About Kiss Kiss London

KissKiss London started life as a small project to act upon the wishes of a young businessman, who was dying of colon cancer in 2009. His action was to donate funds to start an initiative to bring awareness to pre-teen and teenage youth regarding the importance of keeping a balanced diet, to include fruit and vegetable portions on a regular basis, and to start exercising or practicing sports as often as possible. Medical and sociological studies have repeatedly shown us that if one adopts the discipline of a healthy body and mind in the early pre-teen years, this discipline can stay with us well into our senior years providing an excellent defence mechanism against many of life's destructive habits and debilitating factors such as alcohol addictions, substance abuse, gambling and apathy as well as depression, lack of confidence, obesity, and unemployment.

Meet the team

Why K-I-S-S K-I-S-S?

Inspired by the dying man's belief in Keeping It Simple and Smart, the first "KISS" had clearly always been there, but along the way it has been transformed to KissKiss to provide a more kid-friendly logo; "Kids In Sport Smile - Kids In Shape Smile" and "London" has been added to make it more project specific and true to the project's urban purpose. A "kiss" logo and a "label" logo (for T-Shirts, Caps) are Trademark-registered, and some designs have been copyright protected. The KissKissLondon.org website has been created and is almost ready to go public. KissKiss London is now a local London business initiative to help kids just around the corner from local businesses. A small administration office is based in Canalot Workspace, Kensal Road, W10 and two local business sponsors are currently on board to help fund the administration costs.

What do we do?

KissKiss London kicked off with its first 'roadshow' on October 1st 2011 in the London Borough of Southwark. For this event, KissKissLondon had teamed up with the Nursery Row Park Committee and performers from the Pembroke House Community Centre to put on its first awareness event for kids and parents from the housing estates surrounding Nursery Row Park. Four events will take place this year (2012) in Islington, Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea, bringing the total in the lead up to the Olympic Games to five roadshows over five London Boroughs.

Our objective

The objective of the local KissKiss London events is to take the message directly to the heart of the housing estates with the aim of identifying five kids per Borough to be sponsored into a sports activity of their choice for an initial period of two academic years. Whilst it is appropriate to launch the sponsorship in the Olympic Games year as the initiative can benefit immensely from the much wider emphasis on sporting activities, it is equally important to continue sponsorship and awareness beyond the Olympic Games.

Our Events

The events use street-dance performances, interactive games, nutrition and exercise information points to bring awareness to the kids and their parents or carers and neighbourhood friends. The selection for the Sports Sponsorship will be carried out by means of a Q&A questionnaire with the kids on the event day; the questions focus on existing nutritional intake on a daily basis and existing exercise or participation in sports on a regular basis and finally the wishes of the kids if the means were available. The KissKiss London sponsorship provides assistance either in the form of sports gear, equipment and/or training facility membership, travel costs or coaching support. The aim is to provide this assistance to those who are not normally able to have access on his or her own due to personal circumstances.

Funding information

KissKiss London started off with an initial donation of £10.000 from Simon before he died. This amount was matched by an anonymous donor. Ongoing business support and sponsorship is being provided by: Mail Boxes Etc of 464 Edgware Road – (photocopying, printing, artwork etc) Erkam Inc – Independent Business Consultancy Sapori Tradizionali Ltd – Italian Catering Company