The Changemakers Story

1994

Changemakers is founded by Jim Cogan, Michael Norton and John Potter. Dave Turner, an expat Aussie, helps them to establish the first 6 pilot projects in schools.

1995

Thanks largely to the fame of Michael’s stripy socks, we secure our first major funding from a consortium of charitable trusts, including Tudor, Esmee Fairbairn and Wates.

1996

We commission think tank Demos to explore the potential of active learning in the community as an important part of the educational process, and sow the seeds for the later development of citizenship education in schools.

1997

Tony Blair finds time in his hectic first year as Prime Minister to introduce our suggestion of a national youth volunteering programme and creates Millennium Volunteers.

1998

We roll out our ideas to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They don’t catch on, so we unroll. However, we have more success in Bristol, Newcastle and London.

1999

We open our first office in deepest Somerset. You can see cows from the window.

2000

We launch the Young Advocates, our flagship youth leadership programme. The Lloyds TSB Foundation is kind enough to put their hands in their pockets to back our idea. It’s still going strong today.

2001

A very clever man called Bernard Crick (sadly no longer with us) is commissioned by David Blunkett, the Education Secretary, to set up citizenship education in schools. We get to try it out in 22 schools in Cambridgeshire. Sir Bernard gets a knighthood. Meanwhile, Jane Buckley becomes our first Chief Executive.

2002

We help Sir Howard Davies with his review of enterprise education in Schools. Kiffer Weisselberg becomes our Chair and we become a limited company.

2003

We develop our new social enterprise programme in schools. Aussie Dave is back in his homeland and helps us to develop our first international foray in Western Australia. Everyone is jealous of Jane, who gets to go and cut the red tape.

2004

It hardly seems possible but it’s our 10th birthday, and the late great Anita Roddick helps us celebrate. Jane bows out to be succeeded as CEO by Adam Nichols. We open an office in Newcastle. There is a lovely view of the Angel of the North. We open an office in London. There is a less lovely view of Waterloo Bus Station. We launch the Y SPEAK grants scheme and over the next 18 months, youth boards award over 200 grants totalling nearly £1m and over 20,000 young people participate in consultation projects with policy and decision makers. We form the Choose Action Alliance with four of our best friends - Student Volunteering England, Youth Action Network, Worldwide Volunteering and YouthNet.

2005

Tony Blair ‘apologises’ for nicking our name in his Labour Party conference speech and endorses our work in Prime Minister's Question Time. We launch the Big Boost with UnLtd, the Prince's Trust and the Scarman Trust to provide grants to young social entrepreneurs between the ages of 11 and 25. Over £8m is awarded over the next 3 years. Changemakers is strongly featured in the final report of the Russell Commission on the future of youth volunteering. We are commissioned by the Home Office to produce Jus' Do It, a publication focusing on engaging young people from black, minority, ethnic and faith groups in community action. Our globetrotting continues with projects in India, Bangladesh, Lithuania and Romania. We’re getting bigger and lots of new people join our staff team. We wave goodbye to Somerset. The cows look sad. We move our London office to Aldgate and there is a fantastic East End boozer called the Dog and Truck right opposite.

2006

We work with the newly elected Conservative Party leader David Cameron to help him to develop some fresh ideas around youth policy. Thanks in part to our hugely successful Y SPEAK programme, the government introduces the new Youth Opportunity and Capital Funds, which place young people in control of £70m of local authority youth budgets per year. v, the government’s new youth volunteering body, is launched and we are commissioned to develop the volunteering infrastructure in the North East of England and to create a new Virtual Volunteering project. There’s something in the water as 4 of our team have or are expecting babies.

2007

We help the government to develop Aiming High, its new 10 year youth strategy. Our youth leadership methodology is now enshrined in national policy. We’re all very sad as Jim, one of our founders, dies long before his time should have been up. He’s achieved a massive amount for young people in this country and Africa and he will be hugely missed. 25 Young Advocates, the largest number yet, enrol in our Future Leaders programme. We win the contracts to deliver the new vinvolved youth volunteering programme in 15 local authorities across England over the next 3 years. We’re commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families to conduct a feasibility study into its proposed new National Body for Youth Leadership, an initiative championed by the new Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Adam is a regular visitor to Number 10 as our policy influence increases. They serve very nice tea and biscuits.

2008

We double in size to 28 people and open a new office in Birmingham. We are now working directly with over 7,000 young people, and reaching over 31,000 per year. Kiffer Weisselberg, Chair of our Board, retires to his lovely house in Crete and is replaced by Richard Roberts.