'My music was therapy after the Grenfell fire'

"There were a lot of underlying issues I hadn't really come to peace with," Malachi Saunders says

Project leaders helping to assist and rebuild the community in the aftermath of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire say they have achieved successes they never thought possible.

Organisers at Kids On The Green (KOTG) in North Kensington, west London, say it has become a place for young people to learn and express themselves, helping them find new opportunities.

Some of them have gained qualifications in performing arts, while others will be progressing to paid work placements or entering further education.

Among those who have benefited is musician and producer Malachi Saunders, 23, who has completed placements in music studios and on television shows as a sound engineer.

'We are a safe space'

Mr Saunders, who was studying for his GCSEs at the time of the fire, said: "I remember walking to school, saw the fire and from then went to school.

"After that day... there were a lot of underlying issues I hadn't really come to peace with, so it's like my music was a therapy for that."

KOTG runs a youth club, therapy services and also has its own music and podcast studios, along with radio and TV production suites

The KOTG centre on Latimer Road runs a youth club, therapy services and also has its own music and podcast studios, along with radio and TV production suites.

The organisation has also created professional training programmes and offers work placements.

KOTG founder Zoe Levack said the group was "not a traditional youth club, we are a safe space for young people and children to just come and be".

She added: "Some of these young people have come... with huge personal challenges, a lot of the young people that have graduated have been excluded or are at risk of exclusion at the moment from mainstream education.

"Apparently they're unteachable - that's not what we've found."

Founder Zoe Levack says KOTG is "not a traditional youth club"

Mr Saunders said it wasn't straightforward trying to gain experience before he was part of Kids On The Green, but now "the accessibility is here; it's a lot more easy".

He added: "The only way is up, really and truly, from where I've started to where I am now.

"The more I keep doing, the more I'm working on myself, the more keeps falling into place. The best is yet to come. I haven't even started yet."

'The plaster just came off'

"What Grenfell showed us was that actually there is a place for everybody," Melanie Juno Wolfe from North Kensington Community Kitchen said

Another group that has pulled together in the wake of the fire is North Kensington Community Kitchen, run by Melanie Juno Wolfe.

Supported by charities the Felix Project and City Harvest London, the organisation takes fresh and canned food with a short shelf life and distributes crates of produce across North Kensington.

Ms Wolf said that while it started as a community response effort during the pandemic for families with special needs or excluded children, the project had grown since then.

"You can have an idea and you can start something, but if everyone doesn't put that bit into it you're going to get nowhere," she said.

"What Grenfell showed us was that actually there is a place for everybody, there is something everybody can do to make a difference."

She added that in recent years, "the plaster that's been on everything here because of the huge inequality and the issues around social justice that we have in pockets of the area, really that plaster just came off".

"We were flooded with people who felt they were lost, and we were able to help them and support them and bring them together."

Meanwhile at children's community football club Kensington Dragons, which offers access to free and accessible sport, organisers have seen an uptick in the number of people joining up after the fire. The club now has 20 teams, from nine-year-olds to young adults.

Coach Magnus McDowall said: "What we want to do is provide that support on weeknights and weekends where maybe statutory provision can't fill in.

"It's all about improving young people's mental health and well-being, and physical health; but also bringing the community together through free football and using the role we play in the kids' lives to expand life opportunities."