NEWS
4th February 2020: A visit from the Mayor!
The Harrow Club was honoured to welcome the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and two Watford FC players, Andre Gray and Daniel Philips to the Harrow Club on Tuesday 4th Feb. The visit was filmed and aired by the BBC London’s Lunchtime News Piece on Thursday 6th February, as well as BBC Radio 4.
The Harrow Club was chosen out of all youth groups funded by the Mayor’s Young Londoners Fund for the Mayor’s visit due to the unique and cutting-edge nature of our Another Way violence reduction project. This project, funded by the Mayor’s Young Londoners Fund, runs from 10pm to 2am two nights a week and works with young people currently involved in or at risk of being involved in gang-related activities, providing a safe space, mentoring programmes and pathways to employment.
The Mayor spoke with our Another Way attendees about the importance of the project before participating in a friendly race to fix a go-kart tyre, one element of the motor maintenance course taught to our young people. The Mayor then spoke with our Juniors who had prepared a communal meal of spaghetti bolognese as part of our Cooking Project, before watching a drama performance involving our Seniors about the impacts of knife crime on families in the local community. The Mayor finished his visit with a round table discussion about youth crime and the crucial role our Another Way project plays in supporting young people to find alternative routes. This discussion included our CEO, Michael Defoe, our Another Way Project Leader, Nekisha da Costa, as well as three Another Way attendees and parents. The day ended with our under 10s football team playing with Andre Gray and Daniel Philips from Watford FC; a huge delight for all.
20th November 2019: Another Way Fundraiser Dinner
Our Another Way Fundraiser Dinner took place on the 20th November 2019 and was a great success, raising over £100,000. The evening was studded by compelling speeches from Emmanuel da Silva, reformed prisoner and author, and two of our Another Way attendees.
Aged 38, Emmanuel found himself facing a 23-year sentence in Wormwood Scrubs prison, one of the most violent prisons in the UK. Since then, Emmanuel has turned his life around, completing degrees in Social Science and Religion and in Arts and Humanities, as well as writing a book, Killing Time. Just as Emmanuel found another way, the Harrow Club’s Another Way project works to offer young people alternative routes to violence and improved life chances. We are very excited to announce that from April 2020 Emmanuel will be assisting our Another Project.
Similarly, two of our Another Way project attendees spoke at the event, sharing experiences about the dangers facing young people living in the local community. In particular, how young people can easily become the targets of postcode gang warfare. Both speakers emphasised the crucial role that the Harrow Club’s Another Way project plays in keeping them safe and focused on creating a positive future for themselves. Our Another Way project has put twenty young people into college or training and ten into work since February 2019 when this project launched.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Emmanuel and our young people for speaking at our event and raising awareness about the challenging circumstances facing young people in our community, but also demonstrating that with the right support, no challenge is insurmountable.
We would also like to say how incredibly thankful we are to our table hosts and guests who attended and so generously supported our Another Way 2019 Fundraiser. The funds raised will go directly towards sustaining and developing the life-changing work we do.
July 2019: Philippe Chappatte elected new Chair of the Board of Trustees
Philippe Chappatte has been elected the new Chair of the Board of Trustees, as of September 2019, following the retirement of Les Roberts, who has served as chairman for the last 3 years and has been a trustee since 2010. Les has been instrumental in refocusing the clubs’ activities to date and we cannot thank him enough for his hard work and dedication to the Club.
“I am delighted to have been elected by my fellow Trustees to be the new Chair of the Club. We have great ambitions for the Club and are building a really strong team under Michael Defoe’s leadership to be able to deliver more high impact programs to the most disadvantaged young people in our Community. We are focusing on challenging youth work with 12 to 18 years olds who are have been excluded or are at risk of being excluded from school. Please come and join our efforts.” Philippe Chappatte
18th April 2019: Harrow Club Seniors take to the stage!
The Harrow Club runs drama and dance clubs for both Juniors (ages 8-11) and Seniors (11-18) together with our partners The Gate Theatre and Dance West.
Our Seniors devised, wrote, produced and starred in an excellent piece of drama which was performed in front of a public audience at the Gate Theatre. Bravo!
25th - 26th August: The Harrow Club Float takes to Notting Hill Carnival!
On Family Day, our Juniors (ages 8-11) and youth workers paraded through Notting Hill in celebration of Notting Hill Carnival. This was the result of weeks of hard work making costumes and decorations led by Mathilde Glossop, leader of the Juniors Club. This involved a huge amount of wire bending, a phenomenal amount of glitter and glue and a lot of fun!
28th February 2019: Wetherby Prep School x Harrow Club Fundraiser
We would like to say a huge thank you to Wetherby Prep School which held its school drinks and fundraiser at and for the benefit of the Harrow Club this year. Alongside a wonderful evening of drinks and canapés the attendees enjoyed performances from the youth clubs, the dance programme showcased their latest routine and there was a joint performance by the Wetherby Choir and the Junior Youth Club. The event was an incredible success and the generosity of Wetherby parents and Mr Snell has allowed us to go ahead with a great number of very important, but to date under-funded, activities for our young people.
We would also like to say how incredibly thankful we are to our table hosts and guests who have supported our Debate Box Dinner last Autumn so generously. This event hosts the finale of the Debate Box Project where pupils who have been through the programme compete with each other using their new talents of debating and boxing. Following the event, the pupils were full of enthusiasm and confidence and in shock at what they had achieved in the ring. The event has run for three very successful years and has raised awareness of the Harrow Club in the wider community. It is not the normal charity dinner!
4th April 2019: Finally, Football Success!
Our Harrow Club Football Team just won the Middlesex Youth League for Under 16s.
The final was in April and the score was 10-nil against Hillingdon Abbots Football Club.
Congratulations to all those who took part!
