Pioneering Bristol social enterprise Babbasa is to promote the voices of young people on the city’s key decision-making boards as part of its ongoing OurCity2030 social mobility initiative.
Its Trailblazer Programme will enable participants to challenge injustices and inequity when new policies that will shape the city are being discussed. 
Babbasa’s OurCity2030 project – which the youth empowerment organisation launched two years ago – aims to engage up to 600 low-income and ethnic minority young people annually to progress into their chosen career fields.
The new Trailblazer Programme is funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, one of the UK’s largest independent grant-makers with a mission to improve the natural world, secure a fairer future and strengthen the bonds in communities.
Ahead of the launch, Babbasa staged an adventure weekend in St Davids, Wales, to give 12 Trailblazers the chance to come together and connect with nature, pictured.
Babbasa said as the Trailblazers Programme was about ensuring the youth voice was heard in more places, it was fitting to run the weekend somewhere a group of underrepresented young people would not usually gain access to.
As well as outdoor activities, the weekend gave the young people the chance to shape the programme and to begin to develop their own network.
One of the Trailblazers, Itunu, said: “The group has made me feel at home. I feel like I am in a community of like-minded people – who are young, filled with dreams and who are ready to push themselves. I feel surrounded by friends.”
Another Trailblazer, Mae, added: “It pushed me out of my comfort zone, helped me establish trust with others, connect with nature like never before and learn how to look after others and myself”.
Babbasa Trailblazer lead Corrie Macleod described the adventure weekend as a wonderful opportunity to meet and engage with Trailblazers who already had so many exciting ideas to design and deliver the long-awaited programme.
“For many young people, their representation in spaces of influence would not only spark positive changes in their local community but would create a greater sense of belonging for marginalised and ethnically minoritised youth across Bristol and beyond,” Corrie added.
Multi award-winning Babbasa was formed in response to the growing gap in the economic achievement of young people from some of Bristol’s most diverse and disadvantaged inner-city communities.
