On Thursday 23 January, Action for Race Equality, together with community and voluntary sector organisations, funders and young people gathered at Lift Youth Hub in London, to reflect on the outcomes of the Building Ethnic Diversity in the Youth Employability Sector programme.
Funded by Youth Futures Foundation, the programme aimed to ensure that the Black, Asian, Mixed and minority ethnic-led employability sector has consistent, high-quality provision to support young people from these backgrounds into employment.
Lekan Ojumu, Head of Grants at Youth Futures, highlighted the work being done by infrastructure organisations to address the employment gap for young people from these backgrounds and the significance of targeted funding in supporting initiatives that look at what works to tackle disparities in youth unemployment:
The stats for underrepresented ethnic minorities have been there for some time, and what we know is that organisations such as ARE always play a key role and we know that if the infrastructure is not there many organisations won’t survive.”
Programme key findings
ARE Deputy Chief Executive, Indra Nauth presented the key findings from the evaluation and highlighted key areas of impact and recommendations for further development towards ARE’s youth employment initiatives.
Over the two-year duration, the programme engaged with ten organisations in a ‘deep dive’ approach, focusing on the sharing of best practice and expertise from the sector to strengthen the work being done to support young people through employability services.
The approach proved effective for strengthening organisations through development of partnerships, knowledge sharing and networking.
All ten organisations involved stated that their approach to employability had been reviewed and updated which meant that their organisations were stronger as a result of having been involved with the programme.
The sessions with other organsations have allowed us to be able to develop collaboration and networking where we learn from each-other helping create change in our communities”
Rommell Wallace, Co-Founder/Director of Serious about Youth.
Representatives from the programme’s participating ‘deep dive’ organisations, including Leaders in Community, Serious about Youth, Spark2Life, 21K Digital Media, GIFT/MEAP and Find Your Feet, shared their experiences providing insights into the practical impacts of the programme on their operations and communities they support.
Capacity-building and consultancy support also emerged as a valuable aspect of the programme, and was described by some as “a lifeline,” providing crucial assistance to organisations to help them sustain, develop, and grow.
During the programme, I met some amazing like-minded organisations and individuals, which created a safe space. Working with Tutu [ARE Associate], helped me secure a tender as she supported me with creating service templates to send to councils.”
Emmanuel Balogun, Director and Founder, Find Your Feet Foundation
The Deep Dive organisations took part in a session with Youth Futures Foundation to input into the shaping of the Evidence into Action programme.
Lastly, we found that bringing about systems change requires greater funding and a longer timeframe.
While the organisations showed that employability providers could strengthen their approach to improve outcomes for young people, additional resources could facilitate wider engagement with key stakeholders such as the DWP and local authorities, leading to broader and more sustainable change.
“As grassroots organisations we work with lack of funding, resources and expertise but we are in the front line, and we do it because we are passionate.”
Colin Lee-Own, Managing director at 21k Digital Media
Taking action on youth unemployment
A key element of the programme was our Youth Action Network (YAN) which formed a panel where young people aged 16-24 across England shared their views on what employability providers need to be thinking about and doing, to support them into jobs. The panel allowed them to share their employment journeys including their job search and recruitment experiences.
The YAN demonstrated the importance of embedding youth voice throughout the programme, though a more structured engagement model—aligned with ARE’s new Leadership Programme—could create a stronger and more connected network.
Freya Johnson, Employment Programmes Delivery Lead at ARE, introduced members of the Youth Panel who discussed their involvement and the personal and professional growth resulting from the programme.
It has been very rewarding being part of the Youth Panel, as someone from an ethnic minority background, being able to give input and voice our views on how we can improve employment for young people.”
Sulaimann Smith, Youth Action Network Member
At ARE we want young people to share their thoughts on what is important to help other young people get into work.
As part of our continued work in doing so, we will be extending the Youth Action Network to continue to allow young people to inform conversations with employability providers on what they feel providers need to do, to support young people into employment.
Through our programme, we set up a specialist Youth Panel, made up young people aged 16-24 across England who are passionate about improving employment outcomes for themselves and their peers.
What’s next for our youth employment initiatives?
The event concluded with a presentation of the next steps for ARE’s employment initiatives, including ongoing collaborations with partners and a continued focus on addressing systemic inequalities in the youth employment.
Indra Nauth, presented future initiatives, including highlighting ARE being a Strategic Partner for two Youth Futures Foundation employment programmes, Evidence into Action and Connected Futures which will expand ARE’s work outside of London into Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, and West Midlands.
Also working with ShareAction on a programme around Ethnicity Pay Gap reporting, which the UK Government has expressed interest in passing future legislation on.
Our Employer Positive Action Network will look to continue the work from our previous positive action employment initiative, Moving on Up, where we support the implementation of the Mayor of London’s The Inclusive Employers Toolkit as part of our commitment to creating more inclusive workplaces.
ARE Chief Executive, Jeremy Crook OBE, ended with mention of our work to create a National Race Equity in Employment Taskforce with Business in the Community to influence the new government to take action to increase employment for Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage young people aged 16 to 24.
We were also pleased to share that we will be holding our next conference in Manchester, in collaboration with MEaP/GIFT and Young Manchester. The ‘Northern Cities Youth Employment Conference’ will be taking place on 19th February with tickets now available here.
The Building Ethnic Diversity in the Youth Employability Sector programme offered critical insights into the barriers faced by ethnic minority young people and the solutions required to address them.
As the programme concludes, ARE will focus on ensuring these findings inform its future work, alongside its partners and stakeholders.
To find out more about the programme and our work in youth employment visit our designated webpage.
The two-year programme for the Black, Asian and minority ethnic-led employability sector has been made possible thanks to the generous support of the Youth Futures Foundation’s Infrastructure Resilience Fund.
