MISSION

What we’ve done so far

Skate Haven CIC began running skate sessions in the summer of 2021. In the past two years, we have had hundreds of attendances to our free skate sessions with various youth charities in south London. We have organised dozens of trips to skateparks across London and rewarded a handful of young people with skateboards and helmets for their continued participation and engagement.

In November 2022, Skate Haven partnered with Step Out Mentoring. Step Out Mentoring is an early intervention service based in south London that supports young people (aged 8-18) who are disengaged with education and/or life. Since then, Skate Haven has held free weekly sessions with the young people at Step Out.

In April 2023, Skate Haven became a part of the Edu-Skate Worldwide Network (read more about Edu-Skate). This marked the beginning of Skate Haven’s application of the Edu-Skate framework to support the development of young people’s essential life skills (such as confidence, resilience, and creativity).

In June 2023, Skate Haven was awarded a small grant from Charterhouse in Southwark, an old charity in Southwark that supports children, families, and communities in Southwark, to acquire skate obstacles and equipment. The bulk of this funding has been spent on a series of skate obstacles.

In November 2023, Skate Haven was awarded a grant from Sport England via the National Lottery-funded small grants programme, to train and pay coaches for the delivery of Edu-Skate sessions in 2024.

In January 2024, Skate Haven moved its inventory and obstacles to the multi-sports facility, Decathlon in Canada Water. Skate Haven began holding two weekly sessions on Fridays and Sundays.

Plan for 2024

In 2024 we have 5 objectives:

  • Continue consistent provision for our current beneficiaries

  • Enrol more young people in our services

  • Open up paid & volunteering positions

  • Conduct research on the benefits of our programme

  • Write an annual report

    We intend to continue consistent provision for free to our key beneficiaries. This will primarily consist of weekly sessions at Decathlon in Canada Water (Southwark). We aim to continue providing occasional group trips to skate parks in and around London.

    We hope to enrol more young people in our services. This will be achieved by developing more partnerships with other youth charities across London. This will involve running introductory sessions for youth centres and opening up session slots at Decathlon for their beneficiaries.

    We will open up paid & volunteering positions for anyone willing to contribute to our cause. Currently, our priority is to find experienced coaches who are willing to take on additional safeguarding and mentorship training.

    We will conduct research on the benefits of our programme. Codirector, Miguel Nyberg, is undertaking this project as part of his master’s dissertation. This research will be in collaboration with academics at UCL and Goldsmiths university and in partnership with Concrete Jungle Foundation.

    At the end of the year, we will share a thorough annual report. This will include information about sessions, participant numbers and demographics, partnerships, coaches, locations, and descriptions of programme successes and deficiencies.