The awards, which are run by the Rotary Club Stratford, are in their fifth year. They honour individuals and organisations for their extraordinary contributions to the east London community.
NASSA was chosen to receive its award for its unique ethos in combining basketball skills training, mentoring young people to support them with their mental health and educating them on the dangers of knife crime, county lines activity and gang memberships through our Carry A Basketball Not A Blade (CABNAB) initiative.
The judging panel praised NASSA and its Chief Executive Natasha Hart MBE with this statement:
The awards ceremony was attended by many local dignitaries, including Rokhsana Fiaz, Mayor of Newham and Rt Hon Sir Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham.
Collecting the award on behalf of NASSA, Natasha Hart said:
CABNAB Founder Anthony Okereafor
The ‘Carry A Basketball Not A Blade 15th Anniversary — The Next 100,000’ event showcased talks from some of the young people who have been educated by NASSA on the dangers of knife crime, county lines activity and gang culture since CABNAB was set up in 2008.
The initiative was established by NASSA player Anthony Okereafor after two of his friends were stabbed to death in east London parks within weeks of each other.
Anthony had been playing basketball with NASSA when each incident occurred and realised it could have been him.
CABNAB talks and workshops were developed in partnership with the Metropolitan Police and are now delivered in all NASSA’s club and schools programmes, passing the 100,000 attendances milestone this year.
The need for them was reinforced by Anthony in an impassioned speech about the realities that knife crime continues to present in east London.
The City Hall event was attended by local dignitaries, including NASSA Patron Rt Hon Sir Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham, and Jeremy Rees, CEO of ExCeL London.
Members of the east London business community, included several from Canary Wharf, heard speeches from Sir Stephen, London Assembly Committee Member Unmesh Desai, and Darwin Bernardo of the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit.
NASSA Patron Rt Hon Sir Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham
Former NASSA players Calvin Kintu, Sahara Wilson, Sidney Ekio, Naomi Hart and Ilyas Dar all made speeches acknowledging the role that NASSA played in their development as players, citizens and role models for others.
Jennifer Lauren-Smart, whose son Myles was a NASSA participant for 10 years, also made a heartfelt speech about the force for good that NASSA represents in east London.
Former NASSA player Sahara-Wilson
NASSA volunteer and parent Jennifer Lauren-Smart
Former NASSA player Calvin Kintu
In recognition of his work fighting knife crime and the impact it has made on the lives of young people across east London for the past 14 years, Anthony was invited to carry the Baton on one of the most prestigious legs of its journey around the UK.
The Queen’s Baton Relay is helping to celebrate the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Anthony carried it across the Thames on Saturday, June 4 aboard a Metropolitan Police boat.
Picking up the Baton at London Eye before boarding the Police boat, he was joined by members of the Metropolitan Police, passing in front of the Houses of Parliament and travelling across the Thames to Blackfriars Pier.
Anthony said: “It was a huge honour to carry the Queen’s Baton and very humbling, too. I felt I was holding it aloft for all those young people who have lost their lives as a result of knife crime in the past 14 years since we founded CABNAB.”
Anthony founded NASSA’s Carry A Basketball Not A Blade (CABNAB) initiative which educates young people about the dangers of knife crime, county lines and gang activity. CABNAB now educates over 2,000 local schoolchildren every year on the dangers of knife crime in partnership with the Metropolitan Police.
“This is such an honour to see NASSA’s name on a DLR train. I couldn’t be more proud,” said NASSA Founder and Chief Executive Natasha Hart MBE.
“Many of the young people NASSA supports have troubled home lives. Because of Covid, they couldn’t attend their regular NASSA sessions and many of them lost focus, the motivation to do schoolwork or to look after their personal hygiene and ambition for the future.
“Most tragically of all, in the first wave of the virus, six NASSA participants lost a parent to Covid-19. Five of the parents were in their 40s, the other was in his 50s. All were from the BAME community.
“These deaths impacted not only on teenagers who, without warning, suddenly had to contemplate life without one of their parents, but also on their friends and fellow NASSA participants.
“The young people asked for help with their mental health. The coaches mentored them on an individual basis either via Facetime or a phone call. Each young person was given as much time as he or she wanted. Some spoke to a coach every day for as much as an hour. Others, a few times per week for 10 or 20 minutes.
“Each NASSA coach was spending 20-30 hours of their week mentoring young people remotely. They weren’t getting paid for it because with basketball sessions stopped, much of NASSA’s income was suspended, yet they carried on talking to the young people anyway because they knew how much they were needed.”
No subject was off limits in the confidential conversations — boredom, anger, hopelessness, drugs, alcohol, smoking, gang activity, even suicide. The work was carried out with the aid of funding from a number of sources including the People’s Postcode Lottery through its Postcode Neighbourhood Trust.
Natasha Hart added: “We are so grateful to organisations like the People’s Postcode Lottery for investing in NASSA’s commitment to local young people. It is impossible to overstate the positive impact this impact has made, not just for now but for the long term.”
The NASSA mentoring team consisted of NASSA coaches and staff members, Great Britain international and former NASSA player Teddy Okereafor and even four NASSA participants who began mentoring their friends.
The full team recognised in the Covid Heroes Awards is comprised of:
As well as offering mental health support, the NASSA mentors spent their time sourcing free short Open University learning courses to encourage extra learning within the young people.
That first game changed his life, just as it did the lives of thousands of young people who have followed him onto the NASSA basketball court.
As if college basketball in the United States and a professional career that has taken in stops in Italy, Greece and now back in the UK with Bristol Flyers wasn’t enough, Teddy, now 28, will make history for his country this weekend.
If he appears against both Germany on Saturday and France on Saturday, the prize on offer will not just be for the point guard to help Great Britain’s men qualify for EuroBasket 2022.
Sunday will represent Teddy’s 49th consecutive game for Team GB, matching an all-time record set by Bill McInnes in 1976.
“It is something that I will always take a lot of pride in,” Teddy said in a week when he has been courting national headlines because of his achievement.
The pride is NASSA’s, too. That first game in Balaam Park ultimately led to the foundation of NASSA and an opportunity for young people across east London to dream big with Teddy’s career lighting the way as a symbol of what is possible.
The measure of Teddy’s continued devotion to NASSA was seen this summer when the first Covid-19 national lockdown was lifted and outdoor sports sessions were permitted again.
While participation numbers were restricted to just six per session, Teddy turned up at local parks across east London to help NASSA Head Coach Donnie Cabrera inspire the young people who are following in his NASSA footsteps.
This weekend, they will be following his actions on court from afar.
“GB is my favourite team to play for,” Teddy added in an online interview with The Mirror. “The pride you have playing for your country is something you can’t compare to anything else.”
The pride is ours, Teddy.
Read the full Mirror article on Teddy here
Read the full Morning Star article on Teddy here
— Teddy Okereafor
We were announced as winners in the Health and Wellbeing category for the mentoring work we have carried out during the coronavirus lockdown and beyond.
NASSA basketball sessions were suspended in March 2020 and were not permitted again until June when six participants at a time were allowed back on outdoor courts.
The remote mentoring work carried out by NASSA coaches and staff was vital to the mental health of over 150 vulnerable young people.
Through individual Facetime sessions and phone calls, each young person was given as much support as or she needed or wanted to talk through the issues affecting them.
NASSA also streamed live fitness classes and basketball skills sessions for the young people to join in daily.
The awards were staged remotely by the Rotary Club of Stratford which commended NASSA for “transforming their position to provide effective mental health and wellbeing to young people in response to the COVID crisis.
“The challenge of supporting people with mental health issues shows initiative and energy.
“Fear, isolation and loneliness are major issues, so to grapple with them so swiftly is commendable.
“NASSA is a well-known and well-liked organisation who do amazing things. They showed focus and awareness to support young people when so many services were struggling.”
Accepting the award, NASSA Chief Executive Natasha Hart MBE praised the work of everyone within the NASSA family during the pandemic.
She said: “It is great news and so well deserved for all the NASSA volunteers, coaches and parents who made time to help young people during this really difficult period. This is an award for everybody at NASSA.
“It has been an immense challenge for myself and all the NASSA coaches, so this award will give everyone connected with the charity a boost to know that what we are doing is being valued.
“There is so much more to do and the young people need our help more than ever at the moment.”
The 18-year-old from Leyton will study Medicine at Oriel College after passing the prestigious Oxford Entrance Exam.
Ilyas will become the first young person to represent NASSA at Oxford. His journey with NASSA began over six years ago, along with twin brother Kyan.
Born in London of Spanish parentage, when the boys first attended NASSA sessions they were very shy and not particularly physically active.
They have shone ever since, not as basketball players, but as young men dedicated to basketball as a sport in which they can pursue their ambitions. The twins have progressed through the NASSA age group teams and gained valuable sports qualifications in basketball refereeing, officiating and coaching along the way.
In December 2018, Ilyas was named alongside Kyan as the Young Person of the Year at the L&Q Foundation Awards to celebrate their commitment to the NASSA L&Q Junior Coaches Programme.
The twins’ father, Framaz Dar, became a NASSA volunteer and is now an assistant basketball coach having qualified through NASSA.
NASSA Chief Executive Natasha Hart said: “I have seen Ilyas grow into an extremely well-mannered and confident young man. To get into Oxford University is an amazing feat and everyone at NASSA is so proud of him.
Our work was recognised in the Everybody Benefits — Long Term Enterprise Award category. It is the second time that NASSA has been recognised by the Directory of Social Change, having done so in 2013.
NASSA Chief Executive Natasha Hart MBE said: “It is so gratifying to know that NASSA’s work is being recognised nationally. As with every award NASSA receives, this is for our wonderful coaches and volunteers, and especially our young people.”
The young people were shown around one of the £8million air ambulances and given a talk by a London’s Air Ambulance staff member.
Because of restrictions on the number of people allowed up on the Helipad at any one time, the NASSA party was split into two groups. One group watched on while the ambulance was launched to attend a stabbing victim in south-west London, while the other group saw the ambulance return.
NASSA has been working in partnership with London’s Air Ambulance since the summer of 2019. Specially formulated basketball skills sessions wrap around talks from London’s Air Ambulance Outreach Manager Rhiannon Evans.
She educates the NASSA young people on the work of the emergency services, particularly in relation to victims of knife crime.
