About Us

ABOUT US

Our Mission

We want care experienced people to live in a world where:

  • At our home away from home, they do not feel isolated.
  • With opportunity and support, they can achieve their goals.
  • In a society full of stigma, they can break it down with their tenacity and potential.

GO FORWARD YOUTH TIMELINE 2014-2021

2014

Kadeema, CEO and founder, inspired to address the same isolation and hardship she’d experienced herself in becoming an independent adult then pitched her idea for a solution at a Google start-up weekend.

2015

With a Stephen Lloyds Awards Go Forward Youth founded as a charity with the purpose to relieve the social disadvantage and improve the wellbeing of young people who have had experience in the care system.

2017- 2020

Regular christmas get-togethers and other activities run on a voluntary basis with 60-80 young care leavers taking part.

SEPT 2019 - FEB 2020

The Hub piloted and evaluated: home away from home for an ‘at risk’ group of young people - ‘A positive, constructive and valued provision to an ‘at-risk’ group of young people in London

MARCH 2020 TO JUNE 2020

Own it - programme piloted and evaluated- intensive and individually focused, entrepreneurial training programme with paid work placements with Ted Baker. “I feel better about the future now.”

2021

Own it running for second cohort with support from previous years’ alumni: “People won’t see all the benefits at the start - I would like to help people feel unafraid”

WINTER 2021

3 year core funding in place for core staff, and for a base from which to run the HUB. From idea to reality in seven years of hard work, learning and development.

Summer 2022

New Building

ABOUT US

The charity’s goal is to provide YOU as a person with care experience, a space and people to turn to at times of celebration, periods of growth, loneliness or crisis. A charity founded on building a place to inspire, gain support and build a network of supporters. With a drive to give you encouragement when transitioning from one stage to another, finding inspiration, creating your own aspirations and learning from one another’s journeys.

We eat together, we train together, we learn together, we remain determined.

We’ve learnt over the years that gathering at the table is a main recurring positive theme: the centrality of food and eating together provides a unique experience to learn both cooking skills and to have a socialising experience. With our installed kitchen and café accessible to members,

The HUB ….. A Home-Away-From-Home is here to provide a safe space for you that offers a welcoming, warm, openminded environment, reducing isolation, and to provide activities and learning opportunities

With lived experienced members we understand connection and support is key to providing a reduction in the sense of isolation for you and friends and instead increased shared experience where you can meet likeminded people with aspirations for the now and future. Providing a weekend afternoon community with a sense of learning purpose, and a safe space where you can meet other people and grow your network

Our vision is of a long-term connection to each of you who we work with over the years. We want you to use your involvement with us to build whatever it is you need to succeed.

Our Values

Our values are part of our DNA. They dictate every decision and action we take, and what we want everyone who is part of Go Forward Youth to embody and stand by.

Safeguarding Policy

Click here for our Safeguarding Policy

Respect

We respect each other’s dreams, aspirations and goals

Support

We support and encourage each other’s journeys of self-development and growth by sharing skills and offering guidance

Empowerment

We empower each other to make decision right for them and take charge of their own life in the most positive way possible

Determination

We stay determined, we stay ambitious and we stay optimistic about what the future holds