What is Equal Equity?
Equal Equity, is a programme that is led by Ray Douglas and Milka Fisiha.
Equal Equity is a project working in partnership with the National Youth Agency to capacity build Black and practitioners of colour into Leadership, Management and Policy. Equal Equity was born out of the need to create equity and tackle anti-blackness after George Floyd.
The partnership began in 2020 to create solutions and to level out the playing field. Equal Equity phase one looked at the experiences of Black and people of colour (POC) youth and community workers, organisations and leaders in the sector.
- Phase 1: The programme captured the voices of Black and POC youth workers, through the provision of safe spaces, expressing their experiences and identifying drivers for systems change.
- Phase 2: Impact Incubator launched to support 21 organisations and Momentum online national conference in 2021.
- Phase 3: Delivery of the first Racial Justice and Youth Work national conference Power of Now which was held in Leicester in May 2022.
The Power of Now: The National Youth work & Racial Justice Conference
The Equal Equity Power of Now Youth Work and Racial Justice conference took place on Thursday 12th May in Leicester.
Speakers included:
- Leigh Middleton- CEO National Youth Agency
- Dr Martin Glynn- Academic, Activist & Cultural Social Commentator
- Abbee Mclatchie – Director Of Youthwork National youth Agency
- Roma Fisiha – Anti Racism Activist
- Ray Douglas – Facilitator & Co Founder Equal Equity
The Impact Incubator
The Impact Incubator is a partnership between Equal Equity and the National Youth Agency as part of an ongoing commitment to capacity build Black /POC Lead organisations within the youth sector.
The Impact Incubator is offering 21 small-medium sized Black/POC led youth organisations the opportunity to be involved in a 6 month programme to develop and strengthen specific areas within their organisations. The programme will include emersion within a community of practice and will offer sector support, training, mentoring and access to executive youth sector leaders to enable Black /POC lead youth sector practitioners. The programme aims to build a fairer and equitable youth sector for all.
The Impact Incubator programme will start in mid-October, with blended virtual and in-person sessions.
Applications have now closed for the Impact Incubator Programme.
Our Impact Incubator Facilitators
We are pleased to be working with a fantastic array of facilitators to deliver the Impact Incubator programme. Find out more about each of them below.
Tony L Brown, known as “The Systems Guy”, is a Youthwork & Business Systems Strategist, Author, Speaker and Trainer. He is the Author of “Standard Procedure” – How to Systemise your Business, Reduce your Workload, Increase your Productivity and Become Profitable.
Ann Marie is safeguarding practitioner and has been a qualified social worker since 1996. She has worked for various local authorities on the front line, in management, Local Safeguarding Children Board Trainer, LADO, Safeguarding advisor to schools, school improvement advisor, Designated Safeguarding Lead trainer and Designated Safeguarding Lead coordinator.
Charlie Dark is a multi-faceted creative ,wellbeing founder of Run Dem Crew, an international acclaimed running group which promotes well-being through running together and talking.Charlie is a true legend who’s mission to unite and inspire people.
John established Get Grants in 2012 with the sole aim of helping charities and community groups to better manage and understand their fundraising efforts. With over a decade experience in the Charity sector, John is passionate about supporting small grassroots community organisations.
Heidi is a multi-award winning specialist in social enterprise and social impact. She received an MBE for Services to Innovation in Social Enterprise and to Impact Measurement in the 2020 New Year Honours.
Karl George is a thought leader and internationally established consultant in governance. He is the Managing Director of the governance forum, working with boards and senior executives in the private, public and voluntary sectors with over twenty years’ combined experience in accountancy, business and strategic development.
Ben is founder of Power The Fight, a charity which launched in January 2019 to train and empower communities to end youth violence. Between 2016 -2020, Ben was lead pastor at Emmanuel New Cross in South East London.
Cofounder of London Coworking Assembly, Bernie J Mitchell is well known for his special interest in teaching coworking spaces how to create thriving business communities through podcasting, seminars, events, skills, and workshops.
Kofi is an expert in resilience and developing a business from the ground up, having started out at the age of 17 on the street after going against family expectations, he is now the brilliant mind behind Urban MBA.
Our Impact Incubator Organisations
We are pleased to announce that the below organisations have been successful in their Impact Incubator applications and will undergo the project over the coming months:
- Antoin Akpom Achievements Foundation
- Duffus Cancer Foundation (DCF)
- Equal Education
- LINX Youth Project
- Activating Creative Talent CIC
- Redeverywhere
- COME OUT OF HIDING THE LIGHTHOUSE NETWORK CIC
- BELEVE UK
- Resole
- Islamic Network
- 786 Wolverhampton
- Bengali Education Centre
- Children Hope Forever
- KORI
- Small Green Shoots
- The Safety Box ® Youth Programs CIC
- Candy Arts CIC
- Faymal
- I Am My Sister CIC
- Mental Wealth & Well Being
- The Right Track Sports Cic
Magnify & Amplify
Magnify & Amplify is a continuum of the Equal Equity & NYA partnership that aims to capacity build the Black/POC youth sector into Leadership, Management & Policy. Over the coming months we will be magnifying the work of Black/POC organisations and practitioners connected to The Impact Incubator.
Most recent activity
Watch the Festival of Equity!
From the 28th March to the 31st March 2022, we held the festival of equity. This run of sessions explored various aspects of equity, young people and the youth sector. Please see below the links to each livestream to watch back on demand.
| Event | Summary | Date | Time | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Festival of Equity – Part 1 | Why is the Barbershop a Black Therapeutic Space? with Anderson Boyce from Hair Force 1 Academy | 28th Mar | 19:00 | Watch here |
| Festival of Equity – Part 2 | The Equity Festival with Equal Education : If Education is the Key is equality the Lock? | 29th Mar | 14:00 | Watch here |
| Festival of Equity – Part 3 | How to Build a Tribe with Renaissance Man and Run Dem Crew Founder Charlie Dark | 29th Mar | 19:00 | Watch here |
| Festival of Equity – Part 4 | White Practitioners in Black Spaces w/ Dr Brendon King Author of Young Black Street Masculinities | 30th Mar | 19:00 | Watch here |
| Festival of Equity – Part 5 | Are we healing the wounded or wounded healers? w/ Jenny Chigwende | 31th Mar | 19:00 | Watch here |
Equal Equity have also delivered a series of webinars and discussions including:
