Poku Osei, the founder of Babbasa, a social enterprise that helps young people from disadvantaged communities in Bristol, has a vision to put an end to systemic inequalities when it comes to employment opportunities. Now Babbasa plays an important role when it comes to helping young people from all areas of Bristol into their first role.
Poku grew up with his five siblings in Ghana and one of the most defining things about his upbringing was the way his mother intentionally instilled her Christian values into her children. Respect, honesty, fairness, compassion and looking out for others were so much a part of life that Poku thought that they were behavioural norms for everyone!
Poku came to Bristol in 2008, settling in Easton in Bristol, an area of deprivation. He was struck by the fact that Easton felt like a different world compared to other parts of Bristol. There was high unemployment at the time for under 25s in the area, which meant that it wasn’t unusual to see youngsters hanging out despondently on the street. This was having a consequential impact on wider society because of crime and the impact on family life. Poku decided to do something, however small, to help these young people and he shelved his plans to obtain a Masters in real estate and property management.
Poku had no experience in charity or youth work, no connections or network, just an ability to problem solve. The problem here was that these young people did not believe that they could be in charge of their own destiny. Poku, on the other hand, from an early age had wanted to be able to take care of himself and his family and being quite entrepreneurial in outlook, he had always worked out ways to earn money by solving other people’s problems. He started to put his mind to solving the problem in hand, and as he did so, he started to realise that he was becoming fired up with a sense of purpose. At the age of 25, he had discovered his “why”.
Poku knew that although the first plunge into his new venture might feel uncomfortable, the next time it would feel slightly less so. Even if he failed, he could learn from that failure rather than avoid trying again. After all, he was going to have to teach the young people how to think differently about failure so he might as well learn to deal with it.
Thankfully, Poku took the plunge and created Babbasa, which is now an institution in Bristol, empowering young people from deprived areas to pursue their professional ambitions, inspiring them and helping them to get clarity around how to achieve their aspirations. Babbasa is also working to broker real opportunities for young people to take their first step in the form of work experience, a paid internship or a first employment.
Although Babbasa isn’t one of Bristol’s job agencies, they can help organisations attract diverse talent by raising aspirations and giving many youngsters access to their first real career step. Babbasa works to rid these young people of their self-limiting perceptions and takes them to a point where they recognise that they can self-determine and resolve their issues. It has transformed the outlook of many and as a consequence, they let go of their bad behaviour and start to trust in themselves.
Equal Opportunities Ambassadors
Babbasa provides a route whereby equal opportunities ambassadors help less advantaged young people learn about the careers of their choice. Becoming an Equal Opportunities Ambassador requires a modest investment of time and effort and connects you with a young person from a deprived area. For example, a young person who wants to be a marketeer will be connected with a marketing director or with a CFO if they want to get into finance.
Why Bristol needs Babbasa
Bristol has five of the most deprived wards in the UK and has been recognised as the seventh worst district for ethnic minorities to live and work in out of the 348 districts in the UK.
When young people feel that sense of despondency that comes from being stuck in a cycle of deprivation, and feel somehow less of a human being, the results affect the whole city. Inequality kills in a roundabout way, such as through knife crime. In areas of deprivation, life expectancy can be reduced by up to ten years, all because of issues relating to class and race.
In what ways can business leaders close the gap?
Any employer can contribute on an individual and organisational level to respond to the needs of the area in which they are operating. It doesn’t always have to be just about donating money either – it might mean allowing staff to go and invest in the lives of young people in and around the city.
Recruitment policies can include ways to advertise roles using unorthodox channels to let people know that your organisation is open to talent from everywhere. Also, it’s not just about what you do “for” but what you do “within”, to foster an inclusive workplace. True inclusion should allow people to feel safe and bring their whole self to work.
Babbasa’s five suggestions to help businesses to be inclusive
1 Leadership commitment
Leaders can share their vision of being an inclusive organisation and explain how they would like their organisation to be, giving people permission to engage.
2 Be collaborative
Create an environment where people feel that they have a voice by encouraging psychological safety. People need to feel heard, seen, empowered and feel like they belong.
3 Explain to staff why it is important
There needs to be a rationale. It needs to be clear to everyone why an inclusive workplace is even a good thing.
4 Be accountable for the change you want to see.
Managing expectations from the outset allows you to create targets and stay accountable to them.
5 Engage proper support.
Organisations such as Babbasa can help you to be inclusive in a way that makes sense for your business.
Poku’s vision for the future
The truth is that neither job agencies, Bristol City Council or local businesses can overcome inequality of opportunity on their own. It’s only going to happen through a cross-sector partnership and collaboration between city authorities, private sector and community associations to direct the demand and supply of labour. When it comes to integrating the disenfranchised back into the economy, youth clubs are not necessarily the answer – social mobility agencies would do a better job, and in doing so, start to solve problems such as knife crime.
If organisations like Babbasa could be recognised and supported in different cities, people would have equal access to opportunities and then we would start to see some variation in outcomes. We would have corporate, civic and political leaders who have experience of what it is like to come from these backgrounds and then policies, strategies and practices would be shaped to make life fairer.
Core3 are proud to partner with Babbasa and to work as equal opportunities ambassadors for young people in Bristol. Find out how you can get involved at babbasa.com
