KICK’s mission is to transform young people’s lives, with God's love, through sport and support. KICK aspire to see a generation of young people who will reach their God given potential; where communities have been socially impacted; and where spiritual change has transformed a nation. They are now extending their ministry across the UK, including the West Midlands.
We spoke with Joe Lowther the CEO of Kick.
KICK do this through values-driven...
physical education,
street dance,
mentoring,
chaplaincy in schools and
church-based KICK Academies all to impact young people.
KICK are committed to seeing young people experience a hope for the future and joy in the present. KICK would love to enable churches to be trained in how to run KICK Academies; be introduced to local schools; and have career opportunities people inspired by their Christian ethos.
Kick Academies
We are concerned that young people in their droves have stopped coming to church, with research suggesting that 85% of young people in the UK never step foot inside a church these days. Our solution to this issue is to go into schools and deliver the above provision.
We look to build relationships and work with local churches in the area to equip them to run additional sporting provision at the weekend.
We have a strong KICK Academy model which provides churches with all the tools and resources to deliver high quality football and dance coaching linked to a theme, which enables them to share a sports’ ministry slot from the bible before the children end with matches/performances. For example, the theme that day may have been ‘focus’ – so they focus on their passing, heading and shooting. Then in the sports’ ministry slot the young people are taught about an inspirational story about the theme from the bible – where Peter focused his eyes on Jesus and got out of the boat to meet Him in faith. This is a seamless switch and one which engages the young people through the tool of sport and dance. The ethos of KICK means that each and every KICK Academy is available to all young people, irrespective of ability or background. It is about the taking part and fulfilling personal potential.
Schools
PE NATIONAL CURRICULUM
We believe that through active and exciting sports provision, we can see young people further engage with education and have an enriched experience of school. We deliver PE National Curriculum as well as breakfast, lunchtime and after school clubs in a range of sports. Our curriculum seeks to ensure that young people are introduced to a wide range of Sports both within and outside the National Curriculum to enrich their experience. It is varied, mapped to the National Curriculum with a bespoke full Scheme of Work across all of our sports.
The Scheme of Work builds the young people towards each competitive sport and this can be tailored to fit with the needs of the school and the learner. We provide skilled coaches to deliver these services to guarantee a high standard of delivery and are constantly looking to improve the quality of our provision. Some of the Sports that we provide include:
• Football • Tag-Rugby • Hockey • Athletics • Gymnastics • Basketball • Netball • Tennis • Cricket • Paralympic Sports (New) • Korfball (New) • Boxing (New) • Flag Football (New) • Table Tennis (New) • Handball (New) • Jag-Tag (New)
TRANSFORMATIONAL STREET DANCE
We believe that Dance can enable a wide range of young people to be more active as well as be a powerful platform for us to impart life skills to young people. We provide a wide range of Dance disciplines from Hip Hop to musical theatre. Sessions are fun and vibrant and encourage the personality of each individual to be released and celebrated. Each Dance session delivered by a KICK Coach will also embed a KICK value throughout to encourage each pupil to be challenged in their thinking, their attitude and their approach.
Each half-term our Transformational Dance curriculum enables learners to focus on a different style. They are taught the techniques of each style and are given opportunities to choreograph their own dance routines to demonstrate what they have learnt. We seek to develop the confidence of each learner by allowing Dance freestyle activities in the session. This enables them to create and find movement that is natural to their bodies and within the context of Dance.
Some of the Dance Style we deliver are:
• Street Dance – Hip Hop Grooves
• Street Dance – Locking, Popping and House
• Street Dance – Breakdancing
• Street Dance – Freestyle
• Cheerleading
• Contemporary Improvisation (New)
• Musical Theatre
SOLUTIONS FOCUSED MENTORING
Our Solutions Focused Mentoring provision is a crucial service, which can make a huge impact on the lives of the young people that we work with. It is our mission at KICK to transform young people’s lives with strong values through sport and support.
We believe that mentoring can have a profound impact on the lives of our young people; turning around challenging life situations. It is our objective to tackle behaviour management to ensure young people are responsible for their own behaviour and develop strategies to think independently, which enables them to be successful within a learning context.
We use the Solutions Focused approach in Mentoring to develop young people and see them find the solutions they need for the challenges they face in their bespoke situations. This builds upon the development of CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and according to Mark Beyerbach’s research in Spain, the approach not only increases a young person’s sense of self-efficacy but changes their thinking patterns at home as well as at school. We believe mentoring has the potential to refocus attention on to an individual’s own strengths and can empower them to make positive decisions for themselves that will build confidence and responsibility.
What Makes KICK’s Mentoring Different?
Our service is delivered with the following key benefits to young people:
All our mentors are qualified Sports or Dance Coaches who are able to engage the young people through their specialism one-to-one and act as role models.
Our mentoring is delivered with strong values with the young person at the centre.
Solutions Focused mentoring allows us to be directive and facilitative in our style.
We have a large proportion of male mentors, which often provide strong role model relationships to challenging male learners.
CHAPLAINCY
Chaplaincy is key service, which permeates the life of a school and all involved. It is our mission at KICK to transform young people’s lives with God’s love and we believe that the role of Chaplain can make a significant impact at a school. We abide by the Christian Chaplaincy in Schools National Standards for our approach to schools’ based Chaplaincy.
Chaplaincy has traditionally been a distinctive feature of universities and colleges and of many church-based schools. Outside the educational context, Chaplaincy has been a feature of the armed forces, of prisons and hospitals and of other institutional situations. Sports Chaplaincy is now commonplace in Football, Rugby Union, and Rugby League; there are over 151,000 more Sports Chaplaincy opportunities across the UK.
The Seven Key Dimensions of School Chaplaincy:
Pastoral – Being present and available to spend time as a trusted adult with a child or children, helping them to engage with particular issues or situations.
Worshipful – Creating, shaping and leading formal and informal worship within School.
Spiritual – Representing the spiritual dimension of human experience and life in community.
Missional – Conveying the ‘Good News’ of God to those with whom they have contact.
Servant-hearted – We want our Chaplains to serve the needs of School and model this to learners.
Prophetic – Presenting truth whenever it is needed within a school to be present, consistent, confident and open about its Christian identity.
Pedagogic – Demonstrating the living out of the Christian faith by example and through the activities, as well as through session delivery in RE, PE and PSHE.
Breakfast, Lunchtime and After School Clubs
KICK provide a variety of clubs including weekly breakfast, lunchtime and after school clubs. All clubs encourage active participation from all individuals and have a capacity of 16 pupils per club to allow for individual interaction. All of our clubs have session plans which seek to ensure these sessions are progressive and fun.
Value Based Assemblies
All of our KICK Coaches love to lead and participate in school assemblies. All coaches are trained and equipped to lead weekly assemblies focussing on values, experiences and various other topics. All of our assemblies have a full scheme of work, are engaging and relevant for the chosen audience. We map our assemblies to 12 monthly values and within each value we apply a different behaviour each week that relates to that value.
More Information Contact/subscribe to us at Engage West Midlands using the Contact form on our website footer www.engageuk.org.uk
and also email KICK: office@kick.org.uk https://kick.org.uk/contact-us/