Newham All Star Sports Academy

Newham All Star Sports Academy (NASSA) supports young people from disadvantaged communities with their mental health, as well as educating them on issues that affect their lives such as knife crime, gang violence, drug and alcohol abuse.

We give them the opportunity to develop their skills and gain qualifications in sports coaching, officiating and in First Aid. We offer them a safe, fun environment in which to play sport, gain confidence and respect for others in their communities and develop a healthy, fit lifestyle.

NASSA was founded after Natasha Hart took her two sons to an east London park to give them an impromptu basketball lesson in 2005 and discovered a chronic need for local young people to play sport and be diverted from anti-social behaviour and crime. In 2006, Natasha founded NASSA the charity with just £20 in the bank. Our award-winning Carry A Basketball Not A Blade (CABNAB) initiative educates over 2,000 local young people every year on the dangers of knife crime and gang culture. CABNAB was set up after two friends of NASSA player Anthony Okereafor were stabbed to death in separate incidents in 2008.

NASSA was named overall UK Charity of the Year at The Charity Awards 2014. It was also ‘Highly Commended’ in the Charity Times Awards 2016 and a finalist in the Children & Young People Now Awards 2021. Natasha Hart was awarded the MBE for ‘Services to Sport’ in HRH The Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2015.