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~ The advocacy academy’s ~

State of the movement 2021/22

Unleashing the Power of Young People to Transform their World

INTRODUCTION	3
OUR STRATEGIC FOCUS	3
PART ONE: WHAT WE ACHIEVED IN 2021-22	7
STEERING OUR SHIP TOWARDS A MORE FAIR, JUST AND EQUAL
FUTURE	8
CAMPAIGNING FOR CHANGE	11
AN UPDATE ON OUR CAMPAIGNS	11
CHOKEDUP - A CALL TO ACTION FROM ANJALI	13
THE FIRST ALUM-LED ALUM RESIDENTIAL	14
A SEVEN-YEAR CAMPAIGN: CHRISTCHURCH ROAD CLT	15
SUPPORTING CAMPAIGNS BEYOND THE FELLOWSHIP	18
OUR FIRST CROSS-COHORT CAMPAIGN: HALO	19
DEVELOPING LEADERS WITH LIVED EXPERIENCE OF INJUSTICE	24
REVAMPING OUR PROGRAMMES	24
MEET OUR NEW MOVEMENT LEADER: ILHAN	25
FOCUSSING ON YOUR YOUNG PEOPLE	26
ORGANISING OUR COMMUNITY	26
RE-OPENING THE CAMPUS	26
MEET OUR NEW CAMPUS ORGANISER: VANESSA	27
ACTIVATING NEW ALLIES	29
OUR IMPACT THIS YEAR	29
PART TWO: FINANCING AND FUNDRAISING REVIEW	31

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KEY RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES	33
PART THREE: LOOKING AHEAD	34
STEERING THE SHIP	35
CELEBRATING SEVEN YEARS OF ACTION AT THE ADVOCACY
ACADEMY	35
DEVELOPING LEADERS WITH LIVED EXPERIENCE OF INJUSTICE	35
EVOLVING OUR DELIVERIES	35
A NEW SPARK: THE CLIMATE PROGRAMME	36
CAMPAIGNING FOR CHANGE	36
MOVING TOWARDS A MEMBERSHIP MODEL	36
INTRODUCING HOST	37
DEFINING OUR ORGANISING PRINCIPLES	38
NEW CAREER OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALUMNI	38
ORGANISING OUR COMMUNITY	39
ENGAGING OUR COMMUNITY AROUND OUR CAMPUS	39
LOOKING FOR A NEW SPACE	39
ACTIVATING NEW ALLIES	39
PART FOUR: GOVERNANCE AND TEAM	41
OUR STAFF	42
OUR TRUSTEES	44
GOVERNANCE	45
PART FIVE: ACCOUNTS	48

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INTRODUCTION

“Unprecedented” must be the word of the decade. As we described in last year’s State of the Movement, Covid-19 has had a disproportionately negative impact on our young people and wider communities. After the flurries of rapid transformation we went through to continue supporting our young people through the pandemic, we realised that we’d been driving forwards for so long that we’d found no time to check direction or establish the strength our Movement has been building.

With 122 Alumni in our community and an active network numbering thousands, we’ve grown at amazing speed over our eight-year history. We can proudly say that we’ve been a key part of putting youth organising on the map in UK politics, by building networks and achieving wins that are truly shaking the nation.

We’ve worked hard to push forward, with a scrappy mentality that has enabled us to scale rapidly but has left little time for deep reflection and learning. So in 2021/22 we took the step of introducing a ‘fallow year’ that would enable us to do the work needed for our Movement to regenerate and grow. This means that for the first time since 2014, we did not run our Social Justice Leadership Fellowship programme.

Instead of bringing new people into our movement, we have spent this year building the health and sustainability of our existing community. In 2020, we conducted a Listening Campaign with our Alumni that highlighted tensions we had not heard before. Following this and a period of high staff turnover, we decided to use the fallow year to reset, regroup and reconnect with our Alumni, and to bring everyone - Alumni, partners and donors - together to answer the question “What do we want our Movement to become?”

This year, we embarked on the slow and painstaking work of transforming our culture to ensure that it truly reflects, empowers and celebrates every member of our community. We decided to root the next stage of our Movement in the abolitionist principles of transformative and healing justice. This means that we are actively working with individuals and communities to enable everyone to show up as themselves. We are transforming our Movement together, to collectively envision a way forward and reduce the likelihood of harm occurring.

This approach is not linear, and it has been hard. It has shifted with each new hire, new campaign, and new programme, but it has enabled us to make significant changes to our culture in a relatively short space of time. We are embedding reflection and continual learning into our practice to ensure that we continue to live by our values.

OUR STRATEGIC FOCUS

The Advocacy Academy is a youth movement working to unleash the power of young people to create a more fair, just, and equal society. We give young people with lived experience of injustice the knowledge, the skills and the confidence to tackle the most pressing challenges of our time - from breaking gender binaries to building affordable housing, to ending sexual violence on our streets.

WE ARE BUILDING A CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR YOUTH ORGANISING IN THE UK

On the cusp of independence, young people are the perfect mix of critical and hopeful - they take the problems of the world seriously and are ready to do something about them. However, young people in our society are rarely given the tools to participate, let alone lead. Valuable voices are

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missing from the debates shaping our society, leading to policies and provisions that reinforce inequality by failing to reflect the diverse interests of all our communities.

Today 88% of young people feel like their voices are completely unheard in society1 and 60% don't understand how decisions are made about local or national issues2. Worryingly, it’s those from less affluent families and black and ethnic minority backgrounds who feel least able to challenge the problems in their communities - young people from working class families are more than 40% less likely to participate in our democracy than their wealthier peers3, despite being at the blunt end of most political decisions. The Advocacy Academy exists to address these gaps.

We have big ambitions. We want to be known as the organisation growing the young leaders in every movement that matters, and we also know that no matter how successful we are, it will take more than The Advocacy Academy alone to realise the world we want to live in. At the next stage in our Movement, we want to become a centre of excellence for youth organising in the UK; a thought leader, innovator, and training-house for passionate individuals and organisations across the country who share our mission.

We want our campaigns to shake the nation and embed youth organising in the UK for generations to come, just as SNCC did in the United States in the 1960s. Young people will inherit this mess - we’re giving them the tools to fix it.

OUR COMPASS FOR CHANGE

We have a clear view of our destination. But with no precedent in the UK, we’re tacking through uncharted waters to reach it. We don’t have a map or ten-point plan to follow - so instead, we’ve created a Compass for Change to guide us. Our compass orientates us across four poles, with every choice we make guided by our Advocates Charter and our Theory of Social Change. DEVELOPING LEADERS: WE ARE TRAINING YOUNG PEOPLE WITH LIVED EXPERIENCE We believe that those with lived experience are the best placed to lead change, so we focus on building the skills, experience, connections and confidence of young people to organise in their communities and become life-long agents of change. Our young people learn to analyse sociopolitical conditions, identify innovative solutions to problems they have experienced, and run their own grassroots campaigns which seek specific policy changes that will benefit their communities.

We have two main entry programmes: the Fellowship, a six month leadership programme, and Spark, a one week introduction. These are supported by the Changemaker Development Programme, which trains graduates from our entry programmes in activist youth work allowing them to lead our programmes.

We measure our success through pre-and post questionnaires which assesses young people’s experience, their learning of key skills and knowledge, and their confidence and intention to continuing their journey as activists.

CAMPAIGNING FOR CHANGE: WE ARE BUILDING OUR IMPACT AS A POLITICAL MOVEMENT

Every Movement has a campaigning arm and a training arm, and The Advocacy Academy is no different. Most movements focus on their campaigns in the beginning, and then later develop their training and membership absorption arms. Because our Theory of Change holds that young people with lived experience should be leading our campaigns, it was critical for us to start by building the best social justice training programme in the country.

1 “Stand Up and Be Counted” Sky News Survation Poll, 2014

2 Youth Citizenship Commission, 2009

3 Ipsos Mori's "Young People’s Participation in Social Action" survey, 2018

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----- Start of picture text -----
campaigning for CHANGE
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ORGANISING the community
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We support our young people to deliver Campaigns. More information on the campaigns delivered are provided later in the report.

We work with young people to incubate and explore justice issues and develop campaigns. Once a campaign is stabilised and ready to launch they are hosted within our governance structures and provided with steady support through their expansion. We also support our young people in creating their own organising and governance structures, accessing training and employment in activist organisations, as well as helping them socialise.

We measure the success of our work through turn-out and participation, number of campaigns in incubation and being hosted, and also through the impact our campaigns have on the world.

ORGANISING OUR COMMUNITY: WE ARE GROWING OUR COMMUNITY

The power we are building is relational (among and between people), because history has shown us more times than we can count that well-organised people have the ability to challenge dominant power (power over people) and win. We work closely with schools, community groups, activists, and youth workers to grow our impact. We also open our Brixton Campus for Young Activists to other grassroots organisations in South London, building bridges between movements and offering

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much-needed space to organise our community. We have moved away from using volunteers and offer all our supporters honorariums for their time.

We work with local grassroots organisations to access our Hub in Brixton also supporting them with needs on an adhoc basis. We also host open houses and solidarity events connecting our young people with local activists. The programmes here are in development as we explore the communities’ needs and interests.

We measure the success of our work through turn-out and participation, and Campus usage. KPIs will develop as we further develop programmes.

ACTIVATING NEW ALLIES: WE ARE SUPPORTING NEW AND EXISTING ALLIES IN THE UK We want youth organising to flourish in every corner of the UK, but we have always been a locally rooted movement. Putting a Campus in every town has never been our goal. Instead, we want to invest in the infrastructure that will allow us to activate new allies and support them to unleash the power of the young people in their orbit. Through our train-the-trainer work, we will share our learnings, experience, energy, tools, and resources with other grassroots movements as they develop their own young leaders and campaigns.

We are not actively developing programmatic work in this department and are pursuing things adhoc for the time being.

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STEERING OUR SHIP TOWARDS A MORE FAIR, JUST AND EQUAL FUTURE

We have always had the goal of being a 75% youth-led movement by 2025. What that means is the Alumni leading in the development and delivery of our programmes; becoming embedded in our staff team and decision making; and taking control across the Movement as a whole.

Last year’s Listening Campaign showed that we have often fallen short in our efforts to achieve this goal, and failed to involve our young people in the development of the process itself. While previously, we had been creating roles for young people at an organisational level in our Movement, we had fallen short of giving true responsibility and ownership, leaving our young people feeling they were not being trusted or given a voice in how we run.

This year we have taken action to open up more conversations with our Alumni, around how our young people transition from being graduates of TAA to staff members and leaders of our movement. For the first time, our Alum Residential this year was designed and run by an Alum team; and we’ve trialled new ways to make room for bigger conversations on the direction of the Movement.

In November 2021, we were thrilled to launch our first grad scheme, welcoming six Alumni onto the staff team as Movement Leaders and Community Organisers. Our new Movement Leaders are Mel (Class of 2018), Betty and Ilhan (both Class of 2017). Taking advantage of their multiple perspectives on the Fellowship as both Advocates and Change-makers, the Movement Leaders are using the fallow year to undertake a complete review and refresh of the programme, which they will be responsible for delivering next year.

Meanwhile, the Community Organisers are positioning themselves as the engine behind our organising in South London. Vanessa and Steph (both Class of 2015) and Shiden (Class of 2018) will build and nurture relationships across our community of partner organisations, local institutions, volunteers, donors and activists. Acting as a link between the wider Advocacy family and our Alums’ campaigns, they will help us build power and set culture for how we and others use the Campus.

You’ll hear from some of our new Alum staff team and their experiences later in this report. This is a quick hello from all of them:

Movement Leaders

Betty : I can’t wait to reimagine the Fellowship and get creative with sessions, training and communication with a team that I feel so deeply in community with.

Ilhan: TAA is growing and it's something I'm trying to embrace and I think this graduate scheme is a part of that.

Mel: I’m thrilled to be a part of the growth of TAA and I can’t wait to help in shaping the direction of that growth!

Campus Organisers

Vanessa: We can’t wait to get stuck in and evolve the Campus space into a bigger activist hub for activists in South London, to create new networks and opportunities for our Alums, Collectives and team.

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Shiden: Personally, I hope to embrace new ways of thinking and learn from those around me. Working in groups will undoubtedly change my perception of community and relationship building.

Steph: I am looking forward to what we create as a team and how we can build TAA’s future infrastructure through the focus and importance of community building.

ESTABLISHING THE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR OUR MOVEMENT TO THRIVE

In addition to our new Alum staff members, we have created a number of new roles to harness the momentum we have built over the past seven years. One of our key learnings from the stresses of the pandemic is that the success of our Movement relies on the health, wellbeing and expertise of our people. The pandemic turbulence led to turnover among our staff, with the result that we have hired to fill some existing positions; we have also built new roles around our strategic priorities, ensuring that these are manageable, achievable and paid in line with the market as well as being internally consistent. This larger, restructured team will ensure that our community is more resilient and better resourced.

This year we have expanded our team to include a Campaigns Manager, Philanthropy Manager, Political Education Officer, Spark Director, Alumni Director and a Fellowship Director, as well as Programmes and Community Directors. These staff members have been appointed through panels of our current team, including our graduates and CEO. As can be seen throughout this State of the Movement, they are already making their impacts, drive and energy felt. With this larger team on board, we have been able to increase and improve our support of our young people and their campaigns, and take long steps forward in our plan to build The Advocacy Academy as an institution for South London.

Part of our internal culture work this year has been around managing the challenge of this rapid growth. Given that our staff team has doubled in size over the course of 2021, we have also needed suitable office space to accommodate everyone. In October, we began renting a coworking space at Tripod, situated in Lambeth Town Hall. This is a space for us to work collectively while leaving the Campus open to be used by the Alumni, for events and for renting out.

DEVELOPING OUR CULTURE THROUGH A TRANSFORMATIVE JUSTICE APPROACH

While growing our staff team is very much needed, it has presented a challenge of rapid onboarding while navigating a new culture and structure. This is also the first time that we have transitioned Alumni onto the staff team, which we knew would not be simple or straightforward.

Our young people have spoken to us about facing tensions between being a member of the staff team or a Changemaker on the one hand, and being a member of the Movement on the other. Some of this reflects tensions within the charity sector more broadly, but it also emerges from issues that are specific to our Movement. Conflicts have emerged over which roles are paid and which voluntary, and the differences in power between Alums and staff - especially as young people are now straddling this divide.

Sitting at the intersection of youth work and justice is difficult. We haven’t always been great at balancing out those competing interests and we’re still learning as we proceed on this journey. The stories from our young people about the challenges they’ve faced have underlined the need for us to name and consider power dynamics within the organisation. We can’t erase the power dynamics that exist, but we can and must create spaces to consider their impact.

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As we grow our team, we want to ensure that we build an internal culture which actively seeks to avoid replicating harm. We have decided to manage this process through a transformative justice framework. In essence, transformative justice is a radical, abolitionist approach to addressing harms that occur to, or within communities, that seeks to address the root causes of harm and respond in a way that prevents further harm. Instead of punishment, transformative justice seeks understanding, meaningful apologies and healing. Transformative justice is a political framework that “actively cultivate[s] the things we know prevent violence such as healing, accountability, resilience, and safety for all involved”4.

For us, this means changing the way that we relate to each other - from the micro interactions we have day to day, to the macro structures and policies that guide and enable our work. While it’s not possible in the world as it is to build a culture completely free from harm or conflict, we want to respond better each and every time an incident occurs, which is why we are putting transformative justice at the centre of our new culture building work.

Our Transformative Community Culture Project (TCCP) was led by Alex Johnston and Molly over six months this year. molly is an activist and academic with a background in sexual violence support work, whose focus of the past five years has been transformative non-carceral approaches to harm. Alex specialises in restorative justice in schools and working with practitioners to create more socially just learning environments for young people.

Through a series of strategy days, workshops, one-to-one conversations and group work activities, Alex and molly supported our team on a journey of transformation as our leadership and internal structures become more established. The TCCP had a specific five-point purpose:

To meet community needs which were explicitly surfaced through the Listening Campaign and staff consultation, including addressing any experiences of harm caused within our community.
To address feelings around how members of our community have left (including Alumni, staff and contractors).
To bring all stakeholders together to define a new vision going forward, and support a transformative journey for the community and organisation.
To embed transformative justice practices into the cultures and structures of TAA in a meaningful way, including by building on and transforming the existing legacies of circle work and accountability processes.
To support TAA in becoming a transparent, open organisation which is publicly accountable to all of their communities.

This work was designed to support transformation across the movement, including our programmes, campaigns work, policies, processes and the role of our Alum trustees. We have not defined success as all Alumni engaging with us, but as all Alumni feeling able to set a clear boundary with us on continued engagement - a definite yes, a temporary yes, a temporary no, a definite no.

While we have been doing this work with purposeful slowness and care, there are changes that we have been able to implement rapidly in response to the themes we have heard. These include ensuring that rest and relaxation is emphasised within all Alumni campaigns; updating our recruitment processes (with considerably positive feedback from applicants); and improving our internal communications across and within departments.

The task of culture transformation has been heavy by necessity and slow on purpose, but we have been increasingly buoyed by the numerous Alumni and staff who have been eager to continue working with us or have “returned” because of our decision to launch the TCCP.

4 “Transformative Justice: A brief description” Mia Mingus, 2018: https://transformharm.org/transformative-justice-a-brief-description/

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“We will tell each other we hurt people, and who. We will tell each other why, and who hurt us and how. We will tell each other what we will do to heal ourselves, and heal the wounds in our wake. We will be accountable, rigorous in our accountability, all of us unlearning, all of us crawling towards dignity. We will learn to set and hold boundaries, communicate without manipulation, give and receive consent, ask for help…” Adrienne Maree Brown, We Will Not Cancel Us, 2021.

BUILDING A NEW STAFF CULTURE

“TAA should and will always strive for excellence for our young people and objectives. However this should be built on the understanding that sustainable, scalable excellence is built by staff who are supported, trusted and invested in. TAA will succeed when it reflects a shared vision across a diverse community, rather than pushing a top down perspective from any one individual.” Transformative Community Culture Project - Update

Through the TCCP, the staff team has agreed that our culture should not be a fixed point but rather a set of values that will guide us as we reimagine our Movement. These are:

Bravery and Boldness
Creativity
Openness
Joy
Curiosity
Care and Kindness
Radical Hope
Determination
Purpose

We are working on how we evolve these into a set of behaviours, in areas including how we prioritise, line manage, address conflict, communicate, hold meetings, and how we take responsibility.

The journey - for ourselves as a Movement, and for our wider communities towards a more fair, just and equal society - has not been, and was never going to be, a smooth one. By acknowledging this and placing focus on how we can heal and keep going, we can feel confident in setting a course for change.

CAMPAIGNING FOR CHANGE

AN UPDATE ON OUR CAMPAIGNS

Each year’s Fellowship delivery typically launches four exciting new campaigns, which we help to foster and grow over the first six months of their development. Whereas previously our staff team has focused specifically on these burgeoning campaigns, the combination of the fallow year and a new larger team has enabled us to do more to support our Alums’ ongoing campaigns and activism.

We recognised from the Listening Campaign and our ongoing work with our Alums that many of the existing campaigns are tired - from all the hard work they’ve been doing, from Covid, from the changes in our Movement and from juggling the demands of work, study, social life and activism. For this reason we have slowed down the push for campaign activity and prioritised pastoral care. This has allowed some groups to take a formal break or to disband. For groups who have continued we have focused on strengthening their internal processes and dynamics, building ownership and limiting over-reliance on staff by focussing on skills development.

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For those campaigns which have continued this year, we’re proud to share their remarkable achievements:

Halo

“For too long, Black people have been told that our hair textures and hairstyles are inappropriate, unattractive, and unprofessional. We’ve been suspended from school, held back in our careers, and made to feel inferior by racist policies and attitudes. Together, we are fighting for the protection and celebration of Black hair and hairstyles.”

TAA’s first major cross-cohort campaign has now signed up nearly 500 schools and businesses to the Halo Code. The GLA adopted the Code this year, with Sadiq Khan publicly posting his endorsement of the campaign. The team are due to meet with him to explore how the GLA can use their networks to further champion the cause of ending hair discrimination in the UK.

This year, Halo took the fight to the lawmakers. In October 2021, they collaborated with the All Party Parliamentary Group on a letter to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on developing and strengthening their guidance for hair discrimination. The EHRC CEO, Marcial Boo, welcomed these discussions and met with Halo in December 2021. However in light of the statements the EHRC released in response to the legislations around the conversion therapy ban, Halo has paused these discussions and is deciding on their next move.

As well as this, the campaign has also been working with Linklaters and the Black Lawyers Network to tackle hair discrimination in the legal sector; worked with the Horniman Museum on an exhibit due to open later this year; and have secured a bookselling and advertising partnership with Scholastic for a series of books celebrating Black hair.

As a trailblazing campaign at TAA, Halo have spent time building internal governance and accountability structures to support the campaign’s growth and resilience. As part of this, they have designed a strategy for monetising elements of their campaigning to generate income, such as workshops, appearances, and consultancy. The collective has so far delivered more than 20 workshops with businesses around the UK.

The campaign has continued to secure extensive press coverage including Sky News, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, Glamour Magazine, Wales Online, regional and sector publications as well as international publications. In 2021, Halo won the Marie Claire Beauty Gives Back Award for their work to end hair discrimination in the beauty industry.

This has been a highly successful and also very intense period for the campaigners, who decided to take a two-month break from regular meetings to give members time back for revision, exams and a period of rest. In a world that expects passion alone to fuel activism, rest is not prioritised and yet remains essential. Following this, Halo plan to spend a series of days together over the summer building relationships, agreeing their strategy and planning for the next 18 months.

Reroot.ED

Reroot.ED have secured independent funding to build a new website which will support teachers in decolonising aspects of their curriculum. The #VoicesProject is a collaboration between students, teachers, communities and institutions, coming together to create a learning resource and a listening programme in schools. This is an exciting development for a campaign that was launched back in 2019.

LatinXcluded

A rough cut of LatinXcluded’s new theatre production ‘My Uncle Is Not Pablo Escobar’ was shown in a series of shows over summer and autumn. The project is continuing to be developed with financial support from TAA.

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Christchurch Road CLT

The campaign is continuing the long journey of pushing their Community Land Trust (CLT) project through planning. JP Ennis, one of the lead organisers, has been elected Councillor of Brixton North Ward, where he has joined the Council’s Planning committee.

You can read a detailed update of this campaign’s work from Costa, later in this section.

ChokedUp

ChokedUp have been getting huge amounts of attention from major players in the climate space, particularly in the lead up to COP26. They took part in theTfL campaign around the introduction of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in London, with Anjali and Destiny attending the Mayor’s launch of the ULEZ expansion.

ChokedUp is led by four Black and Brown students aiming to amend the Clean Air Act. They want to enshrine the right for all to breathe clean air, especially protecting marginalised communities who are the most exposed to the impacts of the UK’s toxic air. Since their launch they have been lobbying to clean up air in London, with partners such as Client Earth, Asthma UK and Clean Air Parents' Network.

This year, Destiny has been working with the Stop the Silvertown Coalition to mobilise them and delivered a speech at their protest. They also collaborated with Greenpeace on a video for Black History Month, that highlighted the importance of Black Activists in the climate space.

In November 2021, ChokedUp went to Glasgow for COP26. They were there to strengthen their networks across the wider climate justice network, take part in the People’s March and to host a workshop at the COP26 People’s Coalition Summit, which explored how they were using creative actions and political strategy to take action on illegal levels of air pollution in London. Anjali also sat on the NYTimes Climate Hub panel on the need for more female leadership in the climate crisis: in spite of women being disproportionately exposed to the climate emergency, they are still being kept on the fringes of the conversation.

The campaign has been all over the news in the last 12 months, from featuring in documentaries to writing articles, to appearances on Sky News, BBC Politics London and The Guardian. Anjali is currently seeking funding to spend her gap year focussing on ChokedUp, as she explains below.

New career opportunities

We continue to provide careers support to our Alums, helping them secure internships and jobs across our networks. This year:

Jemmar secured a 3 month internship with Inquest
Liv completed multiple work experience opportunities with Koto, FCB Inferno and has recently accepted a job with M&C Saatchi
Following completion of our Changemaker Development Programme, five of our Alumni have been hired by local youth organisations in various capacities

CHOKEDUP - A CALL TO ACTION FROM ANJALI

“Having lived on the South Circular Road, one of London’s busiest and most polluted roads, I’ve felt the impacts of toxic air personally. London has the worst air quality in the UK with toxic air causing nearly 4,000 premature deaths a year. Between 2017-19, air pollution was responsible for 1,700 hospital admissions for asthma and other pulmonary diseases in London, accounting for 7% of all childhood asthma hospital admissions over the same period.

“In August 2020, with support from TAA I co-founded the clear air pressure group ChokedUp. ChokedUp protects the lives of those on the forefront of the clean air crisis by fighting to enshrine

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in law the right to breathe clean air. This is an issue that disproportionately affects people of colour and working-class communities, such as those in Catford where I live.

“In 2021, we erected hacked road signs in Lewisham, Brixton and Whitechapel - pollution hotspots on the capital’s Red Routes network. The signs highlighted the dangers of air pollution and its disproportionate impact on deprived communities. Our campaign made the invisible visible with a clear rallying cry: “Clean air for all”. It led to air pollution becoming a key issue in the London Mayoral election, following which ChokedUp collaborated with City Hall on ULEZ expansion comms. We went on to receive a special commendation at SMK’s Young Campaigner of the Year 2022.

“Since we posted the road signs, various clean air groups have expressed an interest in them such as Asthma UK-BLF, Liverpool Friends of the Earth, and Camden for Clean Air. A roll-out of an adapted series of signs can pressure local and national government to adopt more ambitious policies to tackle clean air, for example speeding up the implementation of ultra-low emissions zones, or delivering zero-emission bus fleets. The signs can also convince groups to recognise the benefits of clean air policy, who might otherwise not see them.

“There are fewer young people involved in air pollution compared to other areas of climate activism. While there are many parents’ networks, young people need to protect their own lungs through activism.

“In order to continue developing this campaign during my gap year, I have been seeking £60,000 in funding. This will cover my pay at London Living Wage while I build a network of young clean air campaigners across the UK who are ready to take action and engage with the development of clean air schemes in their area. It will also pay for travel expenses; producing the new road signs to support more regional campaigns; and developing a website that brings together resources to support people to take action. Finally, the money will be used to support coordinated actions across London and the UK to engage with MPs around the need for legislative change. I will host my campaign with The Advocacy Academy, where I will also receive further financial and strategic support.”

THE FIRST ALUM-LED ALUM RESIDENTIAL

The Alumni Residential has become an Advocacy tradition. It’s a valuable opportunity for year groups to mix and form new connections, while exploring specific themes in social justice with subject experts. For the first time this year, it was organised primarily by our Alums, with support from staff. Ilhan (Class of 2016 and new staff Movement Leader) was one of the organisers:

“We were forced to cancel the 2020 Residential - unfortunately another way that the pandemic kept us apart - but that also gave us time to pause and consider ways we could change or improve it in the future. The Listening Campaign found that Alums wanted the event to be more Alum-led, so for the 2021 Residential Celine (Class of 2016), Esther (Class of 2020) and myself stepped up to lead.

“Of course Covid-19 is still very much part of our world, so one of our first considerations was how to bring the Residential back safely. It became clear that the event could not be ‘residential’ in the normal sense. Instead, Celine found the Omnibus Theatre in Clapham, which could host up to 30 young people in a socially distanced way and enable them to commute from home.

“We came up with a plan for a three-day event with the theme of ‘sex and health justice’, then worked alongside Advocacy staff to organise it. It turned out to be easier than I thought it would be! I don’t want to say it was plain sailing, but it felt very doable.

“We got a range of really good speakers for the event. On Saturday we had a session with the wonderful Dr Samara Linton, who used to be a junior doctor before moving into social justice work

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and writing “The Colour of Madness”, a book exploring mental health in the BAME community. She used case studies to discuss race and medicine in areas such as pregnancy and mental health. Then we had a session with trans social worker Jack Doyle, who helps LGBTQI+ young people to find housing and support.

“On Sunday, sex worker activists Black Venus and Sugar told us about their campaigning work, and we played a game with Sugar about our ‘objects of desire’. I want to give a special shoutout to Sara (Class of 2019) who was our activist in residence over the weekend. She worked closely with Venus before and during the residential, helping lead on the session about sex and rage. In the afternoon we had a self-defence lesson, which was something that the young people had been asking for. Our final session was with Joana Nastari, who performed a short excerpt from her play: “Fuck you, Pay Me”.

“We also devised our own sessions and games. For example, there was one about experiencing healthcare from different perspectives - as a child of immigrant parents, as a person of colour, as a person who doesn’t speak English as a first language or needs to translate for their parents, or as a person of faith. We explored this through a ‘fish bowl’ game where the young people were invited to talk about their own experiences.

“In the first session, we asked the attendees ‘why did you come on the residential?’ Celine and I led this session with no OCMs in the room. We used an hourglass to allow two minutes per person, so at first there was some awkwardness when a person had finished speaking and was then sitting in silence, but later you could see people getting comfortable with it. People had really positive things to say, which was nice: a recurring theme was that it feels like family and is a place where they feel welcome.

“My proudest moments from the Alumni Residential came from watching the attendees get involved, and hearing their responses afterwards. And the food! We did well on that, which is very important. We also had a prayer room because it was Ramadan: we used one of the theatre’s changing rooms. It’s the first time we’ve had this on a residential so that was a proud moment too. I gave a little welcome, encouraging people to reflect on something important to them and highlight any gratitude they may have, both key factors in Ramadan. Finally, we gave gift bags to everyone who came, which included a vibrator!

“I don’t think I’d organise another Alum Residential because I want to give other Alums a chance to do it. But I learned a lot from the experience and I’m definitely glad I did it.”

A SEVEN-YEAR CAMPAIGN: CHRISTCHURCH ROAD CLT

I’ve learned so much over the last seven years. I used to long for a campaign that was a bit louder and more wide-reaching, but I've circled back to having a greater appreciation for grassroots work. Even if it's not as sexy as a national campaign, I like how contained it's been and that we haven’t steered far from our original goals. I think that's also why we've worked so well with local authorities, because it does feel very genuinely like residents of Lambeth want this to happen.

My cause when I applied to The Advocacy Academy was educational elitism, which was something I had already campaigned on and still continue to do a bit now. But in the first week of our Fellowship, an anti-gentrification campaigner from Save Brixton Market came to speak to us and that, combined with awareness of the housing crisis, was enough to compel me. I was aware that most people on the Fellowship had experience of housing instability so it felt like a no-brainer. JP and I really pushed for it to be our group campaign. That was in October 2015.

On the Fellowship, we were introduced to organisers at Citizens UK who also campaign in this area. We started out as a rent control campaign: we wanted to introduce a ‘living rent’, mirroring Citizens UK's living wage concept that was gaining momentum at the time. Our Fellowship action

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was to arrange a meeting with Matthew Bennett, who was then the head of housing for Lambeth Council. We included the Community Land Trust (CLT) idea as an addendum to the meeting agenda, but middle-income earners and key workers are essentially a blind spot in the Council’s housing strategy so that was the concept that really got Matthew Bennett’s attention. After the meeting we decided to pivot our campaign, because trying to introduce rent control in London is just an impossible task whereas the CLT idea actually had legs.

The aim of CLT projects is to build homes that are sold based on local incomes instead of the market value. It’s not that complicated, but the system is so ill-equipped to process them that we've had to push more than any other developer would have to push ever. My hope in terms of scaling up is that larger developments will have CLT homes within them instead of ‘affordable homes’, which are 80% of market value. CLT homes are higher quality, they’re more affordable, and from a PR perspective, they just sound better to people.

So: we decided we wanted to introduce a new housing model to Lambeth Council. Seems simple enough, but fast forward six years and the site is still not built on. I have to wonder if it was actually a lot more ambitious than I thought!

I think the key to the longevity of our campaign is that it has always been a partnership. In 2016 we started to put together a steering group: I’d been attending the leadership meetings of the Lambeth chapter of Citizens UK on behalf of The Advocacy Academy, so I did a call out there for people to join our campaign and discuss how to move forward. We got a group of about ten people in total, including some of the Advocates - Cristian and Ajuub were involved a lot and Darren, Valentina and Ilhan have all worked on the campaign at some point. London CLT became our main project partner. Together, we actually walked around Lambeth in the summer of 2017 to identify potential CLT sites. We chose a piece of land on Christchurch Road that was owned by TfL, then the next job was campaigning for them to give it to us. We achieved that through the GLA’s recently launched ‘Small Sites, Small Builders' programme, which was a big policy step for us. We actually obtained the land in 2018, on the day of the first anniversary of Grenfell.

Once we had the site, we founded the formal steering group structure. The group included residents from nearby estates, in order to ground the campaign in its specific locality. I have to really shout out Razia Khanom, who is my co-chair. Incredibly, we actually recruited her through door knocking at flats near the site. She had previously worked for a housing association but had become disillusioned and was thinking of leaving London, so seeing that she’s still here and now thriving as a community organiser is really gratifying.

The steering group meets monthly, to keep reminding the Council of the promises that they made; to oversee various conversations with the GLA, with Lambeth and with TfL; and to make sure that we're still on track. This is the phase we were in between 2018 and 2021, in terms of getting the pre-planning application together.

A big action that we undertook last year was assaulting the GLA and Lambeth Council with a string of FOI requests. We’ve had a very tumultuous relationship with the GLA. When it got to a point where they were taking actions that could potentially render London CLT bankrupt, from delaying decisions on funding to arranging meetings with the head of housing who then didn’t attend, we were like, ok, we’re actually on crisis footing now.

We wanted to make public that the Small Sites, Small Builders programme had wasted a lot of public money while putting very little into actually funding sites. Their official policy was to build 1,000 CLT homes in London, whereas in fact they’d built zero. We also found out that they had been giving money to pocket living projects, which are not grassroots in any way - they’re flats that are about 80% of general market value, are as small as legally possible, and are generally not high quality. We built enough of a case against the GLA to shock them into acting. It took really prudent research and keeping tabs on the Council, as well as filing the FOI requests.

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That action really put an accelerator on the campaign and changed the power dynamics between us and the GLA. Citizens UK had been against us doing it because they thought it would be bad for the relationship, but ultimately, the GLA accepted that unless they trust London CLT, no CLT homes are going to be built. I’m also glad we did that action because I've since become a civil servant and can no longer legally submit FOI requests. I had never done one before and I think it’s a way of engaging in our democracy that’s unsung, but vital. We had a call with a legal consultant to educate our student group about FOI requests, which is also the kind of learning opportunity I wanted to deliver through this campaign. I don't really like going on the streets and holding up signs, so it was a type of action I enjoyed, especially from a public participation view during Covid.

Once the GLA agreed to give us funding to proceed, we prepared to submit the planning application, which we did earlier this year. It's been a really long road. We originally got the land with ridiculous terms and conditions attached: they said that if our planning application failed then we would have to pay back all the money they’d given us. Having that clause removed was fully testament to the people we have on board. Achieving a U-turn from a public body is quite a big deal!

There’s been a lot of debate about the number of units on the site. My preference would be to have 15 three-bed homes. One- and two-bed apartments are already being built in Lambeth but there aren't enough family homes. In terms of financial viability though, more units are better for absorbing the costs that inevitably arise when you're building something. When you don’t have a private funder, you have to be aware of that. So it hasn't been decided yet. As of now, we’re still in the process of trying to get the GLA to release the next tranche of funding required to proceed to planning, which will require us to leverage more political support via Lambeth Council and the ward councillors local to the site.

The majority of the press we’ve done for this campaign has been very London- and Lambethcentric, though in 2020 I also spoke at a conference about CLT homes. And we were featured on a BBC World Service episode about the campaign, it was a comparative analysis of various housing models in different parts of the world. When the homes have actually been built, I’m looking forward to circling back to the publications that have covered our campaign previously and proving that the concept works. I tend to be cynical, so I want to make sure that the units are actually there before we publicise them!

There is a plan to do a London-wide action with different steering groups, to either celebrate our progress or scold the GLA, depending on the decision they make in regards to our funding. Thankfully it’s steering towards a celebration! London CLT has broken ground on a few sites now, so the hope is that we have cemented ourselves as a partnership with a proven ability to deliver much-needed quality homes, that are built for families and that people on average salaries can actually afford. With these as proofs of concept, I feel like more local authorities will be willing to release land for CLT homes.

I want to see this through. The stakes are really high because there are members of the steering group who really need those homes, quite frankly. If our planning application is rejected, there'll be a huge impetus to find out how and why. The blame will be something institutional and that'll be grounds for another campaign (the sequel!). I'm pretty optimistic though, and I think the fact we've overcome the funding challenges to actually get the application together is a huge deal. I’m always sceptical when working with local authorities, because I know how challenging it can be. But I’m happy that we’ve continued this far.

I’m also looking forward to the opportunities for more community engagement once we’ve broken ground on the site. Unfortunately, I’ve had to draw a line and say I’m not going to run a social media page myself for something I’m not being paid for. It takes a lot of work and time, and there’s no guarantee of funding or support. It's also just innately unfair to make young people who are not being paid work the equivalent of a paid job. I’ve been doing this as a labour of love, but I also knew I was being supported by people who are being paid and I’ve been able to offload work onto

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them. I’ve done a lot of one-to-ones, organising events, doing interviews here and there, but it hasn’t been too much work, especially at the earliest stages when I was studying. I’m now in a much more demanding job and I’m considering how I’m going to manage the next phase of the campaign, once the planning application goes in.

The Housing Campaign was adopted as the Academy’s campaign until 2018, and a big component of that was that we would go to a Fellowship residential each year and present a case study to educate incoming cohorts. What I'm most proud of is being able to demonstrate the power of grassroots campaigning and organising. We’ve had support from a charity that specialises in this area, but I don’t think the site would be where it is now without the grassroots side. We’re able to be the stick to their carrot when it comes to dealing with the GLA.

I’m also proud that our campaign shows how important community engagement and representation are. We have a steering group that's really representative in a lot of different ways of Lambeth, from types of employment to housing situations, right down to gender and ethnicity and age: it is an intergenerational campaign, which I think is really important as well.

For the first couple Fellowships after our class, each cohort did an action involving the CLT: there was a picnic on the site and an action of dropping letters to the council. As the Fellowship format has changed, and our work with the campaign has become a lot more introspective and less accessible, it's been harder to get more people in unless they’re really interested in housing policy - which most people aren't, understandably. Having said that, because housing is not something that’s ingrained in your identity it’s quite easy for young people to dip in for certain events. It's a really good way for them to gain experience, because they can do a speaking engagement or write a testimony without having to do much follow-up work. It’s also an easy sell at Advocacy because so many Alums have faced housing instability to some extent, whether from refugee experience or homelessness or overcrowded or unsafe housing. It isn't hard to get testimonies from young people in Lambeth about housing.

There has been another housing campaign at Advocacy, which was independent from this one: Ajuub helped develop a website that was a resource for those living in tower blocks to access legal support and talk about structural concerns. The campaigns were brought together under the Academy’s Collectives concept, but that system never really fit our campaign.

I’m going to move away from campaigning on CLT housing beyond Christchurch Road. I will have served my purpose by being one of the founding members of a really important CLT project that has paved the way for other CLT projects to go ahead. I want to channel this experience and move to other areas of housing that I think are a bit more pressing, particularly social housing. I also want to get more involved in community resourcing and creating space for young people to talk about housing. I’ve been archiving our campaign and I’d like to do that for other campaigns that are out there in the city. I keep saying I want to take a break, but I don't think that's going to happen somehow!

SUPPORTING CAMPAIGNS BEYOND THE FELLOWSHIP

Each year through the Fellowship, we introduce new campaigns as a pedagogical tool for our young activists which we support for the six-month duration of the programme. We’re proud that some campaigns have continued beyond the Fellowship, such as the Housing Campaign; and that our Alums are launching new campaigns, including Influuenzers who stepped up during the pandemic.

Until now, the support we’ve provided to our Alum campaigns has not been formalised within a defined structure. The Fellowship focuses on actions rather than the background work of campaigning that makes it sustainable, and we’ve heard from our Alums that they find it challenging to transition from the intensive support provided through the Fellowship to occasional

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chats with staff. The continuing success of their campaigns is a testament to their strength and resilience, but we can and should do more to support them in their fight.

This year, we’ve been working to understand how we can invest in our Alumni to make sure their campaigns are truly sustainable. We’ve taken time to think through the support we provide, and the relationship between our campaigns and our movement. Do we campaign as an organisation, or do we host and incubate campaigns? How do we formalise our support to campaigns, and what does that look like?

The new support framework we have been developing, called HOST, includes training and mentorship from experienced campaigners and organisers, to set our Alums up to continue building on what they’ve achieved so far. We’re also addressing practical considerations, such as providing physical space through our Campus, offering technical support and helping campaigns to set up their own financial mechanisms. For example, Halo has been developing new paths to fundraising, but they need to ensure this doesn’t cause conflict with their campaign aim of securing more corporate sign-ups to the Halo Code. We’ve been working with them to ensure there is proper accountability here, by investigating options such as delivering paid workshops.

We’re also exploring models for bringing campaigns together across year groups, to share and learn from each other. Our previous iteration on the ‘Collectives’ bundled campaigns and activists by themes of social justice, such as Racial Justice, Education and Intersectional Feminism. Those Collectives struggled, partly due to being unable to meet in-person during the pandemic, and partly because campaigns such as ChokedUp were doing more than the Climate Collective they sat within, meaning that the Collective didn’t know how to support them. Learning from this, we are exploring a ‘caucus’ style model, through which Alums can come together to share community information and support, but not to campaign. We are also planning to launch a new format for the Collectives, based on a revisions to our Fellowship.

A key piece of support we can provide as a movement is by organising our community around our campaigns. Over the last seven years we’ve worked with some of the UK’s most brilliant activists, organisers, artists and trouble-makers as part of a broad-based alliance of over 400 individuals and partner organisations. In addition, we’ve gained thousands of individual donors, volunteers and cheerleaders who are ready to turn out in support of our campaigns. With lockdowns lifting, we want to mobilise these groups behind our young activists to take action together on the most pressing issues of our time.

OUR FIRST CROSS-COHORT CAMPAIGN: HALO

Ilhan: Let’s start with Steph. How did you hear about Halo, and what made you come back for it? You were the first cohort -

Steph: Second, technically!

Ilhan: The pilot doesn’t count! I call myself the second cohort. Then you went to uni and reemerged, so what made you come back?

Steph: I got an email from Amelia that had everyone copied in, explaining what Halo was. I thought, I’ve experienced hair discrimination my whole life so it’s something I can relate to a lot and it’s a way to keep Advocacy in the background. The reason I’d been stepping away was because I was studying in York so it wasn’t practical to continue, but I did still keep in contact and follow people online and on Instagram. I felt so proud of everyone, seeing them grow up and progress - including you Ilhan! I joined Halo because personally I needed something to focus on that I was passionate about, especially having gone through lockdown, and knowing that I can make a change is obviously a big incentive as well.

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Ilhan: Azaria, is this the campaign you wanted to do from the beginning? Was hair discrimination what you put down as your ‘what makes you angry’ when you applied? How was Halo born?

Azaria: I remember sitting there for about 20 minutes at the interview, just ranting and raving about different things! I started off talking about the over-sexualisation of people of colour in society, that was my main anger, then I went on to hair discrimination and how it’s something I’ve experienced and many of my friends have too. My interview was with Sam and Darcey, and the moment I mentioned hair discrimination they started to smile but I didn’t clock why until later when I was put into the group with Katiann, Kaisha, Nakieah and Jane, and it turned out that we had all spoken about hair discrimination. There were no Changemakers with us, just us, and they left it to us to discuss what we wanted to do. So in that one meeting, we came up with doing something to stop hair discrimination in schools. We did talk about workplaces as well, but we realised that it would be easier to target schools because we were all at school and we knew how they worked. It’s something that had really affected us, and we wanted to create something for the generations that came after us.

Ilhan: That’s so nice, I didn’t actually know how it started! I was in the same boat as Steph, I saw the email about it and thought ok cool, I’m on board. Shiden, how about you?

Shiden: I joined Halo mainly because of my past experiences of hair discrimination in school, and also I’ve always wanted to do a campaign on hair because it’s a massive tool when it comes to dissecting systemic racism. A lot of the time when I was younger I didn’t realise that people saying I couldn’t wear an afro in school was an element of racist behaviour. That’s why I wanted to join, because my passion is a lot deeper than just knowing about hair discrimination. It’s really important to talk about the issues and there wasn’t that much of that in the Fellowship. So when I decided to join I was really glad I did and I’m glad I’m still doing it now.

Ilhan: It’s always nice to hear about other people’s - it’s not nice to hear that other people have been discriminated against! - but it’s nice to see that it comes from a place of passion. Partly, I joined because I wanted to develop my skills when it comes to comms, and secondly, I joined because of the intersectionality: I’m Black and just because I don’t show my hair doesn’t mean that I can’t be an ally within my own community. Also, I might not know what it’s like to be discriminated against for your hair but I do know what it’s like to be discriminated against for something on your head, if that makes sense. I know what that feels like. Next question: what was it like at the start?

Steph: I have to say it was quite overwhelming having all the whole-team meetings and not having a proper agenda, just because we were all new at this and most of us hadn’t met in real life because of Zoom and the pandemic. That’s quite mad in itself, that we’ve been doing this a whole year and making big movements without having physical contact with each other! It’s quite impressive.

Ilhan: Did you have expectations?

Steph: I didn’t think it would get as big as it is! We’ve had such a good reception. Obviously you get a few Karens in the mix, you’ve seen the hate mail -

Ilhan: You saying that just reminded me - !

Steph: That woman who used my whole government name in an email to us, and I think it was you that posted it Ilhan, saying I can’t believe this woman!

Ilhan: Yeah I was like, do you know her to be naming her like this in this email?! How did you feel about seeing that? Did it affect your intention to want to continue?

Steph: Initially I found it funny because it was very poorly written and very long, and it came across as ‘all lives matter’ so it was a misinterpretation of what this whole thing is about - it’’s about equity,

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we’re trying to balance out the injustices. It didn’t make me upset or sad. I thought: you don’t know what you’re talking about, you need to be educated and you need to learn. It came about from one of the Guardian articles where the journalist asked me to comment on cultural appropriation because that’s quite a heavy intersectional thing within hair discrimination. Part of me thought, I need to be more careful about the way I word things because they can be misinterpreted, because that was clearly a misunderstanding; but it also gave me fuel to make this happen even more.

Ilhan: I get what you mean because sometimes it can be disheartening, but then sometimes you can think - I’ll never meet you, I don’t know who you are, you’re just a keyboard warrior.

Steph: Exactly. Even Jemmar sent me a message saying ‘this is funny Steph, don’t take it to heart’ and I was like I’m fine, I’m finding it hilarious!

Ilhan: What about you Azaria, what were your expectations? It was your campaign to be honest.

Azaria: In all honesty I tried to keep myself from having expectations because I was really hopeful but I didn’t know where it would go. I didn’t want to feel unaccomplished or like I’d tried something and it failed. But when it started to go amazingly I felt proud of myself because this is something we started from scratch: we were trying to get through A Levels with everything Boris threw at us, lockdown in and out, in and out, and trying to keep up with schoolwork, and also trying to make sure that this campaign was still up and running.

Ilhan: Shiden, what about you?

Shiden: I didn’t expect it to blow up but I believed it was going to be really successful based on how great the idea was. When everything launched, I was really gassed that everything turned out the way it did! Also, being in the Research team was great, I appreciated that everyone was actively involved in getting the work done and the responsibilities were not simply heaped onto our organisers Thalia and Sarah. Our team had a very good dynamic, I didn’t expect it to be as fun as it was.

Ilhan: Actually that’s a good point, because let’s be honest it was quite chaotic at the start! There was the Collective and the Coders but we were all the same but we were not the same. The Coders started the campaign but the Collective was in charge of everything, and there was just a lot of things that we were trying to make sense of. And then Liz and Amelia left, and we actually just became our own people. What was it like, the relationship between Coders and Collective?

Steph: As Shiden said, the dynamics have improved as we’ve got to know each other on a personal as well as a professional level. Once we had the planning team it wasn’t just one person facilitating each meeting: someone was doing this bit this week, like check-ins, while someone else did another bit. Then we started to feel more fused, and I like it right now!

Azaria: The Coders didn’t start joining the meetings until December because they were originally held at 1pm on a Friday, but we were still in school so we could never join. It took us so long to say guys, can you change the meeting time so we can come? After that we started putting names to faces and building relationships and becoming more merged. This time last year I’d have walked straight past you on the street! In that first Zoom meeting I remember none of the Coders had our cameras on. It was quite overwhelming because we didn’t realise how many people were supporting us and how big this thing actually was. After the meeting we had our own little check-out to make sure everyone was ok. It was a slow start for us, but by the second or third week we were all sat there cameras on, talking like it was nothing!

Ilhan: I had no idea! I don’t think we assumed that you guys would be nervous. I knew you because I was a Changemaker for your cohort, so I was very comfortable with you guys. Also, do you think age made a difference? For example, Katiann was 16 while Jemmar was 23. Did that make it awkward at all?

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Azaria: I don’t think it was age so much. It’s just that our cohort was told that it would be harder to merge with the others because we were the only online cohort, so our experience in Advocacy was completely different to everyone else’s. Everyone kept saying that there’s certain things that we haven’t done, and things we have to go through in order to understand it and we were like, we did the online version if that counts, or no…? If anything I’d say it was that, but it was never awkward. It was very much comfortable and welcoming.

Ilhan: Does anyone remember why Coders was set up separately from Collective and we weren’t mixed?

Steph: I think it was because the Coders had to do their own campaign for the Fellowship, and then Amelia wanted to make it bigger because she knew that people who had already graduated could relate to this so she saw it as an opportunity for Alums to use the tools and skills we have to help them develop their campaign. And it was supposed to be youth-led so that’s how Halo developed into this massive thing. I think that’s why.

Ilhan: I know Coders are the Education team now, technically, but how was work spread between you guys before? For us there were different teams, like I was the Social Media organiser. What did you guys do?

Azaria: At the start we wanted to split into taking charge of separate things, but Liz told us to go through everything together so we tried to do it all as a group. It worked for some things but for other things it was kinda hard. Then Kaisha eventually became the head organiser: I can’t explain how, It just happened. It completely works because she’s really good at it. Any press things that came through - I’m better at talking than writing, so any speaking interviews I’d run to take up. Katiann and Nakieah would write articles. We had interviews with a radio staton in France and Jane did that because she’s fluent in French. So we took the opportunities that best suited our skills.

Ilhan: Makes sense, makes sense. So where’s it going now? We’re entering a new stage - before it was about getting people to sign up to the Halo Code and they have, so now what? We don’t want this just to be a PR stunt. What’s the aim? And how long are you sticking around for?

Azaria: When we created it we didn’t have a timeframe. We never thought of how long it would take us or where it would end. We knew that the following year we’d be going to university, and then we were all going to be spread across the country so it would be a bit harder. We didn’t even know if this was something that would be continued, so it was kind of going with the flow. Our main goal was to get all the schools in South London to sign up to the Code, and then the entire country. The plan had just two steps! I realise now that was unrealistic and spreading out bit by bit would have made more sense.

Ilhan: What about you Steph? What’s your plan?

Steph: I’m part of the Legal team so our main aim is to get this established within law. We’ve got an established network with the Equality and Human Rights Commission and we’re trying to officiate evidence. We’ve written a letter and people are co-signing it, it’s stacking up. Glamour Magazine have agreed to sign: this is new, it’s just happened this morning! Estée Lauder have agreed to sign it as well, and Emma Dabiri who wrote Don’t Touch My Hair. I’ve read that book so many times, so that was a bit like oh my god! We’re planning to send it by the end of this month.

Ilhan: That’s big, the news this morning, I had no idea! Glamour’s fucking massive! What about you Shiden? What are your plans for the future in terms of Halo? How much longer are you planning to stick around for, what are you hoping to see?

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Shiden: I want to stay until we achieve our goals, I’m trying to get as many schools and workplaces to sign up to the Code as possible. I’m really excited for the future, and maybe it’s just the wrath of Black History Month but it kind of feels different, in the sense that our campaign is being acknowledged as a serious campaign that is fighting a serious issue. It makes me want to keep doing what we’re doing.

Ilhan: I think the same for me, definitely. This also makes me think about burnout and how you’ve dealt with that. Shiden was in Legally Black which was an example of how our campaigns can actually blow, but usually Advocacy campaigns stay local and they don’t necessarily go bigger than that. That’s also because we haven’t had much support previously to keep campaigns running after the Fellowship and we didn't know how to do it ourselves, as opposed to this time where there was more navigation…. Have you had moments of thinking ‘just fuck this, I don’t care any more’? For me, there was a time period when I said if you have questions don’t ask me, please don’t send me anything, because I was finding it so intense. It was a lot of emotion to pour into something and a lot of effort and energy. How did you guys deal with that?

Shiden: I haven’t really experienced burnout through Halo but I have with Legally Black. But no, I don’t find myself in a state of burnout right now, and I’m glad I’m not there because burnouts can be really shit.

Ilhan: What did you do to keep yourself going? You’ve had it before so you know it’s not impossible for you.

Shiden: I think having a clear role and being in groups is helpful to understand what your purpose is on the campaign. I think also being older I’m better at taking time, and prioritising my mental health alongside doing this.

Ilhan: Legally Black was just three of you, whereas this was ten times that amount, so do you think it helped having a bigger team? I know that sometimes it makes it more confusing because there’s more people to go through.

Shiden: There are positives and negatives. A positive was that I didn’t feel like I had to take up as much space and I think that’s important when doing community organising. You want to feel like you can delegate to others and they can delegate to you when they feel the need to step back a little bit. That was a positive and that allowed me to breathe a bit more. Then there are obviously negatives, in that managing a big team is really difficult and I think I’ve understood that a lot more. We always talk about how many people are coming to the meeting, and when it’s a low number one week it’s kind of demoralising and annoying, but when it’s a big number, like twenty-something people in the chat, it is refreshing to see. So sometimes there are balances. But yeah, I like the fact it’s a big group and it’s not just two or three organisers - instead there’s six or seven of us.

Azaria: I did experience burnout at the beginning of summer but it wasn’t because of Halo. I was going through a lot at the time because I was doing my A Levels and I had a part-time job that was in honesty a full-time job and then I also had Halo as well. In August I took two weeks off because it had been non-stop through the summer. I just needed to take a break from life itself and I was like, I’m going to stay in my bed until I’m ok.

Steph: With Halo I don’t think I personally experienced burnout. I’ve always had my priority list, I’m quite an organised person. So with doing my masters as well, that probably helped me with prioritising stuff. I always look forward to Halo meetings and knowing what I’m going to do in those meetings, and I always had motivation, probably from the passion of what Halo stands for. I’ve never experienced burnout with Halo and hopefully I won’t because it’s going really well so far!

Ilhan: That’s really good.

Azaria: I need to go, I need to get to my lecture and it’s across campus.

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Shiden: That was a really good discussion.

Ilhan: Thanks everyone. Bye!

DEVELOPING LEADERS WITH LIVED EXPERIENCE OF INJUSTICE

REVAMPING OUR PROGRAMMES

THE FELLOWSHIP

Since our beginnings in 2014, the Fellowship has been our tentpole offering for training young change leaders. An intensive programme, both for Advocates and staff, this innovative course has been extensively tried and tested, but until now there hasn’t been time to extract learnings, review, adapt and improve. The fallow year has given us space to do this important work, in a process that has been led by our Alumni staff the Movement Leaders. Bringing their own experiences as Advocates and Changemakers, combined with strong connections across the existing Alum community, the Movement Leaders are ideally positioned to do this work. We are looking forward to running our refreshed Fellowship in August 2022!

SPARK

In the meantime, we have been able to make some immediate changes to our shorter programmes. We ran two Spark programmes this year. The July Spark took place over two weekends, and we used our learnings from this delivery to redevelop the programme for our first residential Spark in October, which we ran for a week with a group of 12 young people. Spark is still in the pilot stage and with each delivery we continue to evaluate its format, structure, and how it sits within the broader TAA programming.

Here’s some feedback from our most recent Spark event:

“This experience has been a defining moment for me. Out of the last two weekends I feel that I have completely expanded my mindset on social justice and have had my mind blown multiple times (and then put back together in a better way). I now see social action as something that is achievable in my life, whereas previously I thought that I could not make a difference at all. The Advocacy Academy has taught me that I can cause change through building relational power with my peers and using solidarity as a tool for power. For this reason, the Advocacy Academy is very important in that it reminds young people that they matter and can make a difference. As someone who is not very confident, I feel that the Spark programme has really helped boost my self-esteem and made me less afraid to speak up. Being in a space that is so welcoming made me realise that my voice is important, and that is something that many people never get to hear. So I am very happy to have been given the opportunity to be a part of the programme, and have discovered that in fighting social issues and in amplifying the voices of others, I can find myself.” - Rosa, Spark January

“The last two weekends have really opened my eyes and made me question things more. I have a new understanding of power, I've gained more confidence in my voice and my opinions. I have a new network of friends from different backgrounds who all have their own stories to tell and who all want to make the world we live in better. The changemakers were honestly the most welcoming, kind-hearted people I've ever met. Their ability to make me feel so welcome and safe in the span of only 6 days was remarkable. Through the 6 day course, I've learnt to look at the world with a more realistic mindset and analyse the flaws in our society. It's honestly quite refreshing.” - Mesha, Spark January

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“This experience has meant a lot to me in understanding the world around me but also to learn about my self and my identity. It is really weird to think that it was only 6 days because I’ve grown in confidence in speaking and a sense of maturity in my emotions and how I analyse the world we live in now. Im so grateful that I met such amazing and inspirational people that constantly think about the issues consuming our world.” - Anon. Spark July

“The Advocacy academy taught me practical things like CLAIM and the things to consider when making a campaign. I also really appreciate that I learned there a possibilities outside of what I considered/was taught with the equity vs liberation lesson. That was really eye opening. Plus it was really fun to meet new like minded people. The way the Advocacy academy put so much effort into each session to get us to interact made it so much more enjoyable than I thought learning could ever be.” - Anon. Spark July

CHANGEMAKER TRAINING

We have also taken time to review our third main programme, the Younger Changemaker training, now called the Changemaker Development Programme (CMDP). As well as formalising our offering, this is partly a reflection of a change in language - we have learned from our Alumni that ‘Younger Changemakers’ creates a needless distinction which ‘others’ our Alumni doing this work, so now all Changemakers have the same title.

With no Fellowship this year, there were fewer opportunities for Changemakers to lead, with the result that we led a smaller training and invited only Alums who had already led twice or more. This shorter course was focussed around Spark, with a training in June followed by top-ups ahead of the October delivery.

We heard in the Listening Campaign that the Alums were unhappy with the previous Changemaker remuneration structure. Responding to this, we have now officially defined the CMDP as an Apprenticeship programme and brought payments in line with national guidelines. This means that Changemakers will now be paid for their period of training as well as the days they deliver.

We’ve also taken time to make more significant changes to the CMDP, in response to feedback from our young people. The CMDP forms the bridge between their experience of youth work and of joining the staff team. It is a difficult transition and has been identified as a site of harm by many of our Alumni. We have been working to address this in order to provide an equitable and justicecentred training programme for the next generation of activist youth workers.

The changes we’ve made to this programme have already borne fruit: this year we saw five of our Alumni who were trained through the CMDP be hired by local youth organisations in various capacities. Speaking to our partners, we know there is high demand for young people who have been trained through CMDP and we expect this will lead to partnership investment from local organisations in the future.

MEET OUR NEW MOVEMENT LEADER: ILHAN

An Alum of the Class of 2017, it almost feels like Ilhan has been with us from the beginning. As well as being a lead organiser with Halo, this year Ilhan joined our staff team with responsibility for the Fellowship. Recently, she has been working on recruitment for the Class of 2023.

I decided to join Advocacy as a staff member because I’ve always wanted to be more involved in the movement. I was inspired by the OCM’s teaching methods and the way they relate to young people, and aspired to do the work they do. I’d just finished uni and didn’t have a job, so this was a good opportunity for me.

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Mel, Betty and I are Advocacy’s new Movement Leaders, which means we’re in charge of the Fellowship. Having all been Advocates, Alums and Changemakers, we decided it was time to shake things up, so we’re taking time to completely redesign the Fellowship programme, using the benefit of our wide-ranging experiences to make it more accessible and intersectional. Soon, we’ll be interviewing new Advocates, staff and Changemakerss for the Fellowship Class of 2023!

Advocacy was always meant to be a youth-organised movement, but up til now it’s really been about adults organising us. Now we’re moving towards youth organising in its truest form. It started with the listening campaign where we said, you do realise that you don’t give us the platform you think you do? Sometimes I felt like I was the face but what was coming out was not my voice. That is drastically changing already, now that we’re deconstructing the sessions ourselves and have secured more training and better pay for the Alum Changemakers.We’re saying, we don’t think this is enough, we think there should be more of this, and we’re being listened to. Before, we were constantly told that we could argue back but when we did we were always told we were wrong.

There’s also a streak of resilience in the Alums that is coming to the fore now. I’ve been here for six years because of the community we have and the values we share. For me, that’s overshadowed all the bullshit that we’ve tolerated. We’re a bunch of kids from inner city London who have dealt with oppression our entire lives. I want to be in this space, around these people.

FOCUSSING ON YOUR YOUNG PEOPLE

Our Movement has been built on face to face interactions, which added to the strain placed on our community by the Covid pandemic as we were forced to find new ways of reaching each other safely. In addition to this, high staff turnover has led to weakening connections, and we heard in the Listening Campaign that many Alums were feeling frustrated with TAA and their connection to it.

We want this Movement to be truly youth-led, with a culture that actively supports everyone to flourish. Part of our slow and purposeful work in resetting our culture has involved proactively reconnecting with our Alums. This has already started paying off: we have been having increasing one-to-ones with a more varied group beyond the “usual suspects”, and these Alumni have been participating in an increasing number of events, opportunities and campaigns.

Several Alumni within campaigns have named that they would like to take a step back from their campaign, or simply take a break to rest. This is a marked and important change in their previous relationship with The Advocacy Academy. Previously they might have “disappeared” or just let their campaign “go dark”, but by knowing that rest is an encouraged part of campaigning, they are reaching out to discuss a plan with our team. Importantly, Alumni are learning how to care for their well being as part of their campaigning practice, to keep themselves and their campaigns healthier, more engaged and more creative.

ORGANISING OUR COMMUNITY

RE-OPENING THE CAMPUS

In November 2021, we hired a team of Community Organisers from our Alum community to take charge of our Campus. They were joined in February by Community Director Hiba Ahmad, who is leading the work. Vanessa, Steph and Shiden have worked together to dust off the cobwebs, kill numerous fruit flies and reopen the space as a welcoming hub for our wider community. They have also created a new Campus Hire Policy, establishing a sliding solidarity rate for bookings to ensure equitable access.

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MEET OUR NEW CAMPUS ORGANISER: VANESSA

Vanessa graduated in the Class of 2016. She has since continued to campaign for Latinx representation in the UK since her time on the Fellowship. Then was able to join and become co-organiser for a cross-cohort TAA campaign LatinXcluded later on in her journey at TAA. As she explains, Vanessa and the Campus Organiser team have taken the community organising role and made it their own.

I learned about the ‘campus organiser’ role, as it used to be called, through TAA emails but I didn’t apply until really late in the process. I was quite hesitant about joining TAA full time because I was nervous about what that would look like. It felt like a lot of things were up in the air and personally, as someone who did the Fellowship in 2015 when Amelia was the only staff member there, the thought of her leaving was a bit like - this is all going to fall apart. But I had a call with Saba and we spoke about my concerns and what was worrying me, and then I just applied for what is now the Community Organiser grad role and I'm really glad that I did!

I’d also wanted to take a bit of a break. I’ve done years of Advocacy Academy: I’ve been a Changemaker, I’ve worked on LatinXcluded. I was getting a bit of FOMO from all the campaigns that were launching and going amazingly but I thought, I need to give myself some grace as well, I still need to make money and rest and have a break. But the job I was doing was also soulsuckingly boring, and when I decided to apply I was like, I’ve had enough of a break! This is what's missing in my life, doing something with a bigger purpose.

There were two types of role available: campus organiser and movement leader. What excited me about the campus organiser role was that it was about opening doors to the community for talking and organising. I live in Brixton and it’s changing so dramatically, and occupying space to do this work is just so difficult. I enjoyed all my time being a Changemaker but leading the Fellowship is just not a bit of me. Having one-to-ones with community members and going to events, I knew I’d enjoy that a lot more.

The application process involved a form and then two interviews. I didn't expect it to be that intense! I thought it would be more informal because we’re Alumni, but now that I’ve led interviews for other roles at TAA I get why they do it. When I got the role I found out I was working with Shiden and Steph: Steph and I actually did the Fellowship together, so it was nice to work with someone that I did the journey with so many years ago and hadn't spoken to for ages.

It was a bit messy at the start because we didn’t have a line manager. The people temporarily managing us were at capacity so they couldn’t do it properly, but I think it was fine in the end because it brought us together as graduates. We work at Tripod a lot so there was a nice bonding time before we actually started getting stuck into things, which was in December. Shiden, Steph and I decided that we needed to go to Campus and clear it out - revamp the bookshelf, clean the kitchen, all of that stuff. But then Covid happened so we closed down Campus for all of January, and then all of us got Covid in February! We started after that, going through all the cupboards and the nooks and crannies. There were loads of old memories as well, so it took a long time to get through all of that stuff.

In terms of the kitchen cleaning, we put that off for a long time because we were kind of battling: are we paid enough to deep clean a kitchen? That's so gross. So we said, no, we're not doing it! But then Hiba started and they were very much like, we have to do this to open up the Campus to the community, we can't open it at this rate. It was a really daunting task, but I think it was also a good ice breaker for us as a team. We just blasted loud music and did it in a day or two, but it was really gross.

Once everything was in shape, we got new chairs and then started getting the word out that we were hiring out our Campus. It's actually gone really well! We have at least three bookings a week

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and have raised nearly £4000 already. Considering that a lot of the people that hire are volunteering and don’t pay for the space, I feel like that's a massive achievement. It's really exciting! We’ve hosted groups like Just Stop Oil, The Resilience Project and the Brixton Neighbourhood Forum. The BBC We Move Fund are using our Campus next week to go through their applications and decide who they're giving money to. Lambeth Cop Watch meet here every two weeks and they just use it like their second home. It's nice to see people feel really comfortable in our space and keep wanting to come back.

Because we were the first people to step into these roles, we could really shape them into what we wanted them to be. The role now is so different to what the job description says, which is not a bad thing! For example, we changed our name to Community Organisers because we felt like that was more suited to our role. The good thing about us being a group of three is that we can focus on what we’re interested in and want to learn and perfect. My Community Organiser role is so different to Shiden and Steph's take on it, which is nice, but we still come together to do the key projects. For me, it means attending loads of community events, showing my face and becoming someone trusted in the community. It also means creating events for the community at Campus, which I've called Open Houses. We’re still experimenting with them. I’m choosing the topic for the first one, and then we’ll take feedback and suggestions for the second one. I'm hoping to carry that on and make them collaborative.

Another part of my role is being on the leadership team at Lambeth Citizens UK. We meet once a month to work on different issues and campaigns. This year, we’ve been leading up to the Assembly because councillors were getting re-elected. I helped write the manifesto and presented a part of the asks to the councillors. One of our asks was for Lambeth Council to adopt the Halo Code, and they said yes. We’ve been part of that alliance for seven years now, we did the housing campaign with them too. It’s a really good thing to be involved in.

I've also taken an interest in comms. We're really bad at comms at The Advocacy Academy, so we've luckily got someone stepping in to help us for a bit and I'm going to be leading on that with Hiba. Every week is so different!

This year, we’re planning to host several events and Open Houses to bring the community together at the Campus. We’re also planning to work with Brixton Neighbourhood Forum on a listening campaign: we’ll be going to the estates and market traders to find out what people are essentially angry about and what’s impacting them the most, so that we can use that data to launch a campaign together. We’re planning to recruit people who are interested in learning how community organising works and give them training on running a listening campaign, so that should be really fun.

I’m really excited about this role. We talk a lot about institutional power but I feel like a lot of that is from the Council or from other established organisations. We’re not actually respected or trusted by a lot of grassroots organisations in Brixton: all of them think we're funded by the Council. Working in Tripod doesn't help our image. I’d like The Advocacy Academy to find its place in the ecosystem, being a friend to grassroots organisations and supporting them, giving them a space, and also being respected by the Council, being able to make change there but not be too close. I also want to build more partnerships with other organisations doing the same work. A lot of the time campaigners and activists are so isolated, but we're working towards the same purpose and we don't unite enough. That’s a goal for me personally, through doing more events, doing comms properly, doing outreach work and all that stuff.

For myself, I want to really learn how to connect with anyone and everyone and I'm learning that slowly from doing this work. Through Citizens UK, I've had meetings with people that are like 75year-old white women that I've never in my life come across, and I really enjoy those experiences of having time to sit down and chat. I don't want to be in an echo chamber, I want to be able to change people's minds. That's a really tough goal because I do still get angry and emotional when people are ignorant, but it is what it is.

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It has been kind of a tough journey moving from being an Alum to a staff member. I'm lucky to have changemaking experience so I’d had sneak peeks of what it is to be behind the scenes of TAA. As an Advocate, I found TAA a bit intimidating and felt like I always had to fight to prove I should be on the programme. As a Changemaker, I learned you can have fun with it but I also had a sense of owing something, that I should be doing this to give back. I did it for a couple of years but it was quite intense for me so I stopped.

Then obviously, this role is so different. I was seeing documents of listening campaigns, of what Alumni were feeling. I was seeing the amount of effort it takes to do each event, do one Fellowship, do a Graduation. I don't know why I assumed it would be easy work to do, but I think when you're an Alum, TAA seems kind of shiny - yes, quite chaotic and messy, but everything felt very controlled. When you're a staff member, you're like, oh, this is very start-up, everything's from scratch. We have to be very experimental with things and not everything is shiny. And we weren't always aligning with our cultures and values.

It was also hard to trust new staff members. When you've seen so many staff members come and go, come and go, especially when I was 16-17 - you learn to love these adults and really aspire to be like them and then they leave and then you just never hear or see them again, so when we had so many staff members coming in this year, I was like, this is amazing but how long is it going to last? Who do I trust and who do I really invest in? I've had to work on that myself and just give everyone a fresh start and try to forget what it was like before. It's been easier than I thought because they're all amazing! It's a fun journey, and if they don't stay here forever, that's fine too. As a child you really hold onto people, but now that I’m working with them as colleagues it’s way different.

I still go to Alum-only events. At the beginning I was worried about what I could talk about with other Alums and whether I would still be seen as one of them, but it’s been fine. It helps being one of the older Alums because it’s natural to have a difference of perspective between me and a 19year-old. My close friendships haven’t changed, so that’s good.

ACTIVATING NEW ALLIES

In a ‘normal’ year for TAA, we take an outward-facing and community-orientated approach to our movement building. With the introspection of the fallow year, this is an arm of our work that we have allowed to sit dormant as we plan for coming back stronger next year. Find out more about our plans in Part Three of this State of the Movement.

OUR IMPACT THIS YEAR

We take impact evaluation at The Advocacy Academy extremely seriously and have developed a detailed impact-measurement process with the Dartington Social Research Unit. We use the New Philanthropy Capital Impact Cycle - Plan, Do, Assess, Review - to draw on what we learn, compare against our KPIs, and improve our services for the next cohort of young people.

We evaluate our success through three lenses: the impact of our pedagogy; the strength of our community; and the lasting change we create in the world.

We are currently in the process of obtaining the London Youth Quality Mark for our trainings and have achieved Level One accreditation of Project Oracle with the Centre for Youth Impact.

1. The impact of our pedagogy

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We want each Advocate to graduate from the Fellowship with the skills and networks to become passionate and effective leaders. Each of our activities work together to bring about our 65 learning outcomes which sit across five categories: knowledge and insight, skills, character, networks and access, and active citizenship. We use pre- and post- programme impact surveys, alongside oneto-one feedback sessions to monitor individual progress and allow for self-evaluation. We didn’t run our Fellowship programme this financial year.

This year we instead focused on developing our pilot project - the Spark programme, bringing in 12 new Sparkees. We are still in the process of developing the programme. Our aim this year was for 75% of participants to feel more driven to take part in campaigning and political activity and to recommend the programme to a friend. We exceeded across almost all of our KPIs. Specifically, our pre-and post- questionnaires showed that:

92% of young people felt more driven to take part in campaigning and political activity
100% of young people would recommend the programme to a friend

2. The strength of our community

Fostering community and building networks is critical to achieving change. The more Alumni, the bigger and stronger our movement. Each cohort learns and grows together, and is encouraged to guide and inspire future generations. We track data on the number of participants at our alumni events, and on those who re-join the programme to become Changemakers.

During FY22 our records and participation numbers showed that:

11 Alumni were trained through the Younger Changemaker Apprenticeship, allowing us to meet our target of bringing the total number of young people trained to 28
32 young people attended the Alumni Residential - Just Sex
19 young people attended the first Alumni run social event at The Advocacy Academy - the Alumni Festival
We welcomed 6 Alumni as staff members for the first time at The Advocacy Academy

3. Lasting change in the world

We track the real world impact our Advocates deliver during and after their time with us. We are beginning to see the ripples of change our Advocates are creating, however we currently don’t hold KPIs for this area. More info on our campaigns can be found elsewhere in the document.

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PART TWO: FINANCING AND FUNDRAISING REVIEW

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FINANCE REVIEW

The Advocacy Academy’s income has decreased this financial year, from £739k to £719k, while our expenditures increased from £507k, to £887k, as we resumed in-person working post COVID and began to backfill critical roles in the organisation

Thanks to the support of our funders, we were able to fully finance our core costs and delivery of our youth programmes. We decided not to run the Fellowship programme and instead focused on other areas of our work including development of our pilot programme, Spark, investment in our membership, and in our staff team.

The management team and trustees worked together to place an emphasis on restricting outgoings and in particular the indirect costs of charitable work, including governance and administration costs.

The deficit of £167,650 incurred for the year reflects expenditure to invest in critical infrastructure and hiring for the organisation.

FUNDRAISING

This year has been challenging for fundraising as, like so many, we felt the continued effects of the pandemic. However, we are pleased to have raised £719,459 in income, of which £702,509 (97%) came from grants and donations, and £16,950 (3%) from charitable activities. We are hugely grateful to all our donors for their continued support.

It is worth noting that we have received a lot of interest from funders and donors, and based on successful applications, we expect to generate income up to £1 million by the end of FY23. Our current services will be explored and evaluated to develop plans for potential portfolio expansions.

RESERVES OVERVIEW

We review our reserves position on a regular basis to determine whether the funds held are adequate for our work. We consider operating expenses for continued service delivery as well as unforeseen circumstances, particularly those relating to future funding uncertainties.

Our reserves position ending FY21 is £696,956 of which £386,839 is unrestricted, £70,117 is restricted and £240,000 is designated unrestricted reserves.

Our reserves position ending FY22 is £529,306 of which £349,306 is unrestricted and £180,000 is designated unrestricted reserves. The designated unrestricted reserves reflect the grant from Stewarts Investors. These funds are designated for non-core activities over five years, starting FY21.

We aim to maintain free reserves in unrestricted funds at a level equivalent to 3 months of operating costs (£220k). We believe that this level will provide TAA with the necessary breathing room to adjust quickly if circumstances change, and lend assurance that any such fluctuations will not impede our ongoing work. The reserves policy and the levels of reserved required will be reviewed annually as part of the annual budgetary process.

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KEY RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES

Weathering an uncertain political, environmental and economic times ahead, both as an organisation and for the young people we work with. Already our young people have shared the tension of participating in our work alongside part-time jobs they’ve had to take around school. While we are at a steady but also important time of our growth as an organisation and the fluctuations from cost of living changes can hit our budget hard with short notice. This is why investment in our infrastructure remains critical:
Programmatic infrastructure which gives our youth workers more capacity for holistic, individual support work when needed
Financial and operations infrastructure which gives us room to think plan for scenarios and have sufficient working capital to respond to surprises
Maintaining relationships and the trust and integrity which nourish them. In traditional organisations, scale sometimes comes at the expense of those starting relationships. Organising is designed specifically to prevent this erosion (even at scale), however, there is still risk to consider. That’s why our investment in membership governance and organising the community is important, alongside investment in our staff people:
We want clear, simple structures that allow our young people to participate in governance through the organisation and influence decisions meaningfully and through the exercise of power.
By prioritising working in solidarity with our local communities in this phase of growth, we make sure that staying accountable to our roots the fuel for our growth
Our strength comes from our staff team - their expertise and pastoral care. Supporting them through investment in pay, benefits, supervision, and training is vital
The pros and cons of increased visibility and high impact campaigns As with any organisation campaigning for change our institution and our young people will face scrutiny and judgement alongside the success of their campaigns. We have seen pockets of this already, and if we are to move forward to scale, we need to put ourselves beyond reproach and invest in governance and risk management including but not limited to:
We need a proactive communication and PR strategy which makes it clear who we are, what we do (and what we don’t do), including a renewed website and social media plan.
Risk Management and Governance which ensures we are sound from a regulatory perspective, and can lead on due diligence to protect and support the activity of our young people and their ambitions as well as the institution as a whole
Healing spaces and pastoral care which centre the individual and cares for them within the existing communities of The Advocacy Academy.

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The fallow year will officially end with the start of the Fellowship Year 2022/23 which begins in August. With a revised programme led by our new Movement Leaders, we are excited to launch our most exciting Fellowship yet.

The work we have been doing to develop our culture and grow our team has put us in a great position to move forward again, while continuing to test and learn across our programmes, campaigns and community organising. There is still a lot of rapid improvement to come, as well as making time for feedback and ensuring that our people remain invested in creating space for curiosity.

STEERING THE SHIP

CELEBRATING SEVEN YEARS OF ACTION AT THE ADVOCACY ACADEMY

Through the Fellowship our young people have launched an incredible 39 campaigns. Many have raised awareness about important but under-discussed issues; many others have achieved lasting real-world change for their communities. Not all of our campaigns have been headline-grabbing, but each and every one has been transformative for the young people who worked on them and laid the foundations for their further activism work.

We celebrate all of our campaigns at each year’s Graduation ceremony, but so far we haven’t given them formal endings when they’ve run their course. A theme we heard in the Listening Campaign is that this lack of closure can leave Alums feeling guilty about stepping away, so this year we have been looking at how we tie up the campaigns that are finished and recognise their achievements.

Our young people’s campaign actions have been wide-ranging and hard-hitting. We want to celebrate them by creating a written record that captures every campaign’s impact at an individual, community and wider social level. This will be accompanied by an Alum festival that brings us together in person to learn, celebrate and look back as well as ahead.

DEVELOPING LEADERS WITH LIVED EXPERIENCE OF INJUSTICE

EVOLVING OUR DELIVERIES

A key part of the work of the fallow year has been about taking a step back from delivering to explore how we can develop our offering to our young people. We’re in a position now where we can move beyond our original Fellowship-as-tentpole structure: instead of treating our deliveries in isolation, we plan to organise them into a seven-year journey in activism for our young people.

The whirlwind of the six-month Fellowship creates a powerfully immersive experience, but it has also necessitated “banking” knowledge around social justice - a pedagogical method that is out of step with the approach we have sought to champion. In the past, this information-download style has also meant that some lines of difference are further explored than others, with the unintentional impact of creating a perceived hierarchy.

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Our revised deliveries will draw on Paulo Freire’s work by giving young people the frameworks, confidence and skills to understand power and privilege in all its forms, and creating more space for debates and discussions. We are working to build justice and wellbeing into the structure and delivery of our programmes, and ensuring that we address ableist, classist and anti-racist frameworks that have been flagged by staff, Alumni and Changemakers.

Although we proudly stand on the shoulders of several American justice movements that have come before us, such as SNCC, we also want to move away from our previous US-centric framings, rooting our training in local and UK-based activism and community building. This also means we’ll be bringing more discussion of current political issues into our deliveries.

A NEW SPARK: THE CLIMATE PROGRAMME

Having tested and revised our Spark offering, we are rolling out a new format this year with a focus on climate activism. The Spark Climate programme will be a 5-day intensive residential for young people aged 14-19 who are angry about the climate crisis and want to make change in their communities.

Through a balanced curriculum of experiential social justice education and community organising training, we’ll explore:

The intersectional identities and systems of oppression that have led to the current climate crisis and how they manifest in different parts of the problems we see around us
The history of climate movements around the world and their achievements
Campaign strategies and methods of negotiating with people power, through role play and practice
The issues within climate that matter most to each of us, and how we can start planning action on those issues right now.

The journey doesn’t end there: on becoming Members of our Movement, Spark graduates will be invited to join our Climate Collective, a group of like-minded young people who are organising and taking action on the climate. The Collectives system will enable them to lead and participate in longer-term campaigns and continue developing themselves as young change leaders.

CAMPAIGNING FOR CHANGE

MOVING TOWARDS A MEMBERSHIP MODEL

The previous iteration of the Fellowship used campaigning as a pedagogical tool that required Advocates to identify an individual interest to pursue from an early stage. What we’ve heard is that in practice, many young people feel under pressure to find a cause, and once they graduate from the Fellowship there is a lack of clearly defined staff support to help them continue. Then, when young people do not continue their campaign beyond the framework of the Fellowship, they can feel that they have ‘failed’.

Responding to this, we are planning to move towards a membership model at TAA, repositioning the Fellowship as one of two entry points to the movement (the other being Spark). In this new framework, a young person enters The Advocacy Academy through either the six-month Fellowship or the five-day Spark. On these programmes, they run an action which supports a broader campaign being run by TAA ‘Members’. These actions serve to embed Advocates and Sparkees within the Member community; remove the ‘pass/fail’ tension that comes with trying to

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win change in less than a year; and build the power of our young people, their campaigns and TAA.

Upon graduation, the Advocate/Sparkee becomes a Member of TAA. They can then continue their activism journey at their own pace by running and participating in campaigns, which will be supported by the Campaigns team. Joining an existing campaign is not required and Members who want to pursue a new cause will be able to develop their campaign with us.

When they reach the age of 25, Members become ‘Alumni’, at which point they effectively graduate from the Academy. Alumni are encouraged to continue supporting the Movement through advisory or staff roles, and through financial contribution.

This plan marks a significant transformation in The Advocacy Academy and we have projected that it will take 18 months to transition across to it. Once the work is completed, we envision a Movement that builds power as a campaigning institution, supported by our local partners and getting our wider communities behind our campaigns to win real and lasting change.

INTRODUCING HOST

While we develop the Membership model, we are testing ways to support our young people’s campaigns in the immediate term. This year, we are piloting ‘HOST’ with two of our campaigns, Halo and ChokedUp. The pilot will run from October 2022 to April 2023, and if it is successful we will extend the HOST offer to all Alumni-led campaigns and projects.

HOST provides a range of support and benefits for groups seeking to make change. These include:

1. Fiscal hosting - We’ll provide clear and transparent banking services that allow groups to raise, manage and spend money through the OpenCollective platform. TAA will manage the administration around tasks like account ownership and managing taxes.

2. Technical support - We’ll make sure groups have the systems they need to organise effectively, for example Slack, Mailchimp, Canva and NationBuilder.

3. Strategic guidance & mentoring - Our experienced team of Changemakers, Campaigners and Organisers are on hand to help campaigns build, manage and succeed with their projects. Each HOST group will have a dedicated point of contact at TAA who will work with them to develop their agenda and goals.

4. Start up funding - All HOST groups will be given an initial £250 from TAA to help them set up.

5. Fundraising & budget support - We will work with groups to audit their financial needs, develop a budget and raise money. HOST groups will also, from time to time, be eligible to receive grants from TAA to support their work.

6. Media & press support - TAA will open up its phone book to groups, helping them develop the contacts they need to make change. Through the HOST organiser training, groups will also receive press and media training - including on how to develop a communications plan for their work.

7. Access to TAA’s wider networks and community relationships - The support they need, when they need it. Network building and community organising is what we’re all about!

8. Free meeting and workspace - All HOST projects will be able to use the Campus for meetings, events and co-working free of charge, subject to availability. HOST groups can also use TAA as a registered postal address.

9. HOST organiser training - At least once a year we will offer HOST organisers and project members access to top-up training where we will deep-dive into campaigns management, skills development, press work and effective communications with masterclasses from social justice experts across the UK.

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HOST groups remain the ultimate decision makers about the direction of their campaign. Some groups may, in time, want to set up as established organisations in their own right, while others may not. We are committed to supporting groups to set up independently as and when this becomes appropriate for them.

DEFINING OUR ORGANISING PRINCIPLES

Our new Community Director Hiba has been helping us to establish the set of principles that will guide the ways we build our networks outside TAA. Hiba explains:

“We are Woke Switzerland. We recognise that you cannot be neutral on a moving train, so we apply a material, strategic, and intersectional analysis to relationship building and the way we connect with folks in Lambeth. But we will do our very best to be impartial, to recognise the complexity of the struggles we are waging, and to recognise that no one sits on all the answers alone.

“Concretely, this means:
We are a space for broad movement building. We recognise that people in the movement have different tactics, and we don’t expect purity of ideology from anyone. We offer people chances to learn, to grow, to explain, and to do better together. We also recognise power imbalances, and we don’t exclude any potential partners because they are seen as radical/unwanted by people in power (for example political agitators, abolitionist groups).
• We are political. Our job is not to offer services, and the spaces we hold are rooted in our liberation ideology. We recognise the need for some service delivery (for example creating spaces for young children to be in) but we don’t shy away from framing this as political.
• We are goal-oriented. We negotiate with power holders and get them to meet our demands. We don’t talk in echo chambers or work in silos. We are not shy about wanting radical change now or about taking different approaches to getting there.
We are not ideological purists. Liberation is a process, and it is ok to experiment. We don’t shun people when they mess up and mean no harm, we don’t cancel each other without giving space for transformative justice to take place.
We are not naïve pawns. We work for the community and will have honest conversations about failings, whether ours or our partners’. We will create processes for taking hard decisions collectively and we will remember our mission to give and create space for community in an increasingly hostile environment for these kinds of efforts. This means that while we’re not too good to polish some egos, we also do not allow anyone to dictate our next steps. In the end, our mandate comes from our membership base, our leadership team, our board, and our experienced and passionate workers - and we trust our voice and judgement.
• We are curious . We want to learn and improve, we want to be impactful and we want to win. We are not gatekeepers to this work and we will do our best to share best practice with others in the justice space.”

NEW CAREER OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALUMNI

We have started investigating an opportunity for us to build a paid service model across internship and graduate recruitment. In a pilot programme with Greenpeace, money they would typically pay to diversity recruiters would be given to TAA instead, for which we will provide a shortlist of candidates for recruitment from our Alumni community. On top of this, we will also provide Power & Privilege training to the departments that will host the candidates.

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ORGANISING OUR COMMUNITY

ENGAGING OUR COMMUNITY AROUND OUR CAMPUS

With our Campus refreshed and reopened, we are looking forward to hosting a range of events to bring our community together. The first planned Open House will be about policing, and we are also working on a weekend of sessions to mark Pride.

Alongside our wider organising, we are also focusing on the health of our Alumni community. In July, we will hold our next Alum Residential which we are calling Rest Is Resistance. We hope to take 35-50 Alumni away for the weekend and place a real emphasis on care, rest, resetting, and deciding what we want from this community going forwards.

LOOKING FOR A NEW SPACE

We proudly opened our Campus for Young Activists in February 2019. Since then, the Campus has been a home for our movement, our campaigns and our programmes. In an environment that is increasingly hostile to oppressed communities coming together to build power, we are taking up vital physical space and sharing it with members of our wider community to empower grassroots activism in the fight for social justice.

The Campus is a space for community activism in Brixton that draws on the area’s rich history, character and local expertise. Our young people use it to deliver groundbreaking community organising work, and build the power of our communities to realise a better tomorrow.

Unfortunately, because of the pandemic we never got to do the building work on the Campus that we’d planned in order to increase our uses of it. With the end of our lease coming up in January 2024, we are now looking for a new space to become the home of community organising in South London. We are currently putting in bids to a number of spaces around Brixton and will be running a capital appeal to raise funds for our new building.

ACTIVATING NEW ALLIES

Over the past seven years, we have gained a strong and passionate supporter base who want to follow our young people’s campaigns and turn out for their actions, because they share our belief that the future is not fixed and that young people, working together, can shape it for the better. We also know there are other movements like ours across the UK who can benefit from our learnings (warts and all!), for whom we want to act as thought leaders in the field of youth organising.

In order to strengthen our connections with our audience and increase our reach, we are undertaking a communications review with a focus on our digital presence. Prior to the pandemic, we began discussions with Common Knowledge to re-design our website. As the first port of call for young people who are interested in applying to our programmes, we want our website to showcase the widening range of social justice journeys we offer.

Our new website will promote and celebrate all our campaigns to date, to share our learnings, advertise our actions and attract new support and funding. We envision it as an open source for our practice that will enable other organisations to discover and explore youth organising.

W put our website plans on hold in 2020 to divert funds towards our Covid response. We now aim to restart the process and launch our new website in late 2022.

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As well as this, Lydia, Dhakshi and Saba have created a working group with ShapeHistory and Small Axe to develop key components of our communications strategy. We are also working with Economic Change to move our systems into Salesforce, which will enable us to coordinate our speakers, youth workers and advisors through a streamlined process that will reduce the time that staff currently spend managing logistics.

In order to focus on our internal growth and development, we have put our train-the-trainer programmes on hold. Further ahead, we aim to continue our work in this area, as well as seeking potential accreditation and consulting options.

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OUR STAFF

Saba Shafi Managing Director 2017-2021, CEO 2021-

Saba has an MBA from Wharton and eight years of management consultancy experience. She kicked off her career leading healthcare initiatives in refugee camps and diversity and inclusion programmes in graduate schools in the US. Saba is passionate about growing The Advocacy Academy.

Darcey Williamson Head of Cyclical Leadership 2018-

Darcey is a youth worker and informal educator whose practice is informed by a radical youth work paradigm. She employs critical education methods and participatory action research, working with others to co-create projects that challenge epistemic and social injustices. Darcey leads our Younger Changemaker Apprenticeship programme, training and supporting our Alumni community to develop their leadership practice and social justice education methods to become Changemakers, who are central to our movement.

Tom Ross Williams Creative Director 2019-2021

Tom is an actor, theatre-maker, and activist. Their passion is bringing together the arts with social justice. In their role as Creative Director, they developed partnerships with arts organisations and have found innovative ways to integrate arts into the Fellowship, as both a tool for pedagogy and for change.

Imane Maghrani Spark Programmes Manager 2020-2021, Associate Director Spark Programmes 2021-

Imane is a social justice educator and youth programmer who runs The Advocacy Academy’s Spark programmes. She’s worked across sectors specialising in programme design and delivery, youth empowerment and social justice learning, and is most excited by reimagining education and embedding social justice in youth spaces.

Dhakshi Suriar Head of Philanthropy 2021-

Dhakshi is an accidental activist (her words), with a huge passion for social justice. After a couple of stints in the finance sector, she moved across to non-profits working predominantly in trusts and foundations. She now oversees philanthropy at The Advocacy Academy, bringing a breadth of partnership management experience with her.

Fopé Olaleye Political Education Lead 2021-

Fopé is an educator and writer who brings a wealth of facilitation experience from Fearless Futures. They have travelled the country delivering talks and workshops to universities and are now beyond excited to dig their teeth into Advocacy campaigns, as their work has always involved campaigning and critical thinking around education.

Amarah Khan Community Administrator 2021-

Amarah has a master’s degree in environmental psychology. Starting her career in qualitative research, she uses evidence and insight to create fairer spaces. She is passionate about creating social and physical spaces that dare to have chutzpah and be unapologetically beautiful.

Lydia Rye Campaigns & Organising Director 2021-

Lydia is an experienced Community Organiser and campaigner with more than a decade of experience in social purpose work. She is a former Senior Organiser for Citizens UK; a host for The Dinner Party, a peer led grief support group based on food and collective care; and still works freelance with funders interested in funding organising work.

Shiden Tekle Community Organiser 2021-

Shiden is an activist who graduated from the Fellowship in 2018 and has stayed involved with TAA as a Changemaker since. His campaigns include Legally Black and The Halo Code, winning MTV

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EMA awards and a Marie Claire award from both campaigns. He studied Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary, University of London.

Stephanie Cohen Community Organiser 2021-

Having graduated from the Fellowship in 2015, Stephanie gained an LLM in Legal and Political Theory from York University. The Legal and Political Organiser of The Halo Code, she calls herself a Legal academic, having published her first article in June 2021 arguing for legally recognising hair discrimination as a form of racial discrimination.

Vanessa Castro Community Organiser 2021-

Vanessa graduated from TAA in 2016 and then completed a BA in Politics and International Relations. As a Changemaker she has participated in many fun, radical campaign actions whilst empowering and supporting young Advocates. She is co-organiser of Latinxcluded, a collective that fights for the representation of the Latinx community in the UK.

Betty Pearl Movement Leader 2021-

An Alumni of the Class of 2017, Betty has organised on campaigns such as Influencers and Education Not Exclusion and was heavily involved in the documentary Excluded. She was President of Feminists’ Society at Nottingham where she studied Politics and IR and is currently part of the Involving Young People Collective for Esmée Fairbairn.

Mel Pinto Movement Leader 2021-

Mel recently completed her BA Hons in Politics and IR. She has campaigned with TAA since graduating in 2018 and was the leading liberation officer at university. She constantly leads with awareness around mental health because she went undiagnosed for a big part of her life and knows how it is to feel invisible.

Ilhan Yonis Movement Leader 2021-

Ilhan is one of the alumni from the class of 16/17. She has worked on the housing campaign, helping to secure funding and land to build affordable housing. She is also currently working as a lead organiser for the Halo Collective. Ilhan has had many media appearances including a feature on the cover of Dazed with Vivienne Westwood and her collaborative film 'Hijab and me,' which earned her a BAFTA nomination. Ilhan is a recent social anthropology graduate.

Shoomi Chowdhury Programmes Director 2022-

Shoomi has extensive experience leading transformative programmes, joining us after seven years in human rights education at Amnesty UK and anti-oppression programmes in the arts and cultural sector. She has a track record of getting things done whilst centring the lived experience of people and communities impacted by oppressive structures.

Hiba Ahmad Community Director 2022-

A Human Geography graduate & enthusiast, Hiba is passionate about building fair cities and creating lasting, inclusive spaces that bring people together. As a researcher she has focused on just transitions across the globe and as a campaigner and organiser she works in critical pedagogy, liberation work, anti-gentrification, and climate justice.

Titilola Dawudu Alumni Associate Director 2022-2022

Titilola's work spans across arts and cultural, charity and youth sectors. A hyphenate creative, she is part of Black Womxn in Theatre and created The Hear Me Now Series, a collection of initiatives and movements that increase positive narratives and representation of actors, makers and creators who are Black and from the global majority.

Dola Akinniranye People Manager 2022-

Dola is a HR professional with about 5 years of experience in generalist HR. She has worked across various sectors like education, charity, management consulting, health care and real estate.

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Dola has an MA in Human Resources and currently doing a PHD on “the effect of culture on employees’ workplace decision making and behaviour”.

Toyin Onasanya Associate Director of Finance and Operations 2022-

Toyin is the Associate Director of Finance and Operations and is responsible for the TAA's finance strategy, operations, and HR. She has more than eight years of experience leading the finance and operations function for non-profit organisations. Prior to joining TAA, she was the Finance and Operations Lead at the Ada Lovelace Institute, where she oversaw the institute-wide antioppression initiative as well as overseeing the Institute’s support functions

OUR TRUSTEES

PATRON Helen Hayes MP

Helen has been Patron of The Advocacy Academy since before she was elected as Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood! She is a staunch affordable housing advocate in Parliament, where she sits on the Communities and Local Government Select Committee.

CHAIR Daniel Taylor MBE

Daniel Taylor is the Founder and CEO of MDC Group, a highly respected design agency with a reputation for designing and building bespoke interiors for public and private sector clients. Daniel is a founding trustee for the Creative & Cultural Skills Council, a Fellow of the RSA, a trustee for the Aleto Foundation and Ambassador for the Black Health Collaborative Organisation.

VICE-CHAIR Marjorie Perkins

Marjorie is a multi award wining TMT professional, who has worked for over 20 years at BT. Marjorie is also a Program Delivery Lead at the Aleto Foundation. Previously, Marjorie was a member of the Advisory Board for Career Ready, and the Area Director for Toastmasters International.

INTERIM TREASURER: Thishani Nadesan COO | Cleo AI

Thish’s start up Cleo AI works to radically improve our relationship with money. She is a passionate believer that business and tech can be a force for positive social and economic change, and brings the board experience in business strategy and scaling companies.

ALUMNI TRUSTEE Thalia Papanicolaou Class of 2017

Thalia is currently studying International Studies at Leiden University. She co-organises the Climate Justice Collective of the Advocacy Academy’s Alumni network, working on the issue of intersectional youth representation. She is also involved in ‘Influuenzers’, the Alumni response to the Covid-19 crisis, creating content related to the pandemic.

ALUMNI TRUSTEE Constantinos Christou Class of 2016

Costa co-leads Advocacy’s housing work as an organiser for the Housing Collective, which recently secured a £5.1m piece of land from TfL to build affordable housing. He has facilitated a number of sessions on the Fellowship programme. Costa is currently on a research technology graduate scheme at Kantar..

Abimbola Wingate-Saul Barrister | 25 Bedford Row Chambers

Alongside her professional work and trusteeship of Advocacy, Abimbola is currently Chair of the Independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board on the Police Plan of Action on Inclusion and Race. She is also a founder and co-host of The Manifesto Read Podcast which breaks down the manifesto pledges of the big three parties.

Layal Marten Growth Lead | Founders Pledge

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Layal Marten has a commercial background in sponsorship and large events in Australia, where she worked before moving into the not-for-profit sector in the UK as a professional fundraiser in 2013. She is currently also an advisor to Humanitas Technologies and handles partnerships with Sumerian Partners.

Maha Sardar Barrister | Garden Court Chambers

Maha is a longstanding advocate for social change. A dual qualified barrister/solicitor, she has worked in the field of human rights, immigration and asylum for over a decade, and with charities including Refugee and Migrant Justice, Reprieve, Liberty and the UNHCR in Istanbul.

Michelle King Director of Tranformation | Allvue Systems

Having spent over 20 years in Finance, Michelle set up Silent Way Partners to promote economic opportunity based on merit, not on race, gender or class. She went on to create the Silent Way Foundation to promote equality of opportunity for marginalised communities and invest in minority women founders, before moving to Allvue Systems.

Natalie Armitage Project Manager | The Ubele Initiative

A seasoned professional in the world of advocacy, Natalie’s work at Ubele prioritises black-led community building initiatives to build infrastructure and sustainable funding across the UK. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she also held daily free breathing classes as a trained Yoga teacher, to support people’s mental health.

Rachel Diamond Hunter Executive Director | New Economy Organisers Network (NEON) Rachel has worked for over a decade in campaigning and politics including at 38 Degrees, at Nelson Mandela’s organisation The Elders and working for an MP. She’s the co-founder of Jewish movement, Na’amod and is currently the Executive Director: Organisational Development at NEON.

Ruth Pryce Head of Programme - Young People | Paul Hamlyn Foundation

Ruth is part of the grant making team at the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, where she leads on and invests in organisations that support young people. Her focus is on collaboration to achieve collective impact and on applying a systems change lens to enable effective investments that deliver social change.

Sam Grant Policy and Campaigns Manager | Liberty

Sam was a founding trustee of The Advocacy Academy. At Liberty, he works on ending immigration detention, protecting the Human Rights Act, mental health and military justice issues. He blogs for the website Rights Info and volunteers for the Refugee Cricket Project.

Shivani Smith Senior Consultant | Perrett Laver

Shivani brings over 18 years of strategy, marketing, operational, sales, fundraising and management experience gained in SMEs and charities. She was previously Deputy Chair of the board of trustees for Khulisa, and helped set up not-for-profit organisation The Twist Partnership.

Zoe Tyndall Change Support Team | Hackney Council

Zoe previously led OxFizz, an educational social enterprise which raised over half a million pounds for UK charities and helped more than 1000 students from all backgrounds to reach their academic potential. Her background is in investment management for charities.

GOVERNANCE

Status

Charity registration number 1161785. The Charitable Incorporated Organisation is governed by a Constitution, which was passed, and last amended, on 1 January 2015.

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Charitable Objects

Advance the education of the public, particularly but not exclusively people under the age of 25, in such ways as the charity trustees think fit, including but not limited to in the subject of politics.

To develop the skills, capacities and capabilities of young people in such a way that they are better able to identify and help meet their needs and enable them to participate in society as mature and responsible adults.

The Trustees have had regard to guidance issued by the charity commission on public benefit.

Key Activities

We train young people to engage in collective action to improve their communities and tackle social issues which directly affect them.

Public Benefits Disclosure

The Trustees have given due consideration to the Charity Commission’s published guidance on the Public Benefit Requirement under the Charities Act 2011.

Founded

20 February 2014: The United Nations World Day of Social Justice

Registered

21 May 2015

Trustees

Abimbola Wingate-Saul (May 2020 to present) Constantinos Christou (May 2020 to present) Daniel Taylor MBE, CHAIR (Jul 2022 to present) Layal Marten (Apr 2018 to Jun 2022) Maha Sardar (May 2020 to present) Marjorie Perkins, VICE-CHAIR (Jul 2022 to present) Michelle King (May 2020 to present) Natalie Armitage (May 2020 to Nov 2022) Rachel Diamond Hunter (May 2020 to Jul 2022) Ruth Pryce, CO-CHAIR (Feb 2021 to Nov 2022) Thalia Papanicolaou (May 2020 to present) Thish Nadesan (Dec 2018 to present) Sam Grant, INTERIM CHAIR (Jun 2019 to Feb 2021), TRUSTEE (May 2015 - Jul 2021) Shivani Smith, CO-CHAIR (Feb 2021 to Nov 2022), INTERIM CHAIR (Oct 2020 to Jan 2021), TRUSTEE (Apr 2018 to present) Zoe Tyndall (Jan 2017 to Feb 2022)

The Trustees have ultimate responsibility for The Advocacy Academy, work to ensure good governance, sign off on the overall strategic direction and are the highest decision making body. The Board works with the executive team (see staff bios in the previous section) which is responsible for the day-to-day running of the charity. Trustees maintain a good working knowledge of charity law and best practice.

The Board has the power to appoint Trustees as it considers appropriate, with particular reference to enriching skills and increasing representation from communities reflected in our Alumni community. There are informal procedures in place for their induction. New Trustees are provided with one year’s worth of Board minutes, financial reports, and the Memorandum and articles of Association.

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Pay & Remuneration

All pay and remuneration is made in line with a pay table which details by level the range of salary an individual can earn, as part of a broader pay and performance policy.

Salaries of the CEO are agreed by the Trustees. Staff salaries are agreed by line managers in partnership with the Commercial Director and the CEO to meet pay and performance policy and budget needs.

CEO

Amelia Viney (Feb 2014 - Jun 2021) Saba Shafi (Jul 2021 - present)

Patron

Helen Hayes, MP Dulwich and West Norwood

Registered Office

7 Vining Street, London, SW9 8QA

Bank

HSBC, 421 Brixton Rd, London SW9 8HE

Independent Examiner

David Renton CA, 16 Sheridan Walk, London NW11 7UF

Pro Bono Solicitors

Allen & Overy, One Bishops Square, London E1 6AD

Socials

Website www.TheAdvocacyAcademy.com
Email hello@TheAdvocacyAcademy.com
Twitter: @AdvocacyAcademy
Instagram: @AdvocacyAcademy
YouTube: yt.vu/+advocacyacademyRISK

Energy and Carbon Reporting

We used less than 40,000kWh this reporting period.

The Trustees have read and reviewed the Strategic Report

Name: Daniel Taylor, Chair of Trustees Signature:

Name: Marjorie Perkins, Vice-Chair of Trustees Signature:

Name: Thishani Nadesan, Treasurer Signature:

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Independent Examiner’s report to the Trustees of The Advocacy Academy (Charity No: 1161785)

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the charity”) for the year ended 31 March 2022, set out on pages 50-61

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent examiner’s statement

The charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000 and I am qualified to undertake the examination by being a qualified member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

The accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
The accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
The accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

David Renton CA 16 Sheridan Walk, London NW11 7UF

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The Advocacy Academy

Statement of financial activities (incorporating an income and expenditure account)

For the year ended 31 March 2022

General Note £ Income from: 2 552,289 3 Alumni and campaigns - Commissioning (spark programme) - Workshops - Other income 950 553,239 4 103,870 4 486,902 4 590,772 (37,533) - (37,533) Reconciliation of funds: 386,839 13 349,306 Unrestricted Total funds brought forward Net income / (expenditure) for the year Total funds carried forward Transfers between funds Net movement in funds Raising funds Charitable activities Grants, donations and legacies Total income Expenditure on: Total expenditure Charitable activities	Unrestricted Designated £ - - - - - - - 60,000 60,000 (60,000) - (60,000) 240,000 180,000	Restricted £ 150,220 - 16,000 - - 166,220 - 236,337 236,337 (70,117) - (70,117) 70,117 -	2022 Total £ 702,509 - 16,000 - 950 719,459 103,870 783,239 887,109 (167,650) - (167,650) 696,956 529,306	General £ 439,265 - - 1,550 - 440,815 50,285 76,528 126,813 314,002 - 314,002 72,837 386,839 Unrestricted	Unrestricted Designated £ - - - - - - - 60,000 60,000 (60,000) - (60,000) 300,000 240,000	Restricted £ 243,013 36,000 12,000 - 7,500 298,513 - 320,024 320,024 (21,511) - (21,511) 91,628 70,117	2021 Total £ 682,278 36,000 12,000 1,550 7,500
							739,328
							50,285 456,552
							506,837
							232,491 -
							232,491 464,465
							696,956

All of the above results are derived from continuing activities. There were no other recognised gains or losses other than those stated above. Movements in funds are disclosed in Note 13 to the financial statements.

The notes on pages 53 to 61 form part of these financial statements

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The Advocacy Academy

Balance sheet

As at 31 March 2022

Note £ Fixed assets: 9 Current assets: 10 203,953 337,476 541,429 Liabilities: 11 53,656 12 13 180,000 349,306 Total unrestricted funds Debtors Restricted income funds Unrestricted income funds: Designated funds The funds of the charity: Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Net current assets / (liabilities) Total net assets / (liabilities) Cash at bank and in hand Tangible assets General funds Total charity funds	2022 £ 41,533	£ 187,010 498,005	2021 £ 35,322
	41,533 487,773		35,322 661,634
541,429 53,656		685,015 23,381
180,000 349,306		240,000 386,839
	529,306		696,956
	- 529,306		70,117 626,839

	529,306		696,956

1/30/2023 Approved by the trustees on and signed on their behalf by

…………………………….. - Trustee

The notes on pages 53 to 61 form part of these financial statements

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The Advocacy Academy

Statement of cash flows

For the year ended 31 March 2022
Note Net income / (expenditure) for the reporting period Depreciation charges Dividends, interest and rent from investments (Increase)/decrease in debtors Increase/(decrease) in creditors Net cash from/(used in) operating activities Analysis of cash and cash equivalents Cash in hand and at bank Total cash and cash equivalents Cash flows from investing activities: Purchase of fixed assets Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year Net cash provided by / (used in) investing activities	£ (23,126)	£ (167,650) 16,915 - (16,943) 30,275 2022	£ (2,848)	£ 232,491 11,938 - (146,428) 2,178 2021
		(137,403) (23,126)		100,179 (2,848)

		(160,529) 498,005		97,331 400,674
		337,476		498,005
		At 31 March 2022 £ 337,476		At 31 March 2021 £ 498,005
		337,476		498,005

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The Advocacy Academy

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

1 Accounting policies

a) Company information

The Advocacy Academy is a charity registered in England with registration number 1161785. Its registered office address is 7 Vining Street, London SW9 9QS.

b) Basis of preparation

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019); the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102); and the Charities Act 2011. The accounts are presented in GBP rounded to £1, which is the functional currency of the charity.

Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy or note.

c) Public benefit entity

The charitable company meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.

d) Going concern

The trustees assess whether the use of going concern is appropriate i.e. whether there are any material uncertainties related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the ability of the charity to continue as a going concern. The trustees make this assessment in respect of a period of one year from the date of approval of the financial statements. In making this assessment the trustees have considered the impact of Covid 19.

Annual budgets have been revised taking this into account with prudent figures for both income and expenditure. The charity holds significant reserves and has liquid assets in the form of cash held in short term deposits.

The Trustees are satisfied that there are no material uncertainties in relation to going concern in the foreseeable future

e) Income

Income, including from Government and other grants and donations, whether 'capital' or 'income', is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and that the amount can be measured reliably.

Grants with performance-related conditions, commissioning and other earned incomes are only included in the SoFA under income from Charitable Activities once the charity has provided the related goods or services or met the performance related conditions.

Gift Aid receivable is included in income when there is a valid declaration from the donor. Any Gift Aid amount recovered on a donation is allocated to a separate fund unless the donor or terms of the appeal has specified otherwise and instead is treated as an addition to the same fund as the initial donation.

f) Donations of gifts, services and facilities

Donated services (including the time given to the organisation by volunteers) and facilities are included in the SOFA when received at the value of the gift to the charity, provided the value can be measured reliably. Where appropriate, donated services and facilities are recognised as income with an equivalent amount recognised as an expense under the appropriate heading in the SOFA.

In accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102), volunteer time is not recognised so refer to the trustees’ annual report for more information about their contribution.

g) Interest receivable

Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable.

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The Advocacy Academy

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

1 Accounting policies (continued)

h) Fund accounting

Restricted funds are to be used for specific purposes as laid down by the donor. Expenditure which meets these criteria is charged to the fund.

Unrestricted funds are donations and other incoming resources received or generated for the charitable purposes.

Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the trustees for particular purposes.

i) Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT

Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is classified under the following activity headings:

Costs of raising funds relate to the costs incurred by the charitable company in inducing third parties to make voluntary contributions to it, as well as the cost of any activities with a fundraising purpose. Expenditure on charitable activities includes the costs of offering fellowships, programmens and campaigns and delivering related services undertaken to further the purposes of the charity and their associated support costs.

Other expenditure represents those items not falling into any other heading.

Irrecoverable VAT is charged as a cost against the activity for which the expenditure was incurred.

j) Allocation of support costs

Resources expended are allocated to the particular activity where the cost relates directly to that activity. However, the cost of overall direction and administration of each activity (support costs), comprising the salary and overhead costs of the central function, is apportioned on the following basis which are an estimate, based on staff time, of the amount attributable to each activity.

Social Justice Leadership Fellowship	22%
Alumni and campaigns	34%
Commissioning (spark programme)	24%
Power + Privilege Workshops	0%
Community Programmes	19%

Where information about the aims, objectives and projects of the charity is provided to potential beneficiaries, the costs associated with this publicity are allocated to charitable expenditure. Pension costs are allocated to various activties and restricted funds on the same basis as salaries.

Governance costs, which are considered a category of support costs, are the costs associated with the governance arrangements of the charity. These costs are associated with constitutional and statutory requirements and include any costs associated with the strategic management of the charity’s activities.

k) Tangible fixed assets

Items of equipment are capitalised where the purchase price exceeds £250. Depreciation costs are allocated to activities on the basis of the use of the related assets in those activities. Assets are reviewed for impairment if circumstances indicate their carrying value may exceed their net realisable value and value in use.

Depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write down the cost of each asset to its estimated residual value over its expected useful life. The depreciation rates in use are as follows:

Buildings 5 years Fixtures and fittings 5 years Office equipment 5 years

l) Financial Instruments

The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value.

l.1) Financial assets

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.

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The Advocacy Academy

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

1 Accounting policies (continued)

l.2) Financial Liabilities

Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.

m) Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account. Cash balances exclude any funds held on behalf of service users.

n) Significant accounting policies

In the application of the company’s accounting policies, the charity is required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

There are no estimates and assumptions that are considered to have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the financial statements in a future period.

o) Redundancy and termination costs

Redundancy and termination costs are recognised as an expense in the Statement of Financial Activities and a liability on the Balance Sheet immediately at the point the Charity is demonstrably committed to either: terminate the employment of an employee or group of employees before normal retirement date; or provide termination benefits as a result of an offer made in order to encourage voluntary redundancy. The Charity is considered to be demonstrably committed only when it has a detailed formal plan for the termination and is without realistic possibility of withdrawal from the plan.

p) Holiday pay accruals

The charity makes a provision for annual leave accrued by employees as a result of services rendered in the current period and which employees are entitled to carry forward and use.

2 Income from donations

Donated Facilities (note 15) Government grants - COVID Grant Funding Donations and gift aid	Unrestricted £ 537,500 - 14,789 -	£ 30,220 120,000 - - Restricted	2022 total Total £ 567,720 120,000 14,789 -	2021 Total £ 498,665 95,000 58,227 30,386
	552,289	150,220	702,509	682,278

Government grants in 2021 include £10,000 received from LB Lambeth for business relief during the first lockdown and £20,386 received for business rate relief during subsequent lockdowns during COVID. These grants have been recognised on an accruals basis.

Income in 2021 comprised of unrestricted income of £439,265 and restricted income of £243,013.

3 Income from charitable activities

Total income from charitable activities Other earned income Alumni and campaigns Commissioning (spark programme) Workshops	Unrestricted £ - - - 950	£ - 16,000 - - Restricted	2022 Total £ - 16,000 - 950	2021 Total £ 36,000 12,000 1,550 7,500
	950	16,000	16,950	57,050

Income in 2021 comprised of unrestricted income of £1,550 and restricted income of £55,500 55

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The Advocacy Academy

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

4 Analysis of expenditure

Cost of raising funds £ 64,077 14,840 - 486 5,332 18,508 30 597 - -	Charitable						Support costs £ 115,678 7,783 120,000 2,504 10,870 21,864 713 1,093 285 16,915	2022 Total £ 448,369 90,294 120,000 25,328 48,448 128,184 1,061 8,225 285 16,915	2021 Total £ 226,820 89,306 95,000 2,573 16,198 44,012 6,322 14,624 44 11,938
	Social Justice Leadership Fellowship £ 59,999 10,795 - 2,504 8,003 19,193 30 702 - -	Alumni and campaigns £ 92,558 31,285 - 3,564 8,048 26,126 102 3,096 - -	£ 65,486 17,572 - 13,766 8,003 24,028 30 2,139 - - Commissioning (spark programme)	Just Education - - - - 84 - - - - -	Power + Privilege Workshops £ 307 5,381 - 486 5,348 18,018 30 591 - -	Community Programmes £ 50,264 2,638 - 2,018 2,760 447 126 7 - -
103,870 -	101,226 66,497	164,779 102,582	131,024 72,578	84 -	30,161 340	58,260 55,708	297,705	887,109	506,837
103,870	167,723	267,361	203,602	84	30,501	113,968		887,109	506,837
50,285	181,877	121,733	81,746	48,310	22,886	-		506,837

Of the total expenditure, £650,772 was unrestricted (2021: £186,813) and £236,337 was restricted (2021: £320,024). Fees in respect of independent examination were Nil (2021: Nil)

Supports costs for 2021 consist of the following.

Staff costs Office and administration costs Programme delivery costs Trustees Campus for Young Activists (note 14) Depreciation	2021 Total £ 35,502 3,897 11,916 44 95,000 11,938
	158,297

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The Advocacy Academy

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

5 Analysis of staff costs and the cost of key management personnel

Staff costs were as follows:

Staff costs were as follows:
Employer’s contribution to defined contribution pension schemes Salaries and wages (including termination payments) Social security costs	2022 £ 402,880 37,675 7,814	2021 £ 204,086 17,661 5,072
	448,369	226,820

The following number of employees received employee benefits (excluding employer pension costs) during the year in bandings of costs greater than £60,000:

		2022	2021
		No.	No.
£60,000	- £69,999	2	-

The total employee benefits including pension contributions of the key management personnel, made up of Amelia Viney (ex CEO), Saba Safi (CEO), Hiba Ahmed (Community Director), Lydia Rye (Campaigns & Organising Director), and Rohima Chowdhury (Programmes Director) were £196,799 (2020: £157,672). Amelia stepped down as CEO on 16 July 2021 and Saba Safi started as CEO on 9 August 2021.

In the financial year, termination benefits totalling £51,392 were paid to the previous CEO from unrestricted funds, of which £33,379 was on an ex-gratia basis.

6 Staff numbers

The average number of employees (head count based on number of staff employed) during the year was as follows:

Just Education Cost of raising funds Community Programmes Alumni and campaigns Power + Privilege Workshops Governance and support Social Justice Leadership Fellowship Commissioning (spark programme)	2022 No. 1.5 1.4 2.1 1.5 - 0.0 1.2 2.6	2021 No. 0.9 1.7 1.3 1.0 0.5 0.2 - 1.1
	10.3	6.7

7 Related party transactions

Trustees were reimbursed expenses of £285 for travel or subsistence during the year (2021: £44).

During the year, Thalia Papanicolaou, trustee, was paid remuneration of £1,517 (2021: £957) from one of our agents for supporting them with interviews and assessment work.

No charity trustees were paid or received any other benefits from employment with the charity in the year (2021: £nil). No other charity trustee received payment for professional or other services supplied to the charity (2021: £nil).

There are no other related party transactions to disclose for 2022 (2021: none).

8 Taxation

The charitable company is exempt from corporation tax to the extent that all its income is charitable and is applied for charitable purposes.

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The Advocacy Academy

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Building £ 49,148 -	Fixtures and fittings £ 2,984 9,866	Office equipment £ 7,557 13,260	Total £ 59,689 23,126
49,148	12,850	20,817	82,815
20,538 9,830	1,209 2,922	2,620 4,163	24,367 16,915
30,368	4,131	6,783	41,282
18,780	8,719	14,034	41,533
28,610	1,775	4,937	35,322

General unrestricted £ 41,533 307,773	£ - 180,000 Designated	2022 £ 7,250 194,000 2,703	2021 £ - 187,010 -
		203,953	187,010
		2022 £ 12,709 22,262 400 18,285	2021 £ 8,675 10,028 - 4,678
		53,656	23,381
		Restricted £ - -	Total funds 2022 £ 41,533 487,773
349,306	180,000	-	529,306

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The Advocacy Academy

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

12 13 At 1 April 2021 £ Lankellychase Foundation 42,000 Unilever UKCR 11,657 Commissioning - Donated Facilities - Fearless Futures 16,460 BBC Children in Need - Spark - Guys' & St. Thomas' Trust - - Total restricted funds 70,117 240,000 Total designated funds 240,000 General funds 386,839 626,839 696,956 Analysis of net assets between funds (continued) Net current assets Designated funds: Other Tangible fixed assets Stewart Investors Unrestricted funds: Movements in funds Restricted funds: Net assets at the start of the year Total funds Total unrestricted funds	General unrestricted £ 35,322 351,517	£ - 240,000 Designated	Restricted £ - 70,117	Total funds 2021 £ 35,322 661,634
	386,839	240,000	70,117	696,956
	Incoming resources & gains £ 13,000 - 16,000 120,000 - 10,000 7,000 220	Outgoing resources & losses £ (55,000) (11,657) (16,000) (120,000) (16,460) (10,000) (7,000) (220)	Transfers £ - - - - - - - -	At 31 March 2022 £ - - - - - - - -
70,117	166,220	(236,337)	-	-
240,000	-	(60,000)	-	180,000
240,000	-	(60,000)	-	180,000
386,839	553,239	(590,772)	-	349,306
626,839	553,239	(650,772)	-	529,306
696,956	719,459	(887,109)	-	529,306

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The Advocacy Academy

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

13 Movements in funds (continued)

At 1 April 2020 £ 59,000 25,000 7,628 - - - - - - - - -	Incoming resources & gains £ - - - 5,000 28,800 65,000 36,000 12,000 95,000 7,500 36,213 10,000 3,000	Outgoing resources & losses £ (17,000) (25,000) (7,628) (5,000) (28,800) (65,000) (24,343) (12,000) (95,000) (7,500) (19,753) (10,000) (3,000)	Transfers £ - - - - - - - - - - - -	At 31 March 2021 £ 42,000 - - - - - 11,657 - - - 16,460 - -
91,628	298,513	(320,024)	-	70,117
300,000	-	(60,000)	-	240,000
300,000	-	(60,000)	-	240,000
72,837	440,815	(126,813)	-	386,839
372,837	440,815	(186,813)	-	626,839
464,465	739,328	(506,837)	-	696,956

Purposes of restricted funds

Lankellychase Foundation - Core costs to deliver Campaigns and work with the Alumni Paul Hamlyn Foundation - Salaries and recruitment costs, new office cost Earned Income (Just Education) - JustEducation Unilever UKCR - Campaigns Commissioning - Spark L.B. Lambeth CLIPS - real estate Fearless Futures - staff cost BBC Children in Need - Social Justice Leadership Fellowship BBC Children in Need - Booster fund - Programmes, Campaigns, Working from Home costs BBC Children in Need - Spark Guys' & St. Thomas' Trust - staff wellbeing Donated facilities - Donated lease on new office

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The Advocacy Academy

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

13 Movements in funds (continued)

Purposes of designated funds

The designated reserves will be used to build out new programme areas including but not exclusive to our Alumni programmes (expanding programmes and training to our Alumni), and Spark programmes (short programmes to introduce key concepts to more young people). The trustees plan to draw down £60,000 per annum from designated funds untill they are exhausted.

14 Operating lease commitments

The charity signed a lease on premises in Brixton for a five-year period commencing 18 January 2019. The lease has been donated with the annual charge payable by the charity being a peppercorn amount only. The value of the donation in the current year, based on an open market rate payable on a comparable lease, has been included as income and an equivalent amount charged to expenditure in the SOFA. £120,000 has been recognised in income and expenditure for the year (2021: £120,000)

15 Funds received as agent

The charity has acted as an agent for the following third-party , whose aims and objectives are consistent with those of the charity. Funds, held in cash, are administered on the instruction of the principal and recorded ithin a separate genral ledger sub-code and adjusted in financial statements. The movement in funds during the year was:

Balance at 1 April 2021 Funds received Funds paid out Balance at 31 March 2022 representing cash held	Choked Up £ - 250 -	£ 11,769 12,400 (23,769) Unbound Philantrophy	£ 6,000 - - Bossing IT	Charity So White/HS Charity £ 6,451 - -	Total 24,220 12,650 (23,769)
	250	400	6,000	6,451	13,101

Choked up - Teenagers campaigning for clean air

unbound philanthropy - Private grant-making foundation investing in organisations working to build a vibrant, welcoming society and just immigration system.

Bossing IT - A shared space for women of colour in impact leadership to share opportunities, and help each other succeed.

Charity So white: Tackling institutional racism within the charity sector.

16 Pension Commitments

The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme. The assets of the scheme are held separately in an independently administered multi-employer fund. During the year, £7,814 was charged to SOFA (2021: £5,072) and at the balance sheet date nothing was outstanding (2021: £474).

17 Legal status of the charity

The charity is a company limited by guarantee and has no share capital. The liability of each member in the event of winding up is limited to £1.

2022-03-31-accounts

~ The advocacy academy’s ~

State of the movement 2021/22

INTRODUCTION

OUR STRATEGIC FOCUS

WE ARE BUILDING A CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR YOUTH ORGANISING IN THE UK

OUR COMPASS FOR CHANGE

CAMPAIGNING FOR CHANGE: WE ARE BUILDING OUR IMPACT AS A POLITICAL MOVEMENT

ORGANISING OUR COMMUNITY: WE ARE GROWING OUR COMMUNITY

STEERING OUR SHIP TOWARDS A MORE FAIR, JUST AND EQUAL FUTURE

Movement Leaders

Campus Organisers

ESTABLISHING THE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR OUR MOVEMENT TO THRIVE

DEVELOPING OUR CULTURE THROUGH A TRANSFORMATIVE JUSTICE APPROACH

BUILDING A NEW STAFF CULTURE

CAMPAIGNING FOR CHANGE

AN UPDATE ON OUR CAMPAIGNS

Halo

Reroot.ED

LatinXcluded

Christchurch Road CLT

ChokedUp

New career opportunities

CHOKEDUP - A CALL TO ACTION FROM ANJALI

THE FIRST ALUM-LED ALUM RESIDENTIAL

A SEVEN-YEAR CAMPAIGN: CHRISTCHURCH ROAD CLT

SUPPORTING CAMPAIGNS BEYOND THE FELLOWSHIP

OUR FIRST CROSS-COHORT CAMPAIGN: HALO

DEVELOPING LEADERS WITH LIVED EXPERIENCE OF INJUSTICE

REVAMPING OUR PROGRAMMES

THE FELLOWSHIP

SPARK

CHANGEMAKER TRAINING

MEET OUR NEW MOVEMENT LEADER: ILHAN

FOCUSSING ON YOUR YOUNG PEOPLE

ORGANISING OUR COMMUNITY

RE-OPENING THE CAMPUS

MEET OUR NEW CAMPUS ORGANISER: VANESSA

ACTIVATING NEW ALLIES

OUR IMPACT THIS YEAR

1. The impact of our pedagogy

2. The strength of our community

3. Lasting change in the world

PART TWO: FINANCING AND FUNDRAISING REVIEW

FINANCE REVIEW

FUNDRAISING

RESERVES OVERVIEW

KEY RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES

STEERING THE SHIP

CELEBRATING SEVEN YEARS OF ACTION AT THE ADVOCACY ACADEMY

DEVELOPING LEADERS WITH LIVED EXPERIENCE OF INJUSTICE

EVOLVING OUR DELIVERIES

A NEW SPARK: THE CLIMATE PROGRAMME

CAMPAIGNING FOR CHANGE

MOVING TOWARDS A MEMBERSHIP MODEL

INTRODUCING HOST

DEFINING OUR ORGANISING PRINCIPLES

NEW CAREER OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALUMNI

ORGANISING OUR COMMUNITY

ENGAGING OUR COMMUNITY AROUND OUR CAMPUS

LOOKING FOR A NEW SPACE

ACTIVATING NEW ALLIES

OUR STAFF

Saba Shafi Managing Director 2017-2021, CEO 2021-

Darcey Williamson Head of Cyclical Leadership 2018-

Tom Ross Williams Creative Director 2019-2021

Dhakshi Suriar Head of Philanthropy 2021-

Fopé Olaleye Political Education Lead 2021-

Amarah Khan Community Administrator 2021-

Lydia Rye Campaigns & Organising Director 2021-

Shiden Tekle Community Organiser 2021-

Stephanie Cohen Community Organiser 2021-

Vanessa Castro Community Organiser 2021-

Betty Pearl Movement Leader 2021-

Mel Pinto Movement Leader 2021-

Ilhan Yonis Movement Leader 2021-

Shoomi Chowdhury Programmes Director 2022-

Hiba Ahmad Community Director 2022-

Titilola Dawudu Alumni Associate Director 2022-2022

Dola Akinniranye People Manager 2022-