As a finalist in two different awards competitions, NASSA will gain local and national recognition for its role in helping to change the lives of young people in east London.
The work of our Carry A Basketball Not A Blade (CABNAB) initiative to educate young people on the dangers of knife crime, county lines activity and gang membership will also feature at the premiere of a new documentary.
Above all of that, former NASSA player Teddy Okereafor will make history as the player to have made more consecutive appearances for the Great Britain men’s basketball team when he steps out on court to represent his country in Newcastle.
The 29-year-old will complete a remarkable 16-year journey from Balaam Park in Plaistow to play his 50th consecutive game for Team GB in a World Cup qualifier against Greece.
That day in Balaam Park in 2005 saw the first-ever NASSA session when NASSA founder Natasha Hart took her two sons for an impromptu basketball lesson.
NASSA was founded the following year and as the charity grew, so did Teddy, eventually heading to the USA to embark on a college basketball career and then a professional career that has taken in stops in Latvia, Greece, Italy and now back in the UK with Cheshire Phoenix.
Teddy equalled the consecutive game record of Bill McInnes, who played in his 49th consecutive game for GB in 1976, when he faced France in February.
He will make it 50 in a row in Newcastle and has played in every GB game since his debut against New Zealand in 2015.
When Teddy is not playing basketball, he is helping to coach and mentor NASSA young people at every opportunity, serving as an inspiration and a guide to them.
Some of the current NASSA generation are featured in a new ‘Ignite Your Potential’ documentary which has been made to celebrate the work and impact of the Mayor of London’s Young Londoners Fund in tackling knife crime in the capital.
The documentary, to which two groups of NASSA young people contributed in filming, editing and marketing, will be premiered at the Rich Mix cinema in Shoreditch on Thursday evening.
Around the same time, NASSA’s work in supporting and mentoring young people in east London through the Covid-19 pandemic will be celebrated in the Children & Young People Now Awards 2021. NASSA is a finalist in the Mental Health and Wellbeing category.
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Natasha Hart is a finalist in the Community Hero of the Year category at the East London Community Heroes awards, another wonderful piece of recognition.