Give a year change the world

Sophie Livingstone, Chief Executive of PEF’s newest investment, City Year London, introduces the charity’s work:

Founded on the belief that young people can change the world, City Year brings together young people aged 18 - 25 of all backgrounds for a year of full-time service.

Young people, known as “corps members”, serving with City Year spend ten months working in schools as tutors, mentors and role models; leading in-school and after-school programmes and community projects; and receiving training and support linked to both their service in schools and leadership after City Year.

City Year London will launch in September in three boroughs, Islington, Hackney and Tower Hamlets, with over 50 corps members, and we are spending this year setting up the programme, working with a team of seven young people piloting the City Year model here.

One of them, Habiba Ahmed, aged 22 and from Islington, says: “I have lived in Islington all my life and I have a lot of family around, so I thought ‘why not help in my local area?’ I know that a lot of young children need help in Islington.

“I am interested in teaching and this is a great opportunity to get more experience in a classroom. However, the scheme is not just for those that want to be a teacher, as it is an opportunity to develop teamwork and leadership skills that will help all of us in the future. It’s a life-changing experience.”

For Leesa Daniel, age 20, the motivation is different: “I went through things at school when I needed a mentor. I want to be that mentor I never had.”

City Year London has the potential to change thousands of young lives in London – but it wouldn’t have been created here without the vision of the Private Equity Foundation, and in particular Shaks Ghosh. There have long been links between private equity firms in the US and City Year, and it was an introduction from Bain Capital that led Shaks to experience City Year in Boston. Since then, the whole PEF team has got behind the creation of a new UK charity, and indeed a new concept of service.

This has led to a co-investment with TowerBrook, who have also provided us with a temporary home for the past few months, as well as amazing pro bono support from firms such as Ashurst, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Summit Partners.

There is a bigger agenda behind the creation of City Year in London, which is linked to the recent talk about national service in the news and the PEF-funded ‘Service Nation’ report undertaken by think tank Demos. We have already commented about it in the Guardian, but the last word is better left to Habiba:

“It would be great if some politicians got involved with City Year. There has been a lot of talk about a movement back to national service for young people, and City Year would be a good way of implementing such a scheme. It is a project which shows society and politicians that young people are not selfish. We get a lot of bad press but hopefully a project like City Year will bring about a change in people’s attitudes.”