Kids Company needs a messiah and Coldplay might just be the one.
The band, lead by Chris Martin, is in talks to rescue Kids Company arm Treehouse.
Treehouse, which offered education to children since 2009, has been supported by Martin and his ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow over the years. Coldplay bandmates have reportedly donated up to ยฃ10m to Kids Company in the past few years.
In 2013, Coldplay bought Treehouseโs building in Kilburn for ยฃ1.3m through its charitable foundation JJ Van Mars.
Phil Harvey, Coldplayโs co-manager, said: โWeโre incredibly proud of Treehouseโs work with children in great need over the past six years. Itโs very early stages, but weโre not going to give up on the centre without looking at all options for the future.โ
Kids Company shut its doors last week after allegations of financial mismanagement and sexual abuse came to light. Founder Camila Batmanghelidjh refuted all these claims.
Batmanghelidjh told Newsnight: โThis allegation [sexual abuse] has been brought to us for the first time by the police recently.
โI draw the line at sexual abuse. Itโs one thing kids losing it because they are having a tantrum or they are having a distressing day and they hurl chairs and we deal with all that sort of stuff.
โBut sexual abuse is very serious and if it was brought to our attention we would have absolutely dealt with it very robustly.โ
LondonLovesBusiness spoke to a Kids Company worker last week who said that โpeople might kill themselvesโ over the closure of Kids Company.
Our source told us: โIโm worried that people might kill themselves. Iโm worried that they are going to feel completely unloved and rejected. Weโre not rejecting them, but they might feel that way. And Iโm worried that they wonโt have a roof to sleep under โ a lot of my young people are homeless and Iโm in the process of trying to house them. Some of them are in very, very difficult situations. We support them so much and give them care and love, so itโs really worrying.โ
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