Young Leader of the Year
Hyabel Kidane – Octavia
Hyabel has been attending our provision since October 2019, aged 17, initially via a partnership project with Mind. Aside from peer mentoring on the film projects she has participated in (over 8 in the past 3 years), being a constantly positive role model to younger members of the cohort (the range is 14-25), and leading by example with putting in extra work on the projects to ensure a high quality outcome, in Spring 2022, Hyabel began to volunteer as a youth worker, supporting our SEND group, Access Digi-Base and our junior 10-13 group, Life At Base
Hyabel is an exceptional young woman, who has displayed immense growth in her time engaging with our youth programme. The initiative shown in volunteering and her commitment to our projects and her creative and personal growth has been incredibly impressive and her selflessness in wanting to give back and share to her peers in continually inspiring to all of us in Octavia.
Daryl Cyprien –Spiral Skills CIC
Daryl’s journey to becoming a young leader has seen him transform his life from being involved in gangs to using his experiences and commitment to community work to transform the lives of other young people. Throughout his journey, Daryl has shown unparalleled dedication to his development.
Daryl supports the delivery of Spiral’s Engage programme; a SkillsBuilder Impact Level 4 programme (highest level). Daryl works with multiple groups of young people with challenging behaviour each week, sharing his experiences and guiding them through challenging tasks. He is both aspirational and supportive in this essential role. Young people are inspired by how he turned his life around and how he trains as a professional athlete.
Mohammed Motin – Spotlight /Leaders in the Community / London Youth
Mohammed came in with an attitude to transform the employability offer at Spotlight. He quickly developed a high-quality programme and started delivery within weeks of returning. Mohammed worked tirelessly to create an employer network for spotlight to utilise and collaborated with partners to bring employment opportunities to Spotlight.
Mohammed has helped several students by organising work experience in their dream industries through his contacts to motivate them and has invited them to professional networking events to ensure they work on their personal and professional development before they transition into young adults.
Maryam Chowdhury – Wapping Youth and AIP Community (Beyond the Bias)
Maryam grew up in a working class, Bangladeshi household in East London. Maryam has come from a difficult past, being homeless, struggling with mental health issues and being one of the most affected by the pandemic but strived to make the lives of others better. She founded an organisation called Beyond the Bias, a social mobility organisation with upskills young people for working class BIPOC backgrounds.
As a mental health advocate, she has supported over 100s of people with counselling, talking circles, safe spaces and more. She uses her creativity in art and poetry to continue to empower and encourage females to speak up about their mental health. She has empowered and provided a platform via poetry nights and as campaign speakers.
