Spark2Life

Spark2Life is a black-led, community-inspired charity founded in 2006 by Dez Brown, a reformed offender and youth leader, to prevent harm and promote life by reducing cycles of offending, violence, and exclusion among children and young people facing racial disproportionality, marginalisation, and injustice. Rooted in inner-city London youth work, it empowers those at risk—especially youth exposed to criminal exploitation, gangs, educational exclusion, and trauma—through trauma-informed, holistic mentoring, advocacy, and restorative relationships that build resilience, life skills, emotional well-being, and positive decision-making. Its values emphasise individual worth, personal transformation, trusted relationships, and systemic change, with a vision of safer communities where marginalised youth thrive, evidenced by 90% reoffending desistance rates and reaching over 5,500 young people annually.

Spark2Life prioritises prevention of youth violence, reoffending reduction, interventions for criminal exploitation and gang involvement, solutions for school exclusions (including pupil referral units), and boosting emotional resilience and mental health. It supports direct services like mentoring, counselling, family support, school-based work, and trauma-informed training for adults and professionals, targeting youth aged 11+, disengaged learners, those in criminal justice contact, BAME communities, families, and partner networks, with a focus on root causes like poverty, trauma, and lack of role models.

It does not accept unsolicited applications or operate open grant programmes, relying instead on government contracts, philanthropic grants (e.g., £3.1m from Youth Endowment Fund), and targeted partnerships with established youth, education, or statutory organisations. Geographically restricted to London (Waltham Forest focus), Kent, Buckinghamshire, and Essex, it engages via commissioned services or invited collaborations rather than external grants, with no deadlines, typical amounts, or income/size rules published. Distinctives include black-led lived-experience leadership, intersectional justice advocacy (e.g., stop-and-search), and high-impact scaling of prevention and early intervention in underserved areas.