rugby portobello

The Rugby Portobello Trust is a youth, education and housing charity, based in North Kensington, that has a long history of working individually with young people, aged 5 to 25, to help them get the skills they need to help themselves.

We have an innovative small secondary school for students who need an alternative to mainstream education. In addition, we offer a wide range of vocational courses covering cooking, computing and music production. Our thriving group of committed volunteers provides one-to-one mentoring and academic support, as well as running an afterschool homework club.

Our centre in Walmer Road offers a safe haven for young people to grow and flourish through a range of life changing services. These include learning skills, such as how to get a job or train for one, and social development, for example, training them to give other young people advice on drugs or sexual health. Through our Youth Team we organize sporting activities, adventure trips and a project called Flyaway Fridays to encourage them to widen their horizons beyond their local area.

We house and support up to 80 young people in the area, where there is a chronic property shortage and lack of affordable housing. Many of them are leaving local authority care or are otherwise vulnerable and our focus is to teach them to live independently.

Every year over 800 young people from the neighbourhood come through our doors, some of them dealing with very difficult situations. The key to our work is that we treat each one of them as individuals, providing the space and support they need to explore their interests and build their self-esteem. We make a difference to their future.