Who are we?
Our company, established in 2017, focuses on delivering real change within communities. Our network includes senior leaders in health and criminal justice, leading academics, managers of transformational change and charity and public sector organisations who work to support and inspire young people.
What’s our vision?
To engage and empower young people, by listening to them, giving them a voice, access to a network of advisers and role models with a view to encouraging them to make positive decisions and choices so that they can ultimately become future role models and leaders themselves.
How do we plan to achieve it?
In the short term, we are working with London Borough of Waltham Forest as part of their Gang Prevention Programme to:
- Provide a source of information that will be invaluable to young people and their families and friends and encourage the early and very necessary dialogue that is needed to keep young people safe. The resource, shaped by experts and those with experience in this area, aims to answer commonly asked questions and act as a first line of defence in dissuading young people from engaging in the ’quick fix, high risk’ gang-related activity, drug-related crime and youth violence.
- Build a network of Volunteers who are passionate about improving the lives of young people in their local community and who can signpost those needing help to appropriate advice and support services.
- Promote positive opportunities for young people instead of the stressful, dangerous and negative alternative of gang activity. Opportunities could include access to mentoring or coaching, shadowing, apprenticeships or paid work or as advocates and spokespeople with life experience.
To achieve this, we offer a Community Outreach Volunteer training programme with the aim of developing a team of Volunteers supporting and empowering young people in their community and signposting them to opportunities that will help young people to achieve their full potential in life.
Our aim is to ultimately train and bring together Volunteers from across London, creating a London-wide support and advocacy network, carefully coordinated so that we can monitor and report on the benefits and successes of the work and apply an unstinting continuous improvement approach to make sure the work is delivering real change at sensible cost. Our steering committee brings together a number of subject matter charities and organisations who currently share our aims. We also work with leading academics in the field of social justice for young people, who provide us with expert advice and up-to-date insights on the quickly evolving and changing challenges currently facing young people.