Former staff of Kids Company, the charity that closed in 2015 amid controversy about how it spent its funds, are still supporting vulnerable children unpaid and in their own time.
The youth workers say that they have struggled to find new jobs because of the stigma of having worked at the charity. Stef Pruski, who worked there for eight years, told The Observer that she had applied for 150 jobs but had had only one interview. Another said: “Kids Company used to have someone come from the jobcentre as a drop-in to give clients advice. And now we’re going to the jobcentre ourselves, in the same situations we were trying to get our clients out of . . . People have lost their homes. People are massively in debt.”
However, staff said that they were continuing to do the work they used to do, unpaid. “If we stopped, we’d be compounding everything they think already about anyone who comes into their lives: that they don’t really care,” said Ms Pruski.
