Chance UK is a British

charity Charity may refer to: Giving * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing * C ...

that is based around early intervention in order to prevent crime and

anti-social behaviour Antisocial behavior is a behavior that is defined as the violation of the rights of others by committing crime, such as stealing and physical attack in addition to other behaviors such as lying and manipulation. It is considered to be disrupti ...

, providing

mentors Mentorship is the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the personal and p ...

to children with behavioural difficulties. Based in

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

, it and has helped over 800 children since its 1995 founding. Chance UK is the only organisation in the UK to offer a year of weekly one-to-one mentoring with children aged between five and twelve.

History

Chance UK was set up by policeman Russ Horne who was working in Islington in 1995. He worked with young offenders, and noticed that many of the children he encountered went on to be early entrants to the youth justice system. He started with the belief that with better role models, people who nurtured the child's best qualities and believed in them, young people could be steered away from a life of criminal and anti-social behaviour. A small amount of pump-priming funding, just £28,000 to cover the first years costs, was received from the Cripplegate Foundation and Sir John Cass Foundation. The steering committee, made up of Russ and a number of others, drawn from the Educational Welfare Department, the Police service, and Neighborhood Service, recruited Dave Conroy as its first employee. He set up the charity and designed its 'solution focused' approach to early intervention, based on the pioneering work of

Steve de Shazer Steve de Shazer (June 25, 1940, Milwaukee – September 11, 2005, Vienna) was a psychotherapist, author, and developer and pioneer of solution focused brief therapy. In 1978, he founded the Brief Family Therapy Center (BFTC) in Milwaukee, W ...

and his wife

Insoo Kim Berg Insoo Kim Berg (25 July 1934 – 10 January 2007) was a Korean-born American psychotherapist who was a pioneer of solution focused brief therapy. Biography Berg was born and raised in Seoul, Korea. She was a pharmacy major at Ewha Womans Unive ...

. Additional funding was received at the end of 1995 through a Home Office 'reducing criminality' initiative which enabled the fledgling charity to pilot its approach over the following three years. Dave ran the charity from February 1995 to October 1999, supported by two co-ordinators, Jenny van Dyk and Bev Light, several social work placement students and some irregular volunteer office support. For the first several months CHANCE UK operated from a desk located in the offices of the Safer Islington Partnership. As Dave says, 'on my first day I turned up and was shown a desk, phone and empty in-try, nothing else existed but Russ's idea!'. From 1999 Balwant Singh was Chief Executive Officer, finishing in 2001 when Gracia McGrath O.B.E. took over as CEO of the charity.

Funding

Chance UK is a registered UK charity (charity no. 1046947), therefore the funding comes from a variety of sources, including direct from Councils and Boroughs, fund raising, BBC Children in Need, partner charities and philanthropic donations.

Major awareness campaigns

The Big Influence

During October and November 2010, Chance UK ran The Big Influence campaign, encouraging celebrities and the general public to speak about who influenced them as a child. The campaign's aim was to highlight the positive impact that adults had on the lives of the celebrities when they were young, and to encourage people to become that positive influence for today's children. Some Notable celebrities that took part in the campaign included

Nick Jonas Nicholas Jerry Jonas (born September 16, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. Jonas began acting on Broadway at the age of seven, and released his debut single in 2002; this caught the attention of Columbia Records, where Jonas ...

Jamie Oliver James Trevor Oliver MBE OSI (born 27 May 1975) is an English chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is known for his casual approach to cuisine, which has led him to front numerous television shows and open many restaurants. Oliver reac ...

Paloma Faith Paloma Faith Blomfield (born 21 July 1981) is an English singer and actress. Her debut studio album, '' Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?,'' was released in 2009 and was certified double platinum in the UK. The album spawned the sin ...

and

Jo Brand Josephine Grace Brand (born 23 July 1957) is an English comedian, writer, presenter and actress. Starting her entertainment career with a move from psychiatric nursing to the alternative comedy stand-up scene and early performances on '' Satu ...

Christopher Eccleston’s BBC Radio 4 Appeal

On 8 September 2011, Christopher Eccleston made an appeal on behalf of Chance UK for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

. During the 3 minute broadcast Eccleston highlighted the important work the charity does with young children.

Evaluation and success

In 2008, the Department of

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wo ...

completed an independent evaluation of Chance UK's London work. They found that: * 98% of children showed reductions in levels of behavioural difficulty * 51% showed no behavioural difficulty at all by the end of the mentoring year

Recognition and awards

Chance UK has received several awards for its work with children, including: * Queen's Golden Jubilee Award for Voluntary Service 2006 * Mentor UK Alcohol Misuse Prevention Award 2006 * Judges for 2006

Longford Prize The Longford Prize is an annual award presented in the United Kingdom to an organization, group, or individuals working in the field of social or penal reform. It was established in 2002 in honor of Lord Longford, a lifelong penal reform campai ...

- Honorable Mention for Outstanding Work in the Fields of Prison and Social Reform * Children and Young People's Services Awards 2008 – Preventative Work Award * CSJ Awards 2009 * Neighbourhood Builder Awards 2010 – Neighbourhood Excellence Initiative *Britain's Most Admired Charities – Most Innovative Charity 2011 {{cite web, title=Third Sector, url=http://www.thirdsectorsuppliersguide.com/Governance/article/1099309/most-innovative-charity-bmac-2011-chance-uk/

References

Charities based in London