About us

About KYC

KYC is a registered charity working with young people 25 years old and under in Kilburn and the surrounding areas. It aims to:

• Provide services to all young people in Kilburn and the surrounding areas;
• Place young people at the heart of what it does;
• Engage in partnership all levels of the community including voluntary and statutory agencies;
• Develop as a centre of excellence to foster the provision of quality services and become a driver of influence and change in the provision of services to young people.

Background

Kilburn is a deprived community on the periphery of the London Boroughs and Camden and Brent and is divided by the Kilburn High Road. It has high levels of crime and unemployment (running at over 20% amongst the under 25 age group), below average educational attainment, severe health problems, poor housing and limited access to essential services.

Local agencies report that young people:

• Have poor knowledge about employment, training and educational opportunities;
• Need to build confidence and self-esteem, but also face the realities of poor career and housing options.

In the late 90's a piece of consultation, 'Asking For It' was conducted with local young people to identify what was needed in the area, the young people consulted identified:

• A priority for advice to get a job, enough money to live on and housing.
• A further priority for better leisure and recreation facilities in the local area.
• A place to go where they can feel safe.
• Improvement in the appearance of the area and a reduction in pollution and traffic.

Asking For It informed the establishment of KYC, and the priorities identified remain critical to KYC's direction and ethos.

KYC was established as an independent charity in 2000, and was originally based in a small back office in Kingsgate Community Centre with one member of staff, KYC now has over 20 members of staff, another 30 volunteers and a new purpose built youth centre on the High Road, with an additional site in South Kilburn and various satellite locations. Over the past 7 years KYC have attracted over 3 million in new funding, worked with over 8000 young people, trained over 1000 young people to an accredited standard, assisted over 3000 homeless young people, and completed over 4000 Welfare Benefit claim forms for our young people.

Today KYC operates as one of the largest voluntary sector youth providers in NW London, and we try, wherever possible, to ensure that our services are accessible to young people regardless of where they live. As such we work with young people from any London Borough, our services users are predominantly, but not exclusively, from Camden, Brent, Westminster, Barnet and Harrow. All KYC services are available to anyone between the ages of 13 & 25 and are all free of charge.

KYC's current services include;

• IT projects ranging from web site design to desktop publishing, accredited through the Open College Network (OCN);
• A Sound Recording Studio -Through the studio young people are able to learn about sound production, can record their own CDs and learn about digital recording, KYC also undertakes vocal workshop and DJ sessions;
• Studio+ project, in partnership with SKNDC and Vital regeneration KYC delivers mobile music studio work, reaching out in to the community. Each learner is assigned a key worker who ensures progression for the young person - this service carries an accreditation in Literacy;
• Seriously Sexy Project which provides services around young people and sexual health, runs peer education training for young people, works on a strategic level to implement and develop policy and service delivery around sexual health locally and nationally;
• Seriously Sexy - the clinic; The first clinic of it's kind in London, open every Saturday, offering young people access to a complete sexual health cheque, contraception, emergency contraception, basic treatment, medium term contraception;
• Space 2 talk service, providing young people with a counselling service that will link them into further therapeutic work where necessary - this programme is largely diagnostic;
• Youth Projects - In partnership with SKNDC, KYC has developed a wide range of generic youth projects and delivers detached and outreach sessions in the area.;
• KYC also undertakes detached and outreach work and supports a number of smaller youth clubs in the area. We also deliver generic youth work in Camden in partnership with Camden youth and Connexions service who base a team of 4 workers with us;
• Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual project - working in partnership with Brent Youth service to address issues of homophobia, isolation and support for young LGB people;
• Schools Based workshop delivery, KYC can tailor a learning package to schools and youth clubs, and has a team of young people and staff that go out to the local schools to deliver workshops around a wide range of packages including: Building sustainable relationships, sexual health, communication skills, drugs and substance misuse, emotional literacy and emotional capacity building, generic health and the realities of parenting;
• We have a dedicated advice & information service offering support and casework to young people around a range of issues such as benefits, housing, careers and debt. This feeds into a larger programme of services that includes health projects, accredited learning & generic youth work. We operate a holistic service and are named as a 1st stop shop. We currently work in partnership with a wide range of services including Capital Careers, Connexions PAs in schools, YOTs, Social Services and Housing departments. This service is regulated by the Legal Services Commission and carries the Community Legal Services Quality mark.

All of these services are accessible in our new building, a first stop shop for all of young people's needs.

KYC will continue to find new and creative ways of working with young people around their needs, we will continue to be flexible in our approach and be brave about taking risks to meet the needs of our young people.

If you have any suggestions, comments or would like to see any new services established please contact us and we'll always do our very best!