We are delighted to announce our five new Resilience Fund partners: Build Up, Leaders in Community, My Life My Say, Poetic Unity and Social Ark.
Each of these organisations supports young people affected by racism and Islamophobia to build leadership skills and create positive change in their lives and the communities in which they live. They will all receive £90,000 over three years towards work to strengthen their organisational resilience.
Alongside grant funding, the five organisations will have access to the Foundation’s bespoke learning and evaluation programme, which aims to build an ecosystem of support, best practice and learning among our partner organisations.
Young People at the Heart
Young people stand at the core of the Berkeley Foundation’s new Resilience Fund partnerships.
We know that organisations that involve young people at every level are more connected to the realities of the communities they support, create trust and accountability and futureproof their programmes, operations and governance. All of this is crucial for organisations facing a perfect storm of increasing demand, rising costs and young people’s complex needs.
The five successful organisations could all demonstrate a high level of youth involvement. This was tested by the group of young people from St Basils’ Youth Voice programme who worked with us to develop the fund and supported our shortlisting and decision-making, and by our external assessment panel, made up of representatives from our current charity partners.
“We're grateful to the Berkeley Foundation and wider panel for selecting My Life My Say for this year’s Resilience Fund cohort. The funding and bespoke learning programme will strengthen our organisation and deepen the support we provide to the young leaders who shape our work.
By investing in our resilience, Berkeley is helping us empower young voices to lead at a critical moment for our democracy.”
Dan Lawes & Melisha John, Co-CEOs, My Life My Say
Supporting Resilience for the Future
The Berkeley Foundation first launched the Resilience Fund in 2021 in response to rapidly increasing financial pressures and operational demands faced by many small and medium-sized charities as the UK emerged from the pandemic. Over the past four years, we have committed over £1.2m in grants and tailored support to strengthen our partners’ foundations and help them achieve their long-term goals.
Organisational resilience means more than surviving short-term shocks and disruption - it’s about building systems, cultures and leadership practices that can respond, adapt and even thrive in uncertainty. For the youth sector, this resilience is vital, because when organisations falter, the young people who depend on them are left without crucial support.
To better reflect the external environment our partners are operating in, this year we increased the maximum grant size to £90,000, delivered over a longer three-year period. This aims to give organisations more time and flexibility to embed resilience in their culture.
“We are incredibly pleased to be awarded this funding and to be part of the Berkeley Foundation’s Resilience Fund programme. This support comes at a critical moment for Social Ark, enabling us to strengthen our financial resilience and organisational foundations, while continuing to back young people from under-resourced communities to lead systems change.
We’re excited to learn alongside other partners and to embed long-term sustainability into how we work.”
Lisa Stepanovic MBE, Founder & CEO, Social Ark
Meet Our New Partners
Build Up works to build the power of young people to shape where they live, and to fundamentally change who can make decisions about London. The charity supports young people to design and build public spaces, equipping young people with the tools and agency to have ownership over their neighbourhoods.
Leaders in Community (LiC) is a youth-led charity that strives to provide local young people with training to develop their personal resilience and overcome barriers to progression. It also equips local young people with the skills and opportunities to speak out about community issues, and challenge inequalities.
My Life My Say is a youth-led charity on a mission to encourage young people’s participation in democracy and get every single young person voting. It creates conversation between young people and policymakers via the award-winning flagship programme, Democracy Cafés.
Poetic Unity is a Black-led charity founded in 2015 that provides spaces for learning, expression and joy through poetry. Based in Brixton, it offers a service by the community, for the community, predominately supporting young people of Black and mixed-Black heritage, aged 10-30.
Social Ark works with talented and resilient young people from under-resourced communities to develop social businesses that create systemic change. Its bespoke social, entrepreneurial, and cultural youth programmes help young people recognise and build on their unique strengths.