KEEN London
To provide sports and recreational activities for children with special needs. Through one-to-one coaching in the context of group activities we hope to increase the skills and confidence of both athletes (children) and coaches (volunteers).
Main Activity
Weekly sports and games, and creative (music, art and drama) sessions, termly special events such as ice skating and horse riding. Also opportunities to get involved in other areas such as administration, fundraising, website management and volunteer socials.
We run a Sunday morning sports session and a concurrent arts/music/drama session for children with special needs and their siblings in Tufnell Park in North London, very close to the tube station (Tufnell Park on the Northern Line).
We match volunteers (coaches) with children with specail needs, some of them severe. THese children often cannot access other extra currciular activities. Whilst they are with us their parents enjoy some very much needed respite time. The sessions are two hours long (from 11am to 1pm) with a half an hour induction before your first session.
Volunteers really enjoy working with us and come from a wide variety of backgrounds. We offer really useful experience for everyone, particularly for anyone interested in working with children and young people, or people with special needs, such as medical students, teachers, physiotherapists, speech therapists or other people-orientated professions. We offer specific training in Autism Awareness and Makaton (sign language) and advanced training for those interested in leading sessions.
We run a Sunday morning sports session and a concurrent arts/music/drama session for children with special needs and their siblings in Tufnell Park in North London, very close to the tube station (Tufnell Park on the Northern Line).
We match volunteers (coaches) with children with specail needs, some of them severe. THese children often cannot access other extra currciular activities. Whilst they are with us their parents enjoy some very much needed respite time. The sessions are two hours long (from 11am to 1pm) with a half an hour induction before your first session.
Volunteers really enjoy working with us and come from a wide variety of backgrounds. We offer really useful experience for everyone, particularly for anyone interested in working with children and young people, or people with special needs, such as medical students, teachers, physiotherapists, speech therapists or other people-orientated professions. We offer specific training in Autism Awareness and Makaton (sign language) and advanced training for those interested in leading sessions.
Description
KEEN London is a charity providing sporting and recreational activities for children with special needs and their siblings in the London area. Each volunteer coach is assigned one athlete for a session. As a coach, your job is to enable your athlete to take part in the activities and have a great time. For example, you can make sure your athlete understands the instructions and gets a turn in each game. You will be given a profile card with details of your athlete's abilities as well as lots of helpful coaching hints. The session starts with a warm-up and then the sports and games begin. Some of the games we play include football, basketball, playground games, relay races and much more. Every activity is lead by an experienced coach who will be happy to lend a hand where its is needed. After the athletes have gone home to their parents, volunteers have a debrief over some food and drink. This is also a chance to discuss the session and get advice from other coaches if you have any problems, or just to have a laugh and make new freinds. You don't need to be very sporty or have experience with children, as training and support will be provided.
We are also keen to recruit people interested in leading part of a session. This involves leading a game or activity, or even eventually the whole session and is very satisfying as you motivate the group and work to involve everyone. We help you out by providing training and a Keen handbook! This is great experience for working with groups of children or adults - if you are interested do get in touch!
We also need volunteers to help with the organisation of KEEN London, so if you would like work experience in the office, like to work with schools and parents, fundraising, or website management we need you too!
KEEN London is always looking for new volunteers – the numbers of children accessing our services increases weekly and we can only take them into the programme if we have sufficient volunteer numbers. Please come along – you are needed and will be made very welcome. We ask for a minimum of only three weekly sessions a term – but most people find they want to come more often than that! KEEN London is great fun!
We are also keen to recruit people interested in leading part of a session. This involves leading a game or activity, or even eventually the whole session and is very satisfying as you motivate the group and work to involve everyone. We help you out by providing training and a Keen handbook! This is great experience for working with groups of children or adults - if you are interested do get in touch!
We also need volunteers to help with the organisation of KEEN London, so if you would like work experience in the office, like to work with schools and parents, fundraising, or website management we need you too!
KEEN London is always looking for new volunteers – the numbers of children accessing our services increases weekly and we can only take them into the programme if we have sufficient volunteer numbers. Please come along – you are needed and will be made very welcome. We ask for a minimum of only three weekly sessions a term – but most people find they want to come more often than that! KEEN London is great fun!
Sectors: learning diff and disabilities, children
