Kids Company - Camila Batmanghelidjh

Camila has been a bit of a personal heroine of mine for a while now.  We live  close to the estates in and around Peckham where Camila and Kids Company (which she founded in 1996) do most of their youth out-reach work.

Kids Company has gone into some of the most deprived areas of London and made a genuine movement of social change. Working with what she calls "lone children", children with effectively no functioning parent, Camila has inspired and empowered a generation.  It was really eye-opening talking to her about the kids that she works with.  She talked about Maslows hierarchy of needs and the fact that the majority of families that she works with are functioning at the most basic Survival level -  worrying about paying the rent, if the bailiffs are on their way and whether their kids will be stabbed when they play outside. 

I am interested in VCCP becoming a partner to Kids Company - offering financial support, but also providing work opportunities. One of the things that Camila was talking about was the fact that these kids need to have the opportunities to engage with a wider social and working world outside of their estates. We talked about offering kids the chance to come and do work experience in VCCP. I think its a brilliant idea. When we pitched the School Food Trust we had two teenagers from a Comprehensive in Deptford working with us on the  pitch, it helped to keep us creatively and strategically honest and they provided a constant stream of brilliant ideas.  They were also the people that we used to do research with other kids as we felt that teenagers open up much more honestly with other teenagers.  They helped us win the pitch no doubt about it.

I'd be interested to know if any other agencies do something like this either with Kids Company or other organizations like  Kids Company. 

Comments

[Tom Harle]

There's a PR company down in Brighton who offer placements to people who live in their local area of East Brighton, and also use their profits to pay for PR surgeries for local community groups. So they're kind of a mix of what you're talking about here and your last post, I guess.

That's really great about your school food trust account. I think the whole charity/nonprofit vs commercial distinction is growing dated now, and the fact that you won that pitch kind of proves it: there's no reason you can't keep making money whilst giving a bit back at the same time. If the whole 'lovemarks' idea is true, then do you think we should be seeing a lot more of this sort of thing in the future?

[John]

She spoke at an RSA event about troubled teens (or some similarly patronising title) last year and, with the exception of some teens in the audience, was by far the most impassioned element of the night. Your idea is right on the money.

[Amelia]

One of things that I feel really strongly about is the fact that often with professions like advertising and media it is so hard to get into them without first having a foot in the door. The idea about creating working partnerships between corporations and youth-focused NGOs seems to me to be such a sensible thing to do. Putting down genuine roots in a community seems to me to be about more than simply having a corporate day out and painting a playground (although that is a very nice thing to do) but about understanding what you as a corporation can offer communities who might otherwise never come into contact with you.
Anyway, I sound very worthy and I don't mean to. I'll let you know what happens!

[Nicola]

Hi Amelia! AMV does a lot of work with Kids Company - donating money and the occasional campaign stuff I believe. I'm not aware of work opportunities but I'm not that involved in it. Let me know if u want more info...

[Robert Phillips]

Hey Amelia - we do loads of work with KidsCo (including Work Placements) and have done for about five years now. Like you, I am in awe of Camila and her work. A few years back, we tried to get KidsCo adopted as the 'official' charity of the Creative Industries. It just didn't get traction. I'm on to give in another try, if you are?