tickets are £12.50 including a 2 course meal and can be bought from Sandra at rosen634@hotmail.co.uk. Please do come along – being held here at the Irish Centre there will also be a licensed bar!
Thank you to our volunteers who took part in lots of summer fundraising activities! Ellen and Michaela completed a 165 mile cycle to Paris, and Jo swam 14km down a very cold Thames as part of the Bridge to Bridge challenge!
Employees at Blick Rothenberg were also busy doing the JP Morgan 5K, followed by the Thames Path Challenge – thank you! To see more of what our supporters have been up to – please see our latest newsletter.
Our summer camp is in full swing, and everyone is really enjoying themselves despite the very wet weather! The groups have been making some lovely meals including the camp favourite, pasta bolognaise followed by banoffee pie; spirits are remaining high even though there is lots of chopping to be done!
See a selection of photos from the camp so far at www.facebook.com/kithandkids
We had a successful and educational two week Social Development Project in August, where the sun shined and a wide range of fun activities were on offer, that were thoroughly enjoyed by volunteers and members alike. We enjoyed drumming, singing and guitar playing in Roshi's music sessions. Our Art sessions with Richard and Mary saw members build their own houses, make a mannequin and make personalised cushions, whilst our theatrical side was explored in Madeleine's and Natalie's drama and video workshops, where we dressed up and acted out a number of different scenarios, including real life scenarios that members could relate to day to day life, and played a range of eye contact, miming and movement games to encourage frienships and social development.
Members and volunteers also had a great time going on a wide range of fun outings that included bowling, ice skating, a boat ride along the Thames, a trip to Clissold Park, shopping in Wood Green and a trip to a Chinese restaurant in Leicester Square! The last day saw a sporting extravaganza, where the competition in the onion and spoon and the slow motion race was fierce!
The project had a theme of 'Change' and the final afternoon reflected this by changing negative to positive approaches. The workshoppers managed to squeeze in lots of the performances and activities members had been doing in the workshops all week.
Thank you to all the members, volunteers and workshoppers who helped to make it a brilliant two weeks! Once again everyone on the project was really well fed and a big thank you must also go out to everyone that helped cook lunch in the kitchen over the two weeks! Whoever arranged the sunny weather also deserves a mention. See lots of photos from the project at www.facebook.com/kithandkids
Kith & Kids' team of cyclists braved hurricane Bertha over the weekend to take part in the second ever RideLondon race. Starting at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the course wound its way through London and Surrey, however the 100 mile course was cut down to 83 miles due to the extremely poor weather conditions, and then finished on the Mall in Central London. The sun even came out at the very end to welcome riders back!
Thank you to our riders who have collectively raised nearly £4000 so far, and well done for completing the race.
Kith & Kids hosted a football tournament last night, Thursday 24th July, and a brilliant 8 teams took part. Mitchell, in the photo on the right, won golden boot for scoring 7 goals in the tournament, and the eventual winners were joint between Cheshunt and Tottenham Pathway.
A great evening and great football, well done everyone! Please see the full photo album on our facebook page: www.facebook.com/kithandkids
A new Tottenham Tesco Express store celebrated it's launch with a £500 donation to Kith & Kids. Maddy was invited to the store on West Green Road to cut the ribbon to declare the store officially open and accept the cheque.
The store chose to donate to Kith & Kids as part of its commitment to supporting the local community and we hope they will continue to support us as they settle into their new premises!
As you may be aware, last year was the first time in 44 years we were unable to run our popular summer camp for disabled children and young adults due to lack of funding. We've decided to run the camp this year. Our #HolsForAllKids campaign aims to raise awareness and funds so that children and young adults can have a holiday and make memories just like you did. Can you guess who this is on the right?
To get involved – simply choose a photo of yourself on a childhood holiday, upload it with the hashtag #HolsForAllKids and don't forget to text CAMP45 £3, £5 or £10 to 70070! Find out more here.
Our annual D's Day in celebration of the life of Doreen Collins went ahead on Sunday 1st of June this year, with a few special additions to celebrate the Kith & Kids 45th Anniversary!
We had plenty of fun and all sorts of activities including face painting, a climbing wall, arts and crafts and inclusive games. In keeping with tradition, everyone brought along a dish to share in our wonderful buffet featuring dishes from all over the world! We also had a choir performance, followed by some lovely speeches. And who could forget the incredible (and huge!) cake – made by our very own volunteer Venessa – needless to say it disappeared very quickly!
Thank you everyone for making it a very special day for everyone involved.
Our Spring project provides a great opportunity for volunteers to demonstrate and learn key interpersonal and communication skills that are highly valued by employers. You will get to see the positive impact of the hard work you put in and get a real sense of achievement. Its also great fun and very sociable!
The project is based in Tottenham and runs from 7-11th April!
On the project volunteers will get involved in a wide range of workshops, such as arts and crafts, video, music, dance and sports alongside our participants. We are looking for people that will approach these tasks with energy, enthusiasm and thoughtfulness!
If you haven't volunteered with us before, we offer three training days to prepare you as a volunteer. We have training starting on Tuesday 25th February 7pm-10pm. If you can't make that date, then it is also possible to start on Saturday 1st March 10am-4.30pm. Both sessions takes place at Ermine Community Hub, near to Seven Sisters. We would love to see you there!
Over the festive season we held a five day social development project in the Seven Sisters area. During the five days our participants with a learning disability took part in lots of different workshops, which included cooking, art, video, music, dance, pampering and massage. They were also able to go on a day trip of their choice. Some went to a farm in Mill Hill, others went ice skating whilst some decided to go and do some karaoke! They were very enthusiastically supported by over 80 dedicated volunteers who worked really hard to enable our participants to have the best time possible!
The project culminated in a fantastic afternoon of events. We had our end of project show where we had lots of singing, dancing, a presentation by the Youth Group, a brief massage interlude led by the 'Massage King' and ended in a memorable performance of Rihanna's song 'Diamonds.' This was preceded by a pre show party where you could get your nails done, your face painted, have a feather hat made for you, get dressed up and have your photo taken by the Kith & Kids paparazzi. The Kith & Kids choir also serenaded us with a fantastic selection of songs post lunch and Sabrina from Make Believe came in to show us her incredible pictures from her hike to Macchu Pichu, which she had done to raise funds for Kith & Kids!
A big thank you must go out to everyone involved in the project. This includes volunteers, the parents in the kitchen (who once again provided everyone with a delicious lunch on each day of the project), our skilled and dedicated workshoppers and of course our participants!