Who we are



Our Ethos and Values



Our Staff and Trustees



Lives Transformed



Our History



E-News

Our Ethos and Values

We transform young people’s lives, with God’s love, through sport and support. We do this through values-driven physical education, street dance, mentoring, chaplaincy in schools and community KICK Academies.

KICK is proud of its Christian identity and is equally proud that its services are delivered unconditionally to those of all faiths and none.

Our Values

Our values are key to the way each staff member and volunteer works and are at the core of who we are as a team. We aim to transform the workings in people’s lives by staying true to these values:

Aspirational on behalf of our young people, being ambitious for their progress and in our desire to reach more young people
Compassionate towards our young people, showing humbleness, being inclusive and making our approach flexible to suit their needs
Excellent in our performance, innovating with continuous improvement in order to see best outcomes for our young people
Intentional in our interactions with young people, schools, churches, partners, funders and one another to look to build a family together at KICK
Integral in our decision making, in our relationships with each other and in our partnerships

Staff and Trustees

Joe Lowther

CEO

John Wright

Executive Team - Director of Quality

Andrew Martin

Executive Team - Regional Director

Becci Lee

HR Manager and Executive Assistant to CEO

Simon Gee

Staff Chaplain and KICK Academies

Simon James

Head of Department - Quality

Beth Veenendaal

Relationship Manager and Talent Aquisition

Andy Dutton

Quality Manager

Rachel Hollings

Quality Manager

Adam Charlton

Branch Manager in the North East

Alastair Park

Quality Lead

Isabelle De Reis

Finance Officer

Alex Shoderu

Senior Coach

Andrew Sedman

Coach and Mentor

Andy Gray

Senior Coach

Alex McLean

Senior Coach

Beth Dobbs

Dance Coach

Beth Hawksworth

Sports Coach and Mentor

Caitlin Glover

Dance Coach

Connor Barry

KICK Coach

Dan Buckler

Coach

Daniel Cotton

Sports Coach and Mentor

Duane Anderson

Mentor

Emma Lines

KICK Coach and Mentor

Ellie Kemp

Coach

Antony Willans

Coach

Spencer Morris Cassey

Senior Coach and Mentor

Sam Woodhams

Senior Coach

Josh Austins

Coach/Mentor

Josh Murphy

Coach/Mentor

Joshua Mwaluseke

KICK Coach

Kieran Wood

Senior Coach and Mentor

Louise Corless

Senior Dance Coach and Mentor

Marco Correia

Sports Coach

Marvin Thompson

KICK Coach and Mentor

Matt Rogers

Senior Coach

Melody Ayandokun

Dance Coach

Michael Lynds

Coach

Peter Brooks

Senior Coach and Mentor

Peter Debrah Mensah

Sports Coach

Jack Newman

Coach

Rebekah Louis

Dance Coach and Mentor

Rob Curtis

Coach/Mentor

Zoe Cross

Coach/Mentor

Joe Mallett

Sports Coach

Joe Farley

School Chaplain

Samuel Braga Tavares

School Chaplain

Sanique Gordon

Mentor

Samson Famusan

Sports Coach

Shaun Bushby

Sports Coach

Trustees

Alwyn currently works as a Curate at HTB. Alwyn became involved in KICK because he saw the impact it has made in Richmond his local town. Alwyn is a protege of one of our founders – the late Trevor Patterson.

Alwyn Webb

Previously a Headteacher and Regional Academies Director, Chris now is Operations Director for Feed the Hungry, an international charity alongside the role of trustee of Jubilee Church Coventry. He shares KICK’s heart for young people in sport and education.

Chris Edwards

Before retirement Cliff worked as an Engineering Operations Manager and is now a Trustee and Secretary of his church, as well as involved with Boys’ Brigade and mentoring Youth Leaders. He has been involved with KICK for 20 years.

Cliff Underhay

Lizzie currently works in Operational Resilience for Bupa, bringing to KICK a background in Technology, Risk and Change Management. Her involvement with KICK comes from encouragement in seeing our positive impact and in young people’s lives.

Elizabeth Mackenroth

John’s background involves Facilities Management for Wandsworth Council, Church Administrator, and leading his church’s football ministry where he saw the transformational impact for young people. He has been involved with KICK for over 10 years.

John Dutton

Matt was an audit with PwC, on the Global Executive Team at Bupa and was the Chief Transformation Officer at Santander UK. Now Chair of the trustees, Matt has been on the board for over 15 years, with a vision for KICK to engage with a generation of young people within a generation.

Matt King

Mike is retired and previously worked for the Ministry of Defence. Mike too was inspired to make a difference in young people’s lives following stabbing in his hometown. Since retiring, Mike has served as a Magistrate for 14 years.

Mike Wakeham

Paul, until recently, was Head of Legal at Bupa and now retired Paul is involved in a few charitable Boards. Paul has been with KICK for 3 years with the desire to make a difference in young people’s lives through sport.

Paul Newton

Penny, now retired, spent most of her career in primary education. She is involved with the youth at her church and is a Foundation Governor of a Christian secondary school. Penny wants young people to feel respected and valued and is passionate about providing opportunities for them to hear the Gospel.

Penny Cox

Pete has retired from his work as an Actuary and now uses his financial management experience to support KICK and other charities. Pete became involved in KICK because he believes that sport can have a positive influence on the lives of young people.

Peter Burt

Simon currently works in the HR profession, with specific experience in the charity sector and Church based organisations. Simon became involved in KICK to use his experience in Human Resource Management to support the staff and trustees.

Simon Cook

Steve worked in the Oil and Gas industry across the world before joining KICK in 2015 as a Trustee. Steve became involved in KICK because he saw the impact it was making in his community and wanted to see KICK make a wider impact.

Steve Thomas

Lives Transformed

Our mission is to transform young peoples lives with Gods love through sport and support. Here are just a few of the stories where we have made a difference and seen change:

{

TRANSFORMED YEAR 8 BOY

I began mentoring a young boy in year 8 and was told that he came with a bad reputation right from primary school and unfortunately carried it right through year 7. When the boy was referred to me, staff were hoping for a change in his behaviour so he wouldn’t be removed from the school. Amazingly, by the end of the school year my award for ‘Most Improved student’ went to him. He’s come forwards in leaps and bounds and I’m told by the Deputy head that “he hasn’t been on his radar” for a while!

I think the turning point was probably half way through the year when we spoke about Empathy- one of our five core mentoring values. He really seemed to understand and show interest in the discussion we had about putting yourself in other people’s shoes: “for example, think about your teacher who has to stand in front of 30 students for every period each day, when we know it’s already quite stressful looking after just 2 or 3 people”. He’s spoken to me about how having this thought in his mind has totally changed the way he behaves in class time.

KICK MENTOR

{

CONFIDENT GIRL

Our KICK Academy began a 3 years ago and is attended mainly by boys. We had a young girl attend a few months ago who was very clearly attending reluctantly. She very much lacked confidence when playing with others and found it very hard to make friends. I took some time during the session to speak to her about how she was feeling and she shared she often feels left out.

I was able share that I often was the only girl on my football team but to see this as a positive and an opportunity to stand out, embrace it and showcase her talent. I then ensured I was with her age group every week to encourage her to get stuck in. In the last few weeks I have noticed the boys have begun to notice her and speaking with her. It has been amazing to see her begin to make friends with the boys and I am excited to see her confidence grow.

KICK ACADEMY LEADER

{

JOYOUS 3 YEAR OLD GIRL

After doing my assembly on forgiveness and sharing some of my own stories along with the gospel message of Jesus, a year 3 girl came up to me overwhelmed with joy and laughter saying, “I didn’t know Jesus rose from the dead, I feel amazed and wonderful!” I began to laugh because in the moment I could see she was one step closer to understanding God’s wide love for her.

KICK SPORTS COACH

Our History

TIMELINE

2003

Founded

Kick London was originally founded in collaboration between an inspirational coach, a local church and a National charity (British Youth for Christ). Kick London were granted Charitable Status in 2003 as an extension of Youth for Christ’s vision of a “Kick” football ministry in London.

2004

Academy Established

In 2004, our first coach was appointed to work full-time for Kick London by the Board of Trustees. He worked closely with the support of the local Church, Holy Trinity Richmond. A weekend Football Kick Academy was established within the area in connection with the church and contracts to deliver sports coaching in local schools were secured.

2005

Management Team Established

At the end of 2005, based on the success of the work in Richmond, a management team was developed to establish a Kick London presence in Croydon.

2006

Steady growth

From this point, Kick London has steadily grown and moved into boroughs across London with an increase in both schools provision and church-based Kick Academies.

2014

CEO Appointed

In 2014 the Board of Trustees decided they wanted to accelerate the growth of Kick London and built a new infrastructure to do so which saw our first CEO appointed.

2015

Street Dance Launched

In 2015 we launched our Street Dance provision to schools around London. This saw our first Senior Dance Coach recruited, with three more brought in before the end of the year.

2016

Solutions Focused Mentoring for Schools

In 2016 we updated and developed our mentoring provision to offer Solutions Focused Mentoring for Schools. This saw our mentoring provision grow by 400% in a single year.

2017

Continued Growth

In 2017 we continued to grow as an organisation by which point we had trebled in size in just two years. We now have the privilege to work in over 55 Schools, 25 Kick Academies and engaging with over 7,500 young people each week. In 2017 Kick London also launched another new service of Schools’ based Chaplaincy.

2018

This year we have been engaging with over 10,000 young people each week, we praise God for everything he is doing with Kick London, and we can’t wait to see more lives transformed through him. At Kick London, our mission is to have a Christian presence in every single borough in London, then who knows what?!

2019

Re-brand

In 2019 we have launched our new Chaplaincy service enabling us to reach and support for supports and staff within schools. We have also undertaken a re-brand to now be known as KICK moving forward.

2020

In 2020 we delivered vital mentoring sessions and sports lessons to key worker children in the height of Covid 19 to children and young people during the national lockdown. Despite a challenging year, we are now preparing to launch KICK nationally across the UK in the year ahead.

Sign Up for our E-News and Prayer Diary

Sign Up