Kreative Culture Klub (KCK) has expanded and is still growing stronger (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

Kreative Culture Klub (KCK) has expanded and is still growing stronger

12:09pm Friday 12th March 2010 in

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A GROUP set up the harness the creativity of young people on a Leyton estate hopes to secure its future with more funding.

The Kreative Culture Klub was started by Yvonne Bailey to create activities for young people on the Oliver Road estate in Leyton and now has almost 150 members attending a variety of weekly classes.

As well as a weekly youth club, it now runs classes in cheerleading, singing, music, street-dancing, and ballet.

Ms Bailey said: “When we started in 1998, there was a need for what we were doing in Oliver Road. It started as a six-month pilot. I had no idea what I was doing at the time, but it has grown and exceeded all my expectations.”

Although it was at first predominantly attended by young people from the black community, Ms Bailey said that it has always been inclusive and she is happy to see children joining from all backgrounds.

One of the ballet classes has children from many backgrounds including English, Polish and Romanian children, taught by a Russian-method ballet teacher, Era Shala from Albania.

Ms Shala trained rising star ten-year-old Welsley Branch from Leytonstone before he got into The Royal Ballet School.

Ms Shala said: “I did lots of work with him and he has done really well and now I have another girl who I am helping to train for the Royal Ballet School this year.”

Ms Bailey said she hopes the group will continue to grow, but will need more funding to secure its future. She said: “I have lots of ideas for the future. You have to give variety in order to attract a wide range of young people.

"Although, unfortunately our funding is only short-term. I would like to get more funding to have paid staff because we rely so heavily on volunteers.”

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