Free@Last
Charity 1101078
Overview
Summary
Free@Last appears to be a place-based, child-centred community organisation in Nechells, Birmingham. Its current public identity concentrates on improving children’s and young people’s life chances in an area it describes as experiencing severe inequality, while its governing objects retain a broader community-development model spanning facilities, social enterprise, education, wellbeing and collaboration. This suggests an organisation using youth support as both an immediate intervention and a route toward longer-term neighbourhood renewal.
Operational geography
No operational geography is currently available for this organisation.
Areas of work
- Amateur Sport
- Arts/culture/heritage/science
- Economic/community Development/employment
- Education/training
- General Charitable Purposes
- Recreation
- The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty
Who they help
- Children/young People
- Elderly/old People
- People With Disabilities
- The General Public/mankind
How they help
- Provides Advocacy/advice/information
- Provides Buildings/facilities/open Space
- Provides Human Resources
- Provides Services
Discoveries involving this organisation
The Atlas has not published any Discoveries involving this organisation yet.
Observations
Youth work appears to be the organisation’s route into wider community change
Free@Last appears to frame children and young people not as an isolated beneficiary group, but as the focal point through which it seeks to strengthen families, opportunities and the wider Nechells community.
Why it matters
This helps distinguish the organisation from a narrowly defined youth provider: its work may be best understood as an intergenerational, place-based response to disadvantage.
Show evidence
“Our mission is to help Children & Young People to become positive, resilient, happy and successful young adults.”
Source:Organisation“With our families and neighbours, free@last is shaping a deprived area of Birmingham into a flourishing community that challenges injustice.”
Source:Organisation“Providing support and opportunities for local people to improve their standards of living and reach their full potential.”
Source:Charity Commission
Its formal remit is broader than its current public-facing message
The charity’s objects suggest it has capacity or ambition to operate as community infrastructure—managing centres, delivering leisure and welfare activity, and running social enterprise—while its website foregrounds children, families and fundraising.
Why it matters
This may indicate under-recognised assets or future partnership potential beyond youth services, particularly for organisations seeking space, enterprise or neighbourhood-development collaborators.
Show evidence
“Establish or secure the establishment of a community centre and to maintain and manage the same.”
Source:Charity Commission“Establish and operate a business orientated social enterprise.”
Source:Charity Commission“Shaping a community for the future, because every child deserves a fair chance.”
Source:Organisation
Free@Last treats poverty as structural and multi-dimensional
Its approach appears to extend beyond material relief, linking poverty to opportunity, education, finance, relationships, employment and basic necessities. Its varied support offer may reflect this wider diagnosis.
Why it matters
This framing suggests potential complementarity with specialist advice, health, employment and family-support organisations, rather than a model centred only on charitable provision to individuals.
Show evidence
“Poverty is an extreme lack of things: opportunity, education, finance, affection, employment and the basic essentials to live life without struggle.”
Source:Organisation“This includes youth work, teenage pregnancy and sexual health, dad's support, debt & benefit advice, outdoor activities, multi-media and career support.”
Source:Charity Commission
- Which listed activities are currently delivered, at what scale, and to which age groups or households.
- Whether Free@Last currently operates community-centre facilities or a social enterprise.
- Which partners are involved and whether its stated place-based approach produces measurable outcomes.
Remaining uncertainties
- Recent annual reports or impact data showing services, reach, outcomes and changes over time.
- Details of current facilities, social-enterprise activity, funding sources and named delivery partners.
Additional evidence needed
Charity Commission profile
Activities
Providing support and opportunities for local people to improve their standards of living and reach their full potential. This includes youth work, teenage pregnancy and sexual health, dad's support, debt & benefit advice, outdoor activities, multi-media and career support.
Charity objects
2.1 THE COMPANY'S OBJECTS ARE RESTRICTED SPECIFICALLY, IN EACH CASE ONLY FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT TO: (A) PROMOTE, FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE INHABITANTS OF EACH AREA OR REGION IN WHICH THE COMPANY OPERATES WITHOUT DISTINCTION ON GROUNDS OF SEX, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, RACE OR OF POLITICAL, RELIGIOUS OR OTHER OPINION, BY ASSOCIATING TOGETHER THE SAID INHABITANTS AND THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES, VOLUNTARY AND OTHER ORGANISATIONS IN A COMMON EFFORT TO ADVANCE EDUCATION, SKILLS AND WELL-BEING (BOTH PHYSICAL AND MENTAL) AND TO PROVIDE FACILITIES IN THE INTERESTS OF SOCIAL WELFARE AND FOR RECREATION AND OTHER LEISURE TIME OCCUPATION, WITH THE OBJECT OF IMPROVING THE CONDITIONS OF LIFE OF THE SAID INHABITANTS; (B) ESTABLISH OR SECURE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMMUNITY CENTRE, WHERE COMMUNITY CENTRE MAY MEAN ONE OF A SERIES OF BUILDINGS, IN EACH OF THE AREAS OR REGIONS IN WHICH THE COMPANY OPERATES AND TO MAINTAIN AND MANAGE THE SAME, WHETHER ALONE OR IN CO-OPERATION WITH ANY LOCAL AUTHORITY OF OTHER PERSON OR BODY IN FURTHERANCE OF THESE OBJECTS; (C) ESTABLISH AND OPERATE A BUSINESS ORIENTATED SOCIAL ENTERPRISE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE INHABITANTS REFERRED TO IN ARTICLE 2.1(A), WHETHER ALONE OR IN CO-OPERATION WITH ANY LOCAL AUTHORITY OF OTHER PERSON OR BODY IN FURTHERANCE OF THESE OBJECTS; AND (D) CARRY OUT ANY OTHER ACTIVITY FOR THE PURPOSE OF IMPROVING THE CONDITIONS OF LIFE OF THE INHABITANTS REFERRED TO IN ARTICLE 2.1(A). 2.2 THE COMPANY SHALL BE NON-PARTY IN POLITICS AND NON-SECTARIAN. 2.3 NOTHING IN THESE ARTICLES SHALL AUTHORISE AN APPLICATION OF THE PROPERTY OF THE COMPANY FOR PURPOSES WHICH ARE NOT CHARITABLE IN ACCORDANCE WITH ANY STATUTORY PROVISION REGARDING THE MEANING OF THE WORD "CHARITABLE" OR THE WORDS "CHARITABLE PURPOSES" IN FORCE IN ANY PART OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.