Youthquake

Youthquake is a unique training programme from The Good Business Festival for 16-24 year olds in the Liverpool City Region, delivered by The Learning Foundry in partnership with the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and the Regenda Group. It gives young people the opportunity to take action for the common good - learning, collaborating and working towards making their social enterprise ideas a reality.

Following the success of previous Youthquake programmes from the Good Business Festival and The Learning Foundry, Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership joining us as a sponsor to help ensure that all communities across the Liverpool City Region have the right to be free from violence to provide the best life chances for all.

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Youthquake at The Good Business Fesitval 2022

For the past 10 weeks, our Youthquakers have researched local issues of youth violence and crime, creating two exciting business solutions to help tackle these issues! At The Good Business Festival on Wednesday 23^rd March, they took to the stage at the Liverpool Guild of Students to pitch their ideas to our Dragon’s Den!

Scroll down to read our full event recap!

Our Dragons:

Emily Spurrell - Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner

Siobhan Gainer - Head of Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership

Dawn Paine - Co-Founder of Aurora

Dave Brown - Managing Director of Apposing

Steve Rotheram - Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region

The pitches

After a rousing introducting from Garth Dallas, "let's get ready to Youthquake!" - our first team took to the podium to present IGNITE U. Youthquakers Ben and Lexi explained to our audience that IGNITE U was a programme that would help young people find "a safe space for young people to express themselves". It will help young people to manage anger in creative ways such as dance, boxing and martial arts, to help reduce youth crime. "You need to realise that young people are assets", Georgia told our panel!

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Amazing feedback for IGNITE U!

Working with Aftathought, Ste took to the stage to explain how anyone can fall into youth violence. "I grew up in a sound house", he told us, before explaining how he fell in with the wront crowd. We then heard from a youth worker about the benefit of IGNITE U, "it's a service by young people, for young people!".

Our panel loved IGNITE U!

"You've shown a real understanding of why people end up in the criminal justice system, it's such an engaging programme with practical support" - Emily Spurrell, Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner

"I have a lot of people coming in to see me and pitching for money, and that was one of the best" - Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region

Up next...

Together, Region, Impact, Buddy, Education. Next it was the turn of TRIBE, a new app to help young people find the support services they need, when they need them!

"We're all in the same tribe, we're all on the same side", Youthquaker Dom explains to our panel.

The TRIBE app geofences your location, and shows you the support nearest to you, and how to get there. To grow and improve, our team explains, TRIBE will generate revenue through priority notifications and exclusive paid-for content. It even has a buddy system, partnering you with other young people who have experienced similar problems to share stories and support each other.

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They're in!

Some amazing feedback for TRIBE from our panel!

"It's really impressive, the buddy system especially! It's not just all about the location, it's those support networks with each other that matter too" - Siobhan Gainer, Head of Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership

But wait! We have our first investor! Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of Liverpool, says he loves both TRIBE and IGNITE U so much, he's willing to invest in both! A quick message to his team seals the deal!

It doesn't stop there. Dave Brown explains how he thinks TRIBE has been excellently planned. So much so, he offers to build the app with his company Apposing for free!

Help from a real dragon!

Over the past few months, our Youthquakers have heard from guest speakers such as former Olympic boxer Courtney Fry; founder of the Merseyside Black Lives Matter Alliance, Chantelle Lunt, and many more - all to help shape their business ideas.

Ahead of their pitches, they had the chance to speak Steven Bartlett, entrepreneur and star of the BBC's Dragon's Den, to gain some last minute advice at The Good Business Festival!

Watch the excitement back!

Full video of our Youthquake event at The Good Business Festival 2022

How can I help?

If you are a business in the Liverpool City Region inspired by our event at The Good Business Festival, you can make a difference to the lives of local young people too, by providing opportunities such as work experience opportunities, guest speaking, mentoring, sponsorship and more.

Talk to our team

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