Impetus today announces £600k in grants to Babbasa, Generation UK, IMO Charity and Sister System.
In backing these charities, Impetus will be supporting four new impact-led organisations who support young people from both ethnic minority and socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds into work. Together, these charities are on course to support over 5,500 young people this year.
These new investments join Career Ready and MAMA Youth Project in the Connect Fund, which aims to help decrease the employment gap faced by young people from ethnic minority, disadvantaged backgrounds and promote systemic change towards a more racially equitable society.
Alongside financial grants, all of these charity partners receive co-investment opportunities, access to Impetus’ world-class pro bono network and the dedicated support of their Investment team, who will help their leadership to deliver meaningful, benchmark beating, sustained outcomes for young people.
We’re excited to start working with these organisations. All four bring real understanding, commitment and empathy working with this demographic – we will work shoulder-to-shoulder with them, helping them become stronger organisations that can transform the lives of more young people.
– Sebastien Ergas, Portfolio Director, Impetus
Why these four organisations?
Impetus received more than 160 applications to become an Impetus charity partner through our open grant round for organisations who help young people from ethnic minority backgrounds in the UK get into employment.
They ran a rigorous process to select these four organisations. They reviewed each application thoroughly and paired responses with desk-based research to reach a shortlist of 20 organisations. They then had calls with the CEOs of each shortlisted organisation to review their leadership, programme, impact and growth potential. Finally, after identifying our top four, they spent eight weeks carrying out further due diligence while building partnership potential with each charity.
Through this process, Impetus got to know these four organisations well – here’s what we learned about Babbasa…
Babbasa is an award-winning organisation, based in a high need area, delivering a promising, evidence-backed programme.
Babbasa operates in Bristol which is ranked the 7th worst out of 348 districts in England and Wales for inequalities experienced by ethnic minorities and has an ethnic minority employment gap that is over twice the national level.
Babbasa’s mission is to inspire and support young people from low income and ethnic minority communities in Bristol to pursue their professional ambitions. They deliver youth empowerment programmes which support young people to improve their confidence, get a job and become a ‘Youth Ambassador’ in their community.
CEO, Poku Osei, founded Babbasa in 2010, leaving a paid job to set up Babbasa with no start-up investment. Babbasa is now a Queen’s Award Winning enterprise, which has supported over 3,600 young people to date. In addition to his role at Babbasa, Poku occupies several high-profile local positions including membership of the West of England Regional Recovery Task Force and board membership of Bristol City Council’s City Funds. Babbasa’s OurCity2030 campaign, in partnership with Bristol City Council’s One City Office, aims to support young people from low income households, starting from inner city Bristol, to secure a median salary role by 2030.
Babbasa has been on a mission to develop an evidence-based practice; that truly transforms the lives of minoritised young people – one that recognises that talent is evenly distributed but opportunities are not. This is why we are incredibly excited to partner with Impetus, an impact driven partner that equally aligns with our mission, believes in using enterprise principles for societal good and is prepared to work alongside our team to scale our efforts across the globe.
– Poku Osei, CEO, Babbasa
Why youth employment and race equity?
Impetus’ research shows that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are twice as likely as their better-off peers to be out of education, employment or training (NEET).
There is also clear data showing that ethnic minority young people are disproportionately impacted by unemployment.
Impetus believe that, with the right support, these young people can succeed in school, work, and life.
What next?
In addition to funding, Impetus will also work shoulder-to-shoulder with these charities’ brilliant leaders to help them grow their charities so they can transform the lives of more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.