Brief history

In 2001 an outreach volunteer event for Holocaust Memorial Day aimed at young people was held. This successful event continued to be developed and held for the next four years.

In 2005 we set up as a not-for-profit organisation after 70+ youth workers reflected back the importance of taking this project into the wider community and enthusiastically supported the commitment to prevent hate related crime.

By 2006 the project had grown and 5000+ students had participated in our programme in one week, which involved 5 communities and the training of 100 volunteers.

In May 2007 we registered as a charity.

To-date, Act for Change serve 2000 mainstream users a year & 60 youth-at risk; trained a total of 100 facilitators to run community programs based on our model and 30 AFC facilitators to deliver our program.

Our programme had a strong beneficial impact on young people in mainstream schools. Local authorities were telling us that the programme should be rolled-out. As we began to take the programme into schools more generally, it was noticed that young people who are vulnerable, for whatever reason, were not accessing the programme. It therefore became apparent that our programme needed to be developed to engage and cater for the vulnerable youths on the margins of school and society.

To fulfill this potential required an investment in developing ‘scaffolding’ - programme structures grounded in the tangible skills and competencies that would ensure its robustness across the full spectrum of young people.
We have been diligently and consistently deepening the impact of our work.

In the past year and for the next two years, we will be operating in two areas: Waltham Forest with a group of 40-60 young people at risk of knife and gun crime and their parents/ carers, and Hillingdon with a group of 15 youths with emotional and behavioral difficulties, also at risk of anti-social behaviour.

In October 2010 we also began operating in Greenwich at the Youth Offending Service (YOS) with a group of youths under ISS.
The program has been trialled. Preliminary results of our on-going evaluation indicate that a reflective space offered in small groups is key to a change of attitudes. There are significant behavioural improvements noted in participating youths. We are now at the proof of concept stage – in particular its cost-effectiveness.