Charity Reach Out engages ‘hard to reach’ kids through foodball and fun

Encouraging enthusiasm: Reach Out mentors help kids get creative

Petchey Academy was transformed for one day only with a bouncy castle, penalty shoot-out and dance rehearsals as children flocked to Reach Out charity’s Summer Fete, sponsored by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

Working in areas of high deprivation, Reach Out offers children extra academic and emotional support throughout the school year as well as during the summer holidays and engages young people through sport and activities.

A snip at £40 for a whole month, the organisation’s summer programme is aimed at parents who cannot afford more, but financial support from the charity’s sponsors , such as the ACCA and hard-working volunteers, ensures the children are well catered for.

Justina Nwofor, 13, from Amhurst Road, has been coming to the Reach Out programme for three years.

Reach Out feels like a big family, but one in which newcomers are always greeted with open arms.

“At the beginning of each lesson, you have to say your name, what age you are and a lie and a truth, so you get to know someone and joke around,” she said.

“For example I said: “My name is Justina, I’m 13, I’m Nigerian and I own a pet lion.”

Children who become too old for summer school then have the chance to mentor younger children.

“If you want to engage, successfully, with hard to reach kids in Hackney you need an angle,” says director of Reach Out London Pete Blackwell.

“I’m very proud of the football club, it plays an important part in keeping young men involved,” he added.

Pete Blackwell’s sister, Fran Blackwell, left her job as an engineer to work for Reach Out, working with children one-on-one referred by schools for extra help, and has never looked back.

“I would read the newspaper every day and every two weeks there would be a kid being stabbed in the capital or a teenager dying,” she said.

“One of them was a childhood friend who I went to primary school with.

“It hit home and I thought, these are not all bad kids they just need some support.”