When Elsa was 11 years old, her parents enrolled her on a holiday scheme at nearby Laburnum Boat Club in Hackney, provoking feelings of overwhelming anxiety and dread. Elsa suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder and felt intense distress at the thought of leaving the house and subjecting herself to a completely new experience she could not control.
“I had visions of capsizing the kayak, falling into the water and getting a face full of algae,” she says. “But my parents said they had to work, so I agreed to go on condition they wrote to Laburnum explaining how terrified I was of going on the water. When the day arrived, Dom, the lead youth worker, took me out with him in a canoe. I thought he would be all frantic and uptight because of my letter, but he was totally calm and unfazed by my fears.”
Elsa adds: “By the end of the day, I felt so relaxed and safe with Dom that I was jumping into the Regent’s Canal. I went home and told my mum, ‘I love it’, and ended up going back every day that summer.”
Today, five years later, 16-year-old Elsa is employed part-time by Laburnum and is almost unrecognisable from that cowering 11-year-old. She is passionate about kayaking — winning a silver medal in the Under-17 Kayak Slalom at the London Youth Games earlier this year — and has become a confident young woman, willing to take risks and try new things. In so doing, she has emerged as a leader.
Laburnum Boat Club, situated on a narrow patch of land on the Regent’s Canal in the middle of high-rise Hackney, works with up to 2,000 children a year, many of them hard to reach or struggling with some form of disability. Founded in 1983, the charity uses water sports as a hook to build wellbeing, self-esteem and community, offering kayaking, canoeing, stand-up paddle boarding and narrowboat skippering.
It is one of five charities we are backing as part of our £500,000 Sporting Chance campaign, which champions sports coaching and mentoring to transform the lives of disadvantaged young Londoners. Alongside Bloomsbury Football Foundation, Fight for Peace and Carney’s Community, it has received a £62,500 grant from the Standard’s Dispossessed Fund, administered by The London Community Foundation. A further £250,000 from the Dispossessed Fund has been pledged to fund school sports programmes delivered by our campaign partner, Greenhouse Sports.
On the day I visit, the air is full of excitement as around 20 children from nearby Haggerston School are given a kayaking session. “That is our fifth school so far today,” says Laburnum Co-ordinator Beth Ettinger.
The club has more than 80 canoes, kayaks and paddleboards and hosts 7,000 visits a year, she says, most from young people aged 12 to 21 living in areas of high deprivation. It employs 22 full-time and part-time staff, 90 per cent of whom have lived experience.
For Elsa, facing her fears as an 11-year-old has transformed her life.
“It’s a stark change between me now and me then,” she says. “I was the girl who stayed in her box at school and never took risks. New environments were to be avoided — even holidays — and school was a struggle. Kayaking became my escape. Out on the water, all my troubles and insecurities disappeared. I made friends, I laughed, I had fun.”
Laburnum in numbers
2,000 Young people supported in a year
29 Schools engaged
90% Proportion of staff with lived experience
44% Black and minority ethnic participants
41% Female participants
Elsa took on new challenges, passing her Paddle UK Coach Assessment whilst studying for her GCSEs and becoming Laburnum’s youngest-ever qualified kayak coach. Next year she hopes to study music production at a music and arts college and says she now feels her life is unfolding as it should.
Another Laburnum participant turned part-time coach is Nadekah, 21, who first came down at 17 to “tick the volunteer box” as part of her Duke of Edinburgh Award requirements.
“I thought I’d just go through the motions, but when I got here, something unexpected happened,” she says. “At school, I was a quiet girl with dyslexia who never risked speaking up for fear of embarrassing myself, whereas at Laburnum I was thrust into leadership positions that were a massive shock to the system. I was expected to run activities with up to 50 children of different ages and abilities. At first, I tried to shy away, but they encouraged me, and each time I discovered I could do it — and that I enjoyed it.”
Currently studying design at university, Nadekah says part of Laburnum’s appeal is the opportunity to go white-water kayaking, which was “an adrenaline rush, totally thrilling”.
How your money can help Greenhouse Sports
£15 Could enable a young person to access their programme for a week
£65 Could provide 4 weeks of sports coaching and mentoring, helping a young person build confidence, resilience and a sense of belonging
£165 Could provide coaching and mentoring during school holidays
£800 Could provide a full year of coaching and mentoring, ensuring they stay engaged with school and develop the life skills to fulfil their potential
“You think, ‘No way can I do that’ — and then you do it and you feel amazing.”
For Nadekah, the lessons she learned on the water are transferable to life.
“It made me more responsible. I learned that if you set yourself a goal, you are more likely to achieve it if you plan for it and manage your time properly.”
It has also influenced her career ambitions — to go into design of public services that are more inclusive for people. “Where I live, on the edge of an East London estate, there is not much community outdoor space or things to do for people of my age. Laburnum is genuinely inclusive and I want to help young Londoners from low-income households like mine have more places like it.”
Campaign in a nutshell
The Standard has joined forces with Greenhouse Sports to deliver sports coaching and mentoring to young people in secondary schools across some of London’s most deprived boroughs. So far, £500,000 has been raised, with £250,000 going to Greenhouse Sports programmes in London and £250,000 to four other youth charities across the capital, including Laburnum Boat Club. We are calling on corporations, foundations, philanthropists — and our readers — to donate. All funds raised will go to Greenhouse Sports programmes in London.
Click here to donate; join the conversation online with #SportingChance.
