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NASSA is on top of the charity world

Newham All Star Sports Academy (NASSA) has received the ultimate accolade by being announced as Charity of the Year in The Charity Awards 2014 — the most prestigious awards programme in the charity sector.

The highly coveted honour was announced last night at a star-studded awards evening hosted by comedian Stephen Frost at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. Read more here.

Earlier in the evening, NASSA was chosen as winner of the Children and Youth category because of the impact that our Carry A Basketball Not A Blade (CABNAB) initiative has had on our young people and the local community in east London.

The overall Charity of the Year was then selected from the 10 category winners. For NASSA it is the highest possible praise for the work that began with an impromptu basketball coaching session in an east London park in 2005.

Charity Awards judge Sir Christopher Kelly described NASSA as “a really energetic organisation doing substantial things to help the local community.”

The Charity Awards, which celebrated its 15th year last night, is a year-round programme run by Civil Society Media in partnership with the Charities Aid Foundation.

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NASSA founder Natasha Hart said: “We are used to winning on the basketball court but we could never have imagined winning off it in such a manner. This award is for everyone connected with NASSA — our wonderful coaches, our dedicated volunteers, the parents who entrust us with their children, the community partners who support us, our patron, the Rt Hon Stephen Timms, MP for Newham and Rt Rev Mgr John Armitage VG and, of course, our young people. They are the reason we do what we do and they have achieved so much.”