One of the Berkeley Foundation’s main funding programmes is the award-winning Street Elite. Our Strategic Partner The Change Foundation delivers the life-changing programme to small groups of young people, using sport to teach them valuable life skills and support them into work or further education.
We’ve worked together on Street Elite since 2011, and are proud to say that over the years Street Elite has worked with over 700 young people, and has had a consistent success rate of around 80%.
Street Elite is delivered over a nine-month period, starting with the recruitment phase in November and December of each year. The referral network includes statutory and non-statutory organisations and local community groups, as well as street face-to-face engagement.
During the training stage the Street Elite participants attend weekly sessions for 15 weeks. They receive £20 per week and take part in sports activities that prepare them for work. This includes scenarios and games that invite discussion, debate and self-reflection. The Change Foundation works with Berkeley and other employers to make sure the content is relevant.
In addition to the sporting activities, Street Elite gives the young people opportunities to visit places where they could spend their work placement at the end of the programme – like Oval Village. Last year participants also got to take part in a financial management session with MyBnk, one of the Foundation’s other Strategic Partners. The course covered budgeting and managing income, as well as borrowing and raising awareness of fraud.
Following the training phase the participants move into the active phase, where the young people are mentored through tailored face-to-face and virtual sessions with the Street Elite coach mentors. Sessions are either one-to-one or in small sessions, and this is where participants are introduced to further opportunities like work placements with Berkeley or other employers and supported to take up available chances.
Street Elite also offers an entrepreneurship fund, helping those with a desire and talent to turn ideas into a genuine business. Last year Ahmed from the Ealing cohort received a grant to start his own youth football project in Southall, called Right Path UK. The programme has become really successful with over 50 children attending every week, and Ahmed was nominated for a Young Ealing Foundation Award in July 2022.
One of the 2022 participants commented:
“The Street Elite programme has really opened a lot of doors for me and allowed me to explore different experiences. It’s given me the confidence to meet loads of new people within the construction and property industry which is something I’ve always been interested in and has also allowed me to learn new things about myself and progress in the world of work. I’m really looking forward to seeing what my future holds and couldn’t have achieved what I have now without this amazing opportunity. I’d really recommend the programme to anyone who wants to put themselves out there and see what they’re capable of!”
Here are just some of the highlights from the 2022 cohort:
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108 young people completed the programme and 80% transitioned into employment, education or training.
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3 participants have been employed by Berkeley (2 from London and 1 in Birmingham).
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Street Elite Coach Mentors invested nearly 10,000 mentoring hours in the participants.
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50% of the Street Elite delivery team are graduates themselves from the programme.
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We celebrated 10 years of Street Elite and the milestone of having worked with over 700 young people impacted by crime, violence and inequality. The team produced a film to commemorate this with young people who have had their lives transformed by the programme.
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The team received a double nomination at the Young Ealing Foundation Awards: Street Elite was nominated for the ‘Violence Intervention Award’, whilst two Street Elite graduates were nominated for the ‘Community Champion Award’ for starting their own youth engagement project.
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The Change Foundation welcomed 4 Street Elite coach mentors to the programme who are graduates of Street Elite or share the lived experience of Street Elite participants.
The 2023 Street Elite cohort launched in January, with 130 young people taking part. All who complete the programme will be offered a work placement with Berkeley Group this summer – we’re looking forward to hearing how they all get on!