Building Stronger Foundations
For Youth
We’ve been a guiding force for over two decades, helping thousands of young people transcend negative stereotypes, actively contributing to their development. From the outset we’ve been a steadfast presence, influencing crucial phases in the lives of young people.
After creating the successful black artists’ development programme for UK schools and prisons, Evwreni Productions, Odiri Ighamre and Paul Aiken founded KORI in 2002.
In our early days, we mostly responded to the urgent needs of young African and Caribbean people in the London borough of Haringey, who felt that they lacked a sense of ‘being held’ by their community. The community faced high exclusions from schools, increasing youth violence, and high pregnancy rates. Many of these young people had very narrow life experiences
Our response was a range of long-term projects with youth work practice and creativity at the core. From these, we developed the programmes we offer today.
Why We Are Needed
We are a youth-centred foundation established in London in 2002 and developed by African and Caribbean community artists over the past two decades. We are engaged in supporting hundreds of young people with vulnerabilities in their backgrounds that pose a threat to their futures.
Educational and employment opportunities are not universally accessible. Inequality persists, hindering the potential of countless young minds. As a means of bridging the inequality gap, we strive to break down these barriers, offering educational resources and mentorship programmes to young people from predominantly black and minority-ethnic communities aged 11-25 years. Our programmes empower youth with the tools to navigate life’s challenges, fostering resilience and well-being.
What are some of the challenges impacting the young people we work with?
- Low access to services
- Intergenerational trauma
- Inequality in all its forms
- Disproportionate equity
- Post pandemic legacy
- Hyper (in)visibility
- Low socio-economic backgrounds
Our work is driven by a passion for empowering the next generation. By addressing the barriers that young people face head-on, we strive to create a world where every young person has the opportunity to thrive.
Empowering a Better Tomorrow
We’re about empowering young people to grow in their skills and abilities; developing confident young leaders. To develop leadership skills, we provide our young people with support and training so they can become a valued part of KORI. Young people leave us equipped with excellent presentation skills and a deep sense of what their next steps are in education and skills development with many of them returning to contribute to the organisation in their field of excellence or in management.
The Vision
A world where youth stand on stronger foundations
The Mission
To support as many young people as possible in enjoying, thriving and contributing to their worlds.
We achieve our mission by:
- Providing a creative and supportive space
- empowering young people to pursue their aspirations
- youth work and creative facilitation
- essential interventions such as, training, project involvement, personalised mentoring, counselling, respite, and opportunities to expand
The Values
Creative Thinking
All of our work is led and underpinned by facilitating creative learning and the use of critical and reflective processes.
Cultural Celebration
We believe that young people grow most positively when they have diverse opportunities to learn and understand the value of their own culture and place in the world, which in turn allows them to respect and value the place of others.
Accessing Learning
We believe in life long learning. This means we are committed to creating, sourcing and sharing opportunities that support young people, staff and volunteers to develop personally and professionally.
Nurturing
We commit to supporting young people to transcend barriers and limitations through providing them with support, growing opportunities and exposure in a range of contexts with diverse groups.
Environment
Through well-established partnership working and programme activities, we expose young people to real learning, engagement with nature, and their personal and collective responsibility to take care of the world we live in.
Team Wellbeing
The health and happiness of our team and individuals is our top priority. We recognise that a thriving team ensures the effectiveness and success of our mission.