Our Story
YourStory was founded by Adrian Jones in 2003 in his living room. Originally used mentoring through sport to tackle underachievement and anti-social behaviour. Over the years, we have been joined by staff and volunteers from all walks of life and have worked with a variety of schools across London, and have been funded by many different organisations, for which we are extremely grateful for.
Adrian Jones
YourStory was founded by Adrian Jones in 2003. After being unemployed after graduating from university, Adrian began working in a job centre helping people to write CVs. He noticed that a lot of unemployed people had suffered due to a lack of education (reading and writing skills). This highlighted the need to Adrian to work with young people in order to stop this cycle.
He began volunteering with young people, but discovered that there were funding restrictions limiting the help he could provide them to only mentoring, not family or education support. As a result of this, Adrian set up YourStory in order to holistically help young people across all aspects of their development and growth.
Our Past:
Adrian Jones (CEO and founder)
Our CEO hard at work in one of our previous offices.
Origins
The living room of our CEO, where YourStory was born. We started with just one person working with four boys from a single school in Brixton, and YourStory now has a number of dedicated mentors.
Mentoring through sport
YourStory originally used mentoring through sport in order to try to re-engage young people in education and keep them on the right track.
Recent Funders:
Some examples of recent organisations that have funded our projects and programmes:
National Lottery
Our Transition Programme was funded by the National Lottery Foundation.
The Walcot Foundation
Our Walcot Programme is currently being funded by the Walcot Foundation, and has been since 2019.
The Home Office
The Home Office's Building A Stronger Britain Together Programme funded our Big Q project.
Schools we have recently worked with:
- Lambeth Academy
- Lilian Baylis Technology School
- Platanos College
- St Martin-In-The-Fields High School School for Girls
- City Heights Academy
- St John Bosco College
- Park Campus
- Skinners Academy
- Crest Boys’ Academy
- Crest Girls’ Academy
- Ark Academy
- Kingswood Secondary Academy
- Westminster Academy
- Archbishop Tenison’s School Academy
We work with these schools regularly, and have done for the past couple of years. We have built strong relationships with each of these schools based trust, respect and a mutual understanding of what a young person needs.
Activities:
- Videography
- White water rafting
- First aid training
- After-school clubs
- Bowling
- Saturday schools
- Mentoring
- School re-engagement workshops
- Volunteering
- Personal development workshops
- Yoga
- Art and design
- Cooking and baking
- Boxing
- Sexual health workshops
- Vocational activities
- Work experience
- Wood work
- BMX biking
- Sport awards and activities
- Filmography
- Sewing
- Alternative education workshops
The Wraparound Programme
The Wraparound Project involved mentoring 150 young people who had previously offended or were at risk of offending.
The Big Q Programme
The Big Q empowered students to challenge extremist ideas through real life scenarios. Thoughtful decision making was a key aspect developed.
The Transition Programme
Young people were helped in transitioning from year 6 to year 7, and also with school reintegration after lockdown.
Paid Mentoring
The paid mentoring of several young people occurred in two schools, and was funded separately - either by he school or by the council.
The Hampton Project
Alternative education programme. Young people in secondary school excluded from mainstream education - mentoring support & education.
Year 6 Transition Project
Intensive support was provided to year 6 young people progressing to year 7, and those returning to school after lockdown.
Cicley Northcote Prison Project
We helped soon to be released prisoners find accommodation, employment and work on anger management.
Sports Leaders Programme
Offering young people the chance to earn sports leaderships awards and gain leadership and presentation skills.
Gifted and Talented Programme
Gifted and talented young people who had previously offended or were seen to be at risk of offending were mentored.
