Life for Kids Company clients six weeks on: 'a lot of people are suffering'
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Version 0 of 1. It is a miserable day beneath the railway arches at Loughborough Junction in south London. The rain pours unceasingly as a steady stream of women arrive to pick up a bag of groceries and a free Costa sandwich from a temporary food bank. It is being run by volunteers who, until August, were paid employees of the now defunct charity Kids Company. Those collecting the bags of food are former clients – they start arriving about 2pm and keep coming until the bags run out shortly after 4pm, and beyond. It is six weeks since Kids Company abruptly closed its doors; since then several inquiries have been launched – the latest this week by the government’s spending watchdog, the National Audit Office – but little has been heard from the people who once relied on its services. Under the arches the women, many with children in tow, are initially reluctant to talk; several complain about the media coverage of the charity’s closure. But they are all warmly appreciative of the support Kids Company has given them, they are sad to have lost what they describe as a “second family” and some are fearful of a future without it. “It’s not about this food,” said Oluwatosin Jenmi, who is in tears. “It’s about the future of the children.” There have been a number of stabbings in the area – Jenmi said some of the victims were known to Kids Company - and children who would once have been safe at the charity are now at risk on the streets. “I’m a mother. My heart bleeds. Just because we live in a poor area. Is this what they want to do with us? The government don’t care. Nobody will listen. They don’t care about us. Only God cares.” Another woman who turned to the charity because of domestic violence said: “A lot of people are suffering. A lot of people don’t have food. The Tory government ganged up on Kids Company because it helped immigrants.” When Kids Company closed, a vast range of services vanished overnight: the after-school and homework clubs, the hot evening meals and weekly £10 Tesco vouchers; children who had packed their bags to go on the annual summer residential to Edale were told to unpack; others who had been practising dances for the Notting Hill carnival were told they would not be performing. “It was a massive shock,” said Sherika Lewis, 31, who got help from Kids Company after she and her son were made homeless. “Everyone was like, ‘maybe it’s not true, maybe it won’t close’.” “When I was told I almost fainted,” said Ade Adesile, who doesn’t know how she will manage without her Tesco vouchers. “No, this can’t be true. I think Kids Company should carry on. We are praying for it to carry on.” Sorayah, 11, was looking forward to going away on holiday with the charity this summer before it closed. “My dad died when I was around six. I was in a bad position. Then I went to Kids Company and they used to help me with that. “We used to have talks and I found that very helpful. They used to give me nice meals, because my mum couldn’t afford to cook for me. It was like a second family to me, a second home.” The key workers who met their clients weekly and were once available at the end of a phone line are no longer there, except on a voluntary basis; the therapists, counsellors and social workers were laid off immediately. A wide network of support for some of the most needy in society was rapidly dismantled. What would the consequences be? One newspaper reported this week that a telephone helpline set up by the government’s children’s commissioner after Kids Company closed had received just two calls. The charity’s founder, Camila Batmanghelidjh, is dismissive. “Our kids don’t know who the children’s commissioner is, let alone have the commissioner’s telephone number or access to phone credit to be doing the call.” In a statement, Batmanghelidjh said: “Kids Company had a relatively ‘soft landing’ in its closure, because staff have continued volunteering support of children and young people . However, in under a month, there have been four suicide attempts, one young person was shot dead, one was injured in a shooting, one psychotic young man stabbed three members of the public multiple times and three people were stabbed in drug turf wars, as well as the thousands who feel betrayed and some of whom have resorted to shoplifting in their desperation.” According to Batmanghelidjh, the psychotic boy was from a family with whom Kids Company had been working; the boy shot dead had been attending a Kids Company gang prevention club; the four who attempted suicide were all high-risk clients, and those who were stabbed, according to other Kids Company clients, had just arrived at the charity. Johnny, 21, is one of the high-risk clients. We meet in the foyer of a Novotel in south London. He is pale and on edge, and looks both much older and younger than his years. Having been with Kids Company since the age of 13, he was referred to mental health services after the charity closed and is still awaiting an appointment but recently took an overdose of pills. Johnny was born to drug-addicted parents and while his younger siblings were taken into care he feels utterly let down by social services for allowing him to remain with his parents. “Half my family was on heroin and crack,” he said. His mother would tell him to turn his chair away while she injected herself; she died when he was 18 and he now sleeps on the floor at a hostel for recovering addicts where his father lives. “My key worker was a diamond. Without Kids Company I would either be dead, in prison for a long time or completely mental. Literally, it saved me.” And now it’s gone? “It’s been a really big shock to me. Even the other week I took loads of pills because I had had enough of life. All the shit that’s happened, it’s another thing. It was hard to take in. I was there for a long time. “There’s going to be a lot of people affected by it,” he said. “It’s shut down so suddenly as well. How can you knock a place that’s generous, that wants to help you and care for you? Basically they’re saying we’re not worth it. That’s what people must think.” He’s dismissive about the claims of financial mismanagement, and allegations of sexual abuse on charity premises that police are now investigating. “If it’s money we’re talking about, you can go on about every charity out there. To me money is nothing. The love Camila showed, the love the people showed, was a lot more than that money. “There was constant support. If you are young they support you all the way up, they are always there for you. You can’t say that about anyone else. Social services is not like that. Social services, it’s their job. Kids Company treated it as their life.” Maria, 25, had a four-year-old daughter, Anna, no money, no food, and no electricity when she turned to Kids Company. She has severe depression and anxiety, having grown up up amid violence; she saw her friends stabbed and held their wounds while they waited for the ambulance. As she talks she sometimes cries and Anna, now nine, comforts her. “Don’t cry, Mum,” she smiled. “I was very depressed at the time. I was not being a responsible parent. I was not getting Anna to school. I was there but not there, if you know what I mean,” said Maria. “Straight away Kids Company referred me to a therapist and Anna started going to their after-school club. I would see the therapist once a week. It helped me so much as a mother. Although I’ve had relapses with my depression, it’s never been so bad that I’m not taking Anna to school. “I always knew there was someone there I could call. I knew I could trust them. It changed my whole perspective. I’ve been having support ever since.” Like everyone she was shocked by the sudden closure of the charity, and is now fearful about her future and that of Anna. “They are just talking out of their arses. They say there are all these allegations, but they haven’t thought about the children. “I’m still on a waiting list to see a therapist from my local authority but I have to wait another three months. Recently my depression got really bad. I got scared. I got really anxious. What if I have another episode? Where do I go? “Right now I’m relying on my medication but it doesn’t always work. There are days I still struggle to get out of bed. It feels like a parent has died. I don’t know where to turn.” Elisia is nine and was going to dance at the Notting Hill carnival in a red and white costume. “We didn’t get to do it,” she said sadly. “Since then I’ve struggled in school. I’ve been misbehaving. There’s not really fun stuff to do.” Her mother, Teri, used to enjoy the classes and activities put on for parents – she did knitting, computing and literacy – and has now found part-time work. “I’m in a better place now. I wanted to give back, to go there to help people who are in the situation I was in. Who’s helping now?” Almost everyone we spoke to mentioned the Kids Company Christmas party, an enormous affair at the Oval cricket ground. “There was actually a Santa Claus who looked real and there were presents,” said 10-year-old Elijah. “Not boring stuff like pencils, but really good presents.” This year Shawna Blake and her five-year-old daughter, Shanayah, will be spending Christmas in their hostel. “Normally they would pick up me and my daughter and we would go to the party. It was a lovely atmosphere. You could eat as much as you like. You met people. That family life is just gone.” Kids Company says it has referred 1,500 cases to local authorities involving an estimated 3,000-4,000 individuals, taking into account family groups. Both Southwark and Lambeth councils say the number of people requiring their support has turned out to be less than Kids Company suggested. Thresholds and judgements about individual need seem to differ, as must resources. Imogen Walker, Lambeth council’s deputy leader, said: “Overall, the number of children and young people that needed our help has proved to be smaller than we were advised by the charity.” Lambeth has taken over the running of a one o’Clock club and an adventure playground, and is working with local voluntary sector and health partners to support children and young people from Kid’s Company. “The government has invited funding bids towards some of this work,” said Walker, “and those bids have now been lodged.” Peter John, the leader of Southwark council, said “a few hundred names” of young clients deemed vulnerable by Kids Company were handed to the council around the time of its closure. “It has been a huge task to identify, process and make contact with these young people, but to date the majority have not required support from the council. “Anyone vulnerable and in need has of course been provided with the support they need from us and other local services, and the government has given the council £82,500 to help with this additional support, and the administration required.” The multiple inquiries and investigations into what happened at Kids Company have a long way to run. Whatever the truth that emerges, interviews with the young people who have used its services suggest that many are now in a better place than they were, thanks to Kids Company’s interventions; some have managed to change their lives for the better; some still feel vulnerable and frightened of what lies ahead without Kids Company to support them. And then there are those who did not find their way to Kids Company – and now they never will. |