Youth League (YLUK) was founded by John Wainaina, a refugee from Kenya. Despite being a qualified economist, he experienced difficulties in finding employment due to racial discrimination and cultural barriers. This inspired John to support others with similar experiences.

1. Their Work

   Youth League (YLUK) was founded by John Wainaina, a refugee from Kenya. Despite being a qualified economist, he experienced difficulties in finding employment due to racial discrimination and cultural barriers. This inspired John to support others with similar experiences. He founded Youth League UK (YLUK), in 2001. YLUK caters to the unique needs of Black and Ethnically Minoritised young people, aged 8-25 – and their parents – in Barking & Dagenham. YLUK operates from within its youth centre, where it delivers a range of activities – including tuition support – partnering with other organisations within the community, in turn.

2. Catalysing Youth League UK: The Programme

   The Make it Big programme has provided YLUK with the opportunity to increase its staffing capacity, allowing it to widen its programmatic offer, improve the running of its centre, whilst bolstering its income. Indeed, this is caused by the fact that much of its income is made through the tuition that it provides to students, as well as the renting of its premises. As part of this – and in support of that income generation – the Make it Big programme has also provided financial training opportunities, to YLUK, and has allowed it to also further develop its business. It has finally supported the organisation with its running costs, including its publicity, electricity, and insurance.

3. The Impact

   Firstly, the organisation has expanded its tuition work by providing sessions twice a week to young people needing extra support at a reduced cost. The organisation recognises the attainment gap young people from disadvantaged backgrounds face due to the amount of school missed because of the pandemic. Secondly, it has been able to rent out its space to community organisations for office space, events, training, workshops, and networking events, the funding providing it with the capacity to administer this and make a sustainable income, in turn.

4. What’s Next?

   Based on last year’s work, because the organisation generates much of its income from the tuition that it provides and in the renting out its community centre, it believes that focusing on these two areas of income can see the proportion of money raised from these two services, increase from 10% to 30% of its total income.

   The organisation aims to continue to grow trading services to help guarantee unrestricted income that will provide a sound financial foundation and future match funding. A long-term fundraising strategy will be developed, and this will be made effective through the increased capacity of the Director/CEO and fundraising team.