Chapters:

(0:00:00) – Violence affecting young people – systemic issues, root causes and early intervention

(0:21:13) – Charity start up, fundraising as a black-led organisation, equity and funding

(0:25:30) – Fundraising and brand, mixed funding model

(0:36:12) – Networking and partnerships, engaging with corporates and high net worth individuals

(0:52:00) – Power to Fight’s approach to tackling violence affecting young people

(0:55:50) – Training and income generation

(01:04:11) – Recommended resources.

Episode keywords:

Youth Violence, Early Intervention, Cultural Sensitivity, Public Health Approach, Zero Exclusions Policy, Fundraising, Brand Building, Marketing, Strategic Networking, Corporate Partners, Social Media, Content Creation, Training, Income Generation.  

Episode transcript:

You can access the transcript for this episode here. It is AI generated and not 100% perfect but I think it is good enough to follow the conversation. Unfortunately I don’t have the resource to manually make the corrections. 

Episode description:

In this thought-provoking episode, we’re joined by Ben Lindsay, OBE author, pastor, activist, and founder CEO of Power the Fight, a charity focused on ending violence affecting young people.

Listen in as we discuss Ben’s experience of setting up and running Power the Fight, the importance of networking for a charity, building relationships, and creating successful partnerships. We also cover the challenges of fundraising for causes like youth violence, and how Ben’s mixed funding model has helped Power the Fight make a difference. Ben shares his experiences with connecting the dots and leveraging social media to attract corporate partners, as well as the development of Power the Fight’s training arm.

Ben shares his experiences working in the sector for over 20 years and examines the systemic issues that contribute to youth violence, including the influence of technology, social media, and a decrease in youth services and police officers.

Together, we explore the complexities of violence affecting young people and the importance of early intervention, cultural sensitivity, and resources. We also discuss the success of public health approaches like those in Scotland and the potential benefits of a zero exclusions policy. Fascinatingly, Ben highlights that youth violence doesn’t discriminate by geography, but more so by class, emphasizing the need for a nuanced conversation on the topic.

Don’t miss this inspiring and informative conversation with an incredible change-maker working tirelessly to make a difference in the lives of young people.

Links to resources:

• “powerthefight.org.uk – there’s lots of resources on there. There’s lots of opportunities to be trained. There’s some toolkits, like letters, templates to your MPs where you can kind of engage if you want to really kind of ask the question about what is your local authority really doing around violence affecting young people? There’s campaigns which we are engaging with at the moment around mental health and emotional wellbeing of young people which will be all over our social media at the moment.”
• “Inclusive Leadership book by Charlotte Sweeney and Fleur Bothwick is something which I found very helpful in terms of how you build truly inclusive organizations.”
• “We’ve used Strength Scope (psychometric testing), which is a good thing for us to be able to refer back to giving you an idea of where we are in terms of the organization’s strengths and weaknesses and also as individuals.”
• Cultural sensitivity, young people and therapy – I would also add Ben’s TEDx Talk which is really engaging and informative on the issue of violence affecting young people.

Ben Lindsay, Founder CEO, Power the Fight

Ben Lindsay OBE is founder CEO of Power The Fight, an award-winning charity, launched in 2019, which tackles violence affecting young people. PTF creates long-term solutions for sustainable change and acts as a link between the community and policy makers.

Winner of the Charity Times 2022 Rising Leader Award and one of The Evening Standard’s Progress 1000 London’s most influential people for 2018, Ben is an experienced presenter, trainer and facilitator with more than 20 years spent working with high risk young people in the field of gangs and serious youth violence.

His first book, the No1 Bestseller, We Need To Talk About Race – Understanding the Black Experience in White Majority Churches was released in July 2019 through SPCK Publishing.

Ben currently sits on the Mayor of London Sadiq Kahn’s Violence Reduction Unit reference group and on the cross party Youth Violence Commission. Ben was awarded an OBE in King Charles’ first New Years Honours List for services to communities in SE London.

You can find Ben Lindsay at Power the Fight UK and on Linkedin and Twitter.