Adrian founded YourStory in 2003 to holistically help young people across all aspects of their development and growth. After being unemployed after graduating from university, Adrian began working in a job centre helping people to write CVs. He noticed that a lot of unemployed people had suffered due to a lack of education (reading and writing skills). This highlighted the need to Adrian to work with young people in order to stop this cycle. 

He began volunteering with young people, but discovered that funding restrictions were limiting the help he could provide (to only mentoring) and not allowing for wider needs around family or education support.

YourStory originally used mentoring through sport to tackle underachievement and anti-social behaviour. Over the years, we have been joined by staff and volunteers from all walks of life and have worked with a wide range of schools across London.

Margaret brings over 25 years of experience in the third sector and is a consultant specializing in community engagement, leadership coaching, and organisational change. 

Previously, she served as CEO of High Trees Community Development Trust in Lambeth for a decade, and as Co-CEO of ML Community Enterprise (Brixton), where she led impactful youth and community programmes. Margaret holds several leadership  and advisory roles, including as a Non-Executive Director for Regenda Homes Group in Liverpool and as a Trustee for the National Communities Resource Centre at Trafford Hall, Chester.

She is currently working with a group of organization leaders and funders to reimagine how funding is distributed. Additionally, she has contributed to the Lambeth Black Thrive initiative, addressing systemic issues affecting mental health in Black communities.

Chris Dusu FCCA is the Principal Associate of Impact Accountants. He acts as the Reporting Accountant of the Damilola Taylor Trust, one of the firm’s charity clients.

A highly effective finance and business manager with strong track record of supporting public sector organisations, Mr Dusu has a proven capability to drive down costs through process improvement, and also boost revenues where available by increasing profitability of income-generating activities. Prior to moving into public practice, Mr Dusu worked as Accountancy Manager at the outsourcing arm of Deloitte Touche and subsequently as the Head of Finance at the British Film Institute.

He is an accomplished communicator and problem solver who quickly identifies and builds trust with key stakeholders; passionate about sharing knowledge through training and coaching, Mr Dusu initiated training programmes for staff in various organisations, with a commitment to maximising potential and motivation. He holds a BSc degree from University of Ghana and an MBA from Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), University of London.

Established in May 2001 in memory of Damilola, the Damilola Taylor Trust (DTT) is committed to providing inner-city youths with opportunities to play, learn and live their lives free of fear and violence, and with optimism for a future where opportunities flourish.

Our partnership and team approach to coaching, teaching, and inspiring youths to recognize and realize their dreams focuses on projects that keep young people occupied away from the streets and provide them with improved life chances. We believe youth empowerment initiatives are best delivered through partnerships in which individuals, families, agencies/organizations and communities are involved.

Our community engagement and involvement approach to delivering youth empowerment projects and initiatives has demonstrated the power of community mobilization as an effective strategy in addressing youth issues and concerns and ensuring ownership and development of localized responses.

Our vision and commitment to enabling Damilola’s death to mean hope, life and opportunities for Britain’s disadvantaged and under-privileged youths is stronger today. Today more than ever, there is a stark urgency for greater inter-agency, partnership and people-centred approaches to helping young people face the challenges of responsibility and adulthood. Meeting the challenges of youth require approaches that are not only youth focused, but also instinctively current and innovative.

The Trust is committed to focusing on young people’s real social needs and is intent on implementing programs and activities aimed at augmenting and improving personal and social development needs and partner young people into realising their potential, as they journey into adulthood.

www.damilolataylortrust.co.uk

We are Respeito, a charity that works to end domestic abuse in the Portuguese speaking community in the UK. We believe in equality, human rights and social integration.

Respeito is the only organisation in the UK dedicated to preventing and reducing domestic abuse in the Portuguese-speaking community. We support survivors and vulnerable individuals from Portugal (and the Islands of Madeira and Azores), Brazil, Latin America, and African countries with Portuguese as the official language i.e. Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe, Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea.  Our services are free of charge and offered in the mother language for any Portuguese-speaking individual (+18) regardless of their nationality, age, gender or gender identity, disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or faith within our cultural diversity.

 www.respeito.org.uk