Episode 17: Dealmaking for the Future Generation – Inside Empower Youth Zones

0:05Welcome everyone to a very special Christmas episode of the Dealmaker Uncut podcast with Alvarez and Marcel. I'm Jonathan Boyers and I'm flying solo today without my usual co-host Chris Maguire. He's away doing something much more important. I'm absolutely delighted today to be sitting down with Adam Farreker who's the CEO of Empower Youth Zones which basically runs the Hired Out Youth Zone in Manchester and the Salford Youth Zone. Now as a trustee of this frankly incredible charity and with with Alvarez and Marcel as proud patrons among many other proud patrons across the city of Manchester I've had the privilege of seeing firsthand the transformational impact that this organization has on young people across greater Manchester and Adam I have to say that you are a deal maker in your own right negotiating with donors year after year and securing the vital funding that keeps these youth zones thriving and also, as we'll see as we go through, developing just a really fantastic organisation.

1:22And it just feels like at Christmas, it's a great time just to explore this, what I think is an amazing organisation and in particular, Adam and your background. So Adam, welcome to the Dealmaker Uncut. Hi Jonathan, thank you for having me, thanks very much. I think it might just be worth starting right at the beginning with your background, because I think you've got an interesting backstory and route into this job, so maybe you could just talk about where you came from. So I grew up in a neighbourhood called Longside in central Manchester, which was back then and still is one of the most deprived neighbourhoods across the UK, not just in the city.

2:01But in terms of childhoods, had a normal happy childhood for the first 10 years, I lived with my mum and dad. My dad was a welder from Glasgow. We'd moved there many years before. My mum had various jobs. She was born and raised in Dublin. So a big, big Irish Scottish family, like most of the families in that part of Manchester at the time. But yeah, primary school was great, was confident, did well at school, was involved in various sports, had plenty of friends in the local community, in the local neighbourhood. And then when I was about nine or ten, can't remember the exact age, my mum and dad split up.

2:34So that kind of changed things a little bit, changed the dynamics of family life. My mum left my dad. She moved away with somebody else and moved to another area of Manchester called Gorton, which was literally the neighbourhood that was a mile or so up the road from Longside, another really kind of challenging, deprived neighbourhood. And I think at that point, that's when things for me started changing. The transition to high school was quite difficult. Struggled with my self-esteem, my confidence, anxiety, which kind of manifested into anger issues, a lot of lashing out, struggled with that transition of being in a small primary school and all my friends and people I had locally to this big new school and not knowing as many people.

3:16I moved to go home with my mum and her new partner. And so that transition between what I knew and those changes, it kind of, there was a lot happening at the time. And then I think like most children and young people, once you start going through puberty and adolescence, you're struggling with your identity and who you are. and I think I started at that time, started becoming more socially aware of some of the issues and the negative influences and challenges that were going on in the community. There was a lot of crime, a lot of drugs, a lot of mental health issues, a lot of unemployment and again, with all my friends, some of them I'm still friends with now, a couple of them work in the youth home with me, we didn't really know any different so we were all kind of misfits and odd bars, didn't have any money between us, but we were all the same so it was kind of no different but started to become a little bit more vulnerable to negative influence as we were growing up because there was adults in the local community that were preying on vulnerable young children so yeah, without going to too much detail in that area I started to kind of struggle in mid to late teens around those issues and that's where I first come across my first youth worker and they were, this particular youth worker is what's called a detached youth worker, which means they're out on the streets.

4:33So, you know, we weren't going into youth centres or different neighbourhoods because there was a lot of territorial issues for young people at that time around our age. So the youth service in Manchester had detached youth workers that would go into the estates and go into, you know, into neighbourhoods on the streets and try and engage young people where they were, when they were. And that was my first experience of youth work, really. which that was more beneficial to me the youth work junior which I ended up going on than school I struggled in school. Okay so you were the recipient of youth workers sort of care if you like yeah and so you ultimately then decided to move into a career in youth working do you want to talk about how that?

5:16Yeah I think again I think it was that that evolution and the next steps of of being a participant in youth activities or youth that youth work relationship with with those youth workers um that kind of it was it was that relationship and that trust i'd built with one particular youth worker tanya tanya disanqua um she she recognized and saw potential in me that nobody else did and not just me but there was there was three or four peers three of my friends that lived in the same area. And her rhetoric was that we were quite influential and had very strong leadership skills and ability, but we weren't necessarily using that in a positive way, we were using that in a negative way.

5:56And if we were to flip that and use those skills and that ability to influence other people in the community, that we could do something really positive in terms of we could take over what she was doing and run some of the youth provision. And she knew we would get loads of young people involved and be able to do stuff that she couldn't do, what she'd already in our eyes been doing for many years with us so it was it wasn't kind of career choice we kind of just well me I fell into it it was there was nothing else available to me at the time and went to college for a few weeks to do IT god knows why I did that fell out of college and went back to college a couple of months later and did fashion and textiles met my wife who I'm still with now but never got a qualification dropped out of that um so yeah there was I didn't really know what opportunities were available to me and there was no kind of family or social connections or people kind of showing me opportunities or didn't kind of have that network of people who could you know we could probably now if our children or grandchildren wanted to do something we'd know somebody who knows somebody who can have a conversation or pick up the phone and I didn't have that so it was kind of like youth work was my only option or the only thing that was potentially put in front of me at that time um which ended up being a blessing because it's it's I've had a 20 year career the best thing I've ever done yeah yeah the so you you got yourself a career in youth work and and then I think we'll we'll fast forward now to the youth zone um one of the you know I'd heard about the the youth zones um lots of people talked to me about them but it wasn't until I actually visited them that I understood they're great facilities um for young people to enjoy but they are also um they're also the basis of what is now the youth service of Greater Manchester, isn't it?

7:46And I think it would be worth you just explaining for people who might not be familiar with the youth zones, what Empower Youth Zone is and what it's all about. So if I start with where we're at right now, Empower Youth Zones is essentially an award-winning youth work charity based in Greater Manchester, and we have two state-of-the-art youth zones dedicated just for our children and young people. the first one hideout youth home which we opened back in september 2020 is located in gorton east manchester the neighborhood i've just mentioned i grew up and there's a story behind that as well and then the second one we were proud and excited to say that we opened in july earlier this year in pendleton right in the center of salford and that's known as salford youth zone um but we provide children and young people aged 8 to 19 or up to 25 if they've got additional needs simply with somewhere safe to go something positive to do and someone trusted to talk to seven days a week all year round the facilities as you'll know well are unbelievable these are not you know don't be thinking of a youth center what you're probably picturing in your head and what you might have experienced as a young person growing up these are state-of-the-art you know multi-million pound facilities with you know gyms in it music recording studios podcast studios media suites and health and well-being rooms which are kitted out barbershops and hair and beauty salons we've got paddle courts, football courts sports halls indoor climbing walls, anything that you would think a young person would want to do in their leisure or in their own time we have it under that roof You actually need to go and see to believe what the facility is I can try and describe it and articulate it but everybody tells us until you've walked through the door and you experience it yourself and if you can come and see it when there's young people in the building because that brings it to life you'll be inspired, it's unlike anything you can think of but what's more important than the facilities in the building is the staff the youth workers the volunteers the mentors the coaches that bring that to life and because the facilities are and the activities mean nothing without that trusting relationship and without that youth worker who's looking out for these young people and boosting their confidence and their self-esteem yeah and it and it it might just be you know talk about what why it matters the this effectively it replaced the youth service in Greater Manchester.

10:01So it might be worth just talking about some of the safeguarding issues. Yeah, I think as well, if I go back to, just going back to my career again, not to kind of go into a long story, but once I started, I took over the youth projects that my youth worker had started with us. I started off a few hours a week doing volunteering. Within six months, we became a paid youth worker on 10-hour-a-week contracts, something like that, 15 hours a week. And that was for Manchester Youth Service, which was part of the council's youth service at the time. So probably for 10 years, 9 to 10 years, I had different opportunities to climb the ladder within Manchester Youth Service.

10:36And then in 2010, the national government cuts, budget cuts come in and youth services were disseminated within a year right across the country. It was resulting in like half a billion pounds worth of investment, over 4 ,500 youth work jobs across the country went. In Manchester particularly, we had a youth service with 15 youth centres across the city, 250 professionally qualified staff to at least level three but majority degree level qualified youth workers and a budget of about£50 million a year. That was in 2010, the decision was taken to disestablish the youth service. By the end of 2011, we had no youth centres, six qualified youth workers left in the council and a budget of£2.5 million, which is now still to this day used for commissioning and grant funding youth and play services across the city so you can imagine the the impact that had at the time but what he's still having now we're still seeing the the negative results of that decision 10 12 years later um so yeah so at that time um the council moved away from being a delivery of youth service to a commissioner and i was one of those commissioners ended up being head of the youth department a few years later and was responsible for that funding across the city um but the types of issues that's now created is that there's been a gap and a vacuum in those youth work trusting relationships for young people outside of school which has resulted in that gap being replaced by other negative influences across the city so you know things like organized crime youth violence antisocial behavior but the biggest safeguarding issue that we have in the youth zones day to day weeks a week is mental health and well-being and some of that isn't you know about poverty or crime it relates to all children young people now spending more time in the bedrooms and being on devices and increasing issues around loneliness and self-isolation and that can be it doesn't matter your household income that's affecting our children and young people so it's a real gap in social real face-to-face interactions now with young people and of course they're they're the soft skills that you need to go on and be a successful adult whether that's education or employment so one of the things we're trying to do as well is yes tackle the more complex safeguarding issues around the vulnerabilities of children particularly disadvantaged communities but it's also about getting all children and young people into a physical environment and developing those communication skills whilst having fun whilst being safe whilst providing them with with a warm facility and food in the bella at no cost and but it's really about developing their their social and personal confidence and self-esteem so that they can go on to be successful in future life i a lot of people watching this won't realize the change that happened in the youth service i mean we're talking about manchester but the same will have happened all over the country um where the the youth service provision was withdrawn um young people were vulnerable to all sorts of poor influences and the operations like the youth zone and provide a sanctity, really, a sanctuary to these young people to meet each other and to learn new skills and to get warm food.

13:47I mean, the two that we're talking about in Manchester are both in high levels of youth poverty as well, aren't they? Garton and Pelnduton are in the top 10 % most deprived communities in the UK. So to put that into context, the national average numbers of children and young people now below the age of 18 across the England and Wales, or across the UK actually, is 30 % of children living below the poverty line. In Manchester, that figure's 49%, and in Salford, it's 43%. So significantly disproportionate levels of child poverty in the city when compared to the national average. But what's even scarier is when you drill down into those particular neighbourhoods, and alongside the surrounding wards, it's as high as 70%.

14:26That's like two thirds or three quarters of the children we're working with that are struggling to meet their basic day-to-day human needs, whether that's having a warm bath or a shower, putting the heating on at this time of year, knowing when the next hot meal is coming from and the pressure that that then creates on parents and carers and the wider family, creates another issue around mental health and wellbeing and depression and anxiety. And it's just a vicious circle, which is stemmed from poverty. So what we do is, you know, the membership of the youth zone is free. They don't have to pay to join the youth zone.

14:57It's 50p a visit. So when they arrive, as long as they remember, they pay 50p subs at reception and they can stay for as long as they want or as little as they want engaging all the activities as soon as they pay the 50p that's it there's no more cost and we provide a hot meal for every single child who walks through the door which has resulted in the last year alone the last 12 months we've provided over 60 ,000 hot meals due to the great support that we get from our donors and patrons across the city and then in the school holidays we provide holiday club provision so it's from 8am to 5pm every day so again parents and carers can drop off child at eight in the morning they're getting breakfast they're getting positive safe activities all day they're getting dinner and tea going home tired hopefully um but in a positive mindset as well and again it takes that pressure off families particularly those who might be on free school meals during school time when they're on school holidays there's that additional pressure again so i mean it just means like parents who might have had to decide between putting the heating on on a cold night like in the middle of the middle of December or feeding the children a hot meal can do both because the hot meal comes from the Eastern.

16:01I'm not exaggerating, they're genuinely the issues that we're facing and in the fastest of growing economy outside of London which we should be proud of, Greater Manchester's economic success and it's continued success when you look at who benefits the most from that and who benefits the least we need to make sure that when we're talking about growth it is inclusive and it is growth for good so we're doing a I think we're doing a great job of building the foundations of what that looks like with the partnerships we've got with the local authority, local government and with the city's private and business sector as well.

16:33Yeah, and there are youth zones all over the country doing similar things. Yeah, so we're part of a wider network of youth zones called the Onside network of youth zones. So Onside youth zones is a separate charity, that's a national charity, who basically designed the DNA and the model of youth zones. But we are all completely separate independent charities. There is 16 open youth zones now, with another four due to open in the next couple of months. There's four in London, there's one as far as Carlisle, they're in Yorkshire. But the majority are concentrated in and around the North West. We are the only youth zone charity at the moment that's got two youth zones under the one charity.

17:11So, I mean, I am really impressed with everything I've seen. Like I say, when I first heard about it, I was thinking, you know, youth clubs. but when you understand the importance of the youth service that's provided here. It might just be worth talking about fundraising. You've built some incredible partnerships really with both the local authorities in Manchester and there's more recently in Salford. But people like Fred Doan, I mean Fred's been a major donor to the group and there's a whole load of other patrons like A &M and other people, but maybe you could just talk about, because it is the dealmaker on Cut Podcast, there is some dealmaking involved here, and I've seen it at the first hand.

18:00So could you just talk about fundraising? Yeah, well, I can start with the Fred Doan story and how that come about. So I first met Fred going back to, it would have been the summer of 2016 now, so coming up to 10 years ago. now he'd been he'd been doing a deal he's a deal maker as well as you know Fred Doan is obviously the founder of Betfred Solboy, Domis many many other companies but best known for being the founder of Betfred but he'd had a business meeting arranged with a guy called Dave Whelan who's Mr Wigan one of the biggest investors in a number of businesses in Wigan but the football club the rugby etc and he was the major donor at Wigan Youth Zone so there's one of these youths homes in the town centre of Wigan and he had a business meeting with Fred and had invited Fred to come and see this youths home, this youth centre and Fred tells the story in that he'd already kind of made an excuse in his head of why he was going to leave after half an hour because it was night time, it was cold, it was a winter's night he wasn't really interested in seeing this youth centre but he went anyway out of respect for Dave and when he got there he was just blown away and he stayed for a full three hour session and what really inspired him wasn't necessarily the building it was the staff and the volunteers and the young people and talking to them about the impact that that was having on their lives but also on the town of Wigan.

19:21And he went away and it played on his mind for a few weeks. He was speaking to his late wife, Mo, around that and she encouraged him to do something about it. So he will say he marched into the town hall in Manchester and knocked on to Howard Bernstein's door, who was the chief exec at the time, and said what he'd saw. He talked about what he'd saw in Wigan. wasn't aware that there was already a youth's home in north manchester as well so howard was very aware of the youth's home model um but wanted to do do one and he would he would back it he would fund it he just wanted to know how how we would go about doing that so at the time i was head of youth youth strategy within the council so howard sent it down down the chain to me um and i went and i met fred and his representative joe whittaker who up until a few months ago was the chair of Empower Youth Home, she was the chair of Board of Trustees yeah, she's now the chief executive of the Betfred group I met both of them in Gorton on a winter rainy day because we'd identified already within the council that the area of highest need in the city was Gorton and there was a little or no youth provision in that area, well there was no youth provision in the area so it was about identifying the area of most need but where we would have most impact as well and it didn't take much selling to be honest he was very aware of the neighbourhood he could see the poverty I told him about the impacts that would have and why Gorton would be the place that we would do it how much it would cost and that we could potentially bring onside in to develop one of these youth zones we went away and worked with a small project team with himself and then a couple of months later he agreed that he was going to donate£6 million capital towards that project I then had to convince the politicians within the town hall and the council that we needed another one and a half million from the council.

21:08And remember, you know, there's no youth budget for this. There's no money in the youth budget. That had to be found from elsewhere. But they committed to it because they didn't want to turn down £6 million of investment in children, young people in the city from Fred. The challenge then at that point was these things at that time cost£1.5 million a year to run. We now need to run a successful founder patron campaign and get as many other businesses, high net worth individuals, corporates involved to support this going forward and I think that wasn't just about the funding but the opportunities and the relationships and the partnerships that could create so that's how hideout began and we established the charity 2017 we opened hideout youth zone and we actually got the keys to the facility on the 23rd of March 2020 at 12 p.m.

21:59and 8 p.m. Boris the Prime Minister announced lockdown it was the first national lockdown the same day so we went straight into crisis mode it was a mad few hours and then a mad few weeks but we just stuck to what we could do rather than what we couldn't do and we managed to get the place open in september 2020 and we've now this year surpassed 10 000 members since we opened and obviously opened our second youth zone as well so that that's how it was initially started but it's probably worth talking about that so the the initial um high date youth zone in gorton was set up and up running and then um and then a proposal came along to well should we open a second one yeah salford i mean well i think i think the the priority was getting hideout open engaging as many young people as we could we engaged 4 000 children young people within the first year despite the lockdown and despite the restrictions we managed to secure 28 founder patrons which you know range from a very very diverse like group of businesses and high net worth individuals in Manchester but some of the biggest employers in the city so we we knew that we had a sustainable offer at that point we had a great network of patrons and supporters who were then working for us as well to encourage other people to get involved because they saw the impact and again it comes back to Fred so the relationship that we developed with Fred he was heavily involved in what we do not to get involved just because he loved it the kids call him Uncle Fred he'd come down he'd he'd get involved in what the children and people were doing and speak to them and want to hear about the impact it was having and he said to me if if we realized the impact and the outcomes that i was saying we were going to achieve at that point he would always want to do one in his hometown of salford where he was born and bred and still lives never left and if i'm honest i didn't think it would be 18 months after opening hideout that he come back and said let's do it but he did and yeah we spoke to the town hall in salford straight away got the support from the city mayor and director level slt at the city council were on board and it's been like pushing open doors ever since and i think fred committed another large capital contribution to the salford project domis the construction company that he owns have built it at cost and both youth zones they did both youth zones at cost and and yeah it was it was his influence but through the relationship that we'd created with him that kind of drove that forward for a second one to happen in Salford.

24:21The Salford local authority was really heavily involved in that as well. So there was a need to go and get a source of, I think they are now one of the biggest public funders now. They're bigger than mine. Yeah, so it was the same deal as Manchester City Council. It was a£1.5 million capital contribution, the land for free, find us a site and give us the land for free on a 125-year lease. And then revenue contribution for at least the first five years. So Soford City Council give us a strategic grant as do Manchester City Council. And I think one of the things that sets us apart from other youth work charities is not just the amount, so 80 % of our revenue income comes from private sector, which is unheard of, but it's also the length of time that they commit.

25:04So to be a patron, it's a minimum commitment of four years, which allows us as a charity to plan ahead. And when you're working with vulnerable children and young people, you want to commit to them. You don't want to make false promises. So being able to plan ahead for that period of time really helps us as a charity. so I'm not chasing year-to-year hand-to-mouth grants from the council or children in need or big trusts and funds. So how many young people do we have coming through the doors then? So we've now surpassed 15 ,000 members across both sites. So Salford Youth Home, for example, the target was to reach 3 ,000 young people by the end of the first year.

25:39We're six months in and we've just surpassed 5 ,000 members. So far exceeding where I thought we would be at this point, which just shows the need in Salford and in places like that. But on average, we're probably working with around 7 ,000 active young people per year now across the two sites. And on any given night, you can get upwards of 150 to 160 children and young people in the youth hall every night. So easily over 1 ,000 visits a week. And like I say, we've said already, these are life-changing opportunities for young people to be part of this community and they learn a whole new set of skills, they're protected to a degree that they can be.

26:22So it's, I mean, I am, like I say, I'm really, really impressed with the way this operation works. A &M, I went round and I was struck like Fred was when I first visited and I started to understand what was being offered here. So A &M decided to become patrons. There are quite a number of the leading professional services firms across Manchester are patrons, a number in other sectors. There are a lot of leading firms who are patrons, but the money won't be there forever. Fred's money won't be there forever, and there's a need to keep raising money. And so to keep developing the operation, the business does need to keep raising funding.

27:08So I would encourage any business, there'll be a lot of business leaders watching this, a lot of professional services, senior partners will be looking at watching this. I would say it's worth having a good look at either the use zones in Manchester or the local use zones wherever in the country people are. We find that it's fulfilling because, I mean, I became a trustee because I was so taken by it. but from the office we'll hold away days or off sites there. We have volunteering days where people from the teams go and do team building stuff together, help working with young people. And the whole of our Manchester office now has 120 people and it's an opportunity to bring that office together for the whole of the office to do something together as a community for the communities that we operate in.

28:09So I can only urge people to look more closely at what's being done in these places. What are your ambitions for the future for the Empower Youth Zones and where is it going? I think for me it's solidifying and growing the quality of the offer at Hideout and at Salford Youth Zones, strengthening our relationships with the city's business sector, not just in terms of the funding that we need. So you're dead right, you know, the Empower Youth Zones turnover now is£4 million a year. You know, it's not pennies, it's extremely... It's a big operation. We've got over 150 staff ourselves. It's open seven days a week.

28:53These are big centres. We're open from 8am to 9pm every day, so it's a challenge to find that funding. so I think being sustainable long long into the future but it's it's also about the relationships the pathways and the opportunities that we can create by bringing people like yourselves and and some of the other businesses in the city to young people and this isn't just doesn't make good ethical or moral sense it makes economic sense it's it's a good business decision to get involved in what we're doing these young people will be your future customers will be your future employees or even our future employers you know they've got so much potential and so much kind of talent they just need that equal opportunity to realize that full potential and i think if we can all work together as a city and i want to talk to you about that inclusive economic growth it it's not just me with my begging bowl here saying please please feed the poor kids a garden and and solve it it's so much more than that it makes business sense to do it so if we can change the mindset and strengthen that um you know for us that will put us in a very very strong position as We are now, I can confidently say, the biggest employer of youth workers in Greater Manchester.

29:58I want us to be, when you think of children and young people in Greater Manchester, in Manchester and Salford, you think of us. So for now, it's about doubling down, sustaining the quality of what we deliver and those relationships and getting the right people around the table that support us. and then we'll see where we end up in the next few years in terms of whether we expand, whether we grow the offer, whether we can influence and support other amazing voluntary sector organisations that work in this space to get youth work back on the map as a profession that is needed and is important, not just that nice to have.

30:33I just love the idea of the business community coming together with the local authorities. There was a story where the youth service was cut a few years ago But now we've got the business community coming together with the local authorities with a really talented team who know everything there is to know about looking after children in this environment and bringing together as a city the wherewithal to develop these facilities. And, you know, I think that I don't understand why people wouldn't want to get involved. It's just an exciting thing for the future. It's a very professional. we operate like a corporate organisation well that's what we are, we're a limited company with charitable status but it's a very professional team so our marketing and comms department can help your marketing and comms department celebrate your relationship with us that in turn benefits you as an organisation as I said we've probably got a network now of 50 of the biggest employers and investors and legal firms and private equity houses in the city so by supporting us and working with us you're also part of that network which creates business opportunities for users businesses as well so it's not just about as i say the poor kids of manchester and salford it's about doing something to change and sustain the success of our cities but it makes business sense as well and there's opportunities that we can broker for you within that so if somebody if somebody out there is running a business a professional services firm like like ours want wants to come have a look around perhaps see how they could get involved what what do they do they can reach out to you Jonathan through the podcast they can contact us, they can come on our website, you can email me directly if we can share those details through the podcast and we'll arrange for you to come in, have a tour of either Salford Youth Zone or Hideout Youth Zone or as you said, if it's about brokering a relationship or a visit to any of the youth zones around the country whether you might have head offices or elsewhere we can do that for you but I promise you take two or three hours out of your evening or a weekend you will not be disappointed and you will go away inspired with with some thoughts about how you can support even if it's not financially at the level of a patron but you will want to support in some way or or see how we could support you in your day-to-day business there's lots of ways that businesses can support the use of and vice versa just even if simple things like volunteering days or things like that right that's thank you um thank you for joining me today and thank you for the amazing work that you do across the Greater Manchester area every day for young people.

33:09It's been an honour to hear your story, it's an honour to be even involved in a tiny little part as a trustee and to hear your vision for youth working in Manchester. Like I say I'd emphasise that these youth zones operate all over the country and so it's not just whilst we're involved in the Greater Manchester one it's actually all over the country that's all for this episode of the Dealmaker Uncut podcast powered by Alvarez and Marcel if you've been inspired by Adam's story please do visit the Empower Youth Zone either website or get in touch with Adam or arrange to go and see them to learn more about how you can support them don't forget to subscribe to the podcast tell your friends and family and follow us on social media next time we'll be back to more conventional deal making um and um i wish everybody a merry christmas thanks for joining me adam thank you for having me cheers

34:38We'll see you next time.