Starbucks Brixton Tube Station

At Street League we use sport as a hook to engage with young, unemployed people aged 16-24 and enrol them onto our employment academy programme. Delivered by our Youth and Community Coach, daily football or dance sessions teach young people vital soft skills such as confidence, teamwork and leadership while creating an environment where our young people can build a solid, supportive social network. While still engaging with Street League sports our young people enrol on our employment academy. Within the employment academy our Progressions Coordinator delivers 1-2-1 and group sessions to help young people set realistic career goals and overcome the barriers they face towards securing work. We teach our young people to craft a CV, effectively search for jobs, provide mock interviews and offer work experience placements. We support and prepare our young people to apply for work and succeed in interviews. We continue to support our young people (as well as their employers) after securing work for as long as they need, through our Aftercare Programme, to ensure our young people are happy in their work and will continue to progress in their new career. We provide everything a young person needs to participate in all aspects of our programme from travel costs to sports kit and interview clothes. Our model works – last year 1,281 young people progressed into work, training or education after attending a Street League academy.

Transport for All (TfA) exists to provide an accessible transport system that London’s one million disabled people and 1.2 million over-65s can use with independence and freedom like everyone else. Although we target London, our campaigning has a national footprint, because laws and policies affecting transport are national issues. For example, we supported our member Doug Paulley to win a Supreme Court ruling in June 2017, ensuring that wheelchair and mobility scooter users have priority over the use of wheelchair spaces on all buses in the UK. The UK is one of the richest countries in the world, yet its transport network doesn’t meet the needs of disabled and older citizens - 75% of disabled adults experience significant barriers using transport (Papworth Trust 2012). In London, 199 out of 270 Tube stations have no step free access. 70% of London’s 300 railway stations have no lifts and escalators. This not only denies people their independence, links to family, friends, community, employment, education and healthcare, but also their basic human rights. We are a Disabled Peoples Organisation and 25 year old charity. Our specialism on accessible transport makes us unique, but sometimes difficult to fund. We are a pan-impairment organisation and have strong partnerships with over 150 National Disabled Peoples Organisations (DPOs), pensioners groups, disability charities, campaigning groups and transport providers. What do we need funding for? We need funding for our staff who directly help Disabled and older Londoners to live, work and enjoy their lives in a capital, that is accessible and open to all. Your donation will also give us time to develop, market and generate independent income by delivering bespoke Disability Equality training to different transport providers, to sustain our core services beyond the end of the grant. We protect the rights of Disabled people who are discriminated by: • Advising and supporting those discriminated against when travelling; • Forging partnerships with specialist law firms to mount effective legal challenges against transport providers to address discrimination and remove barriers. We will highlight and challenge the reasons behind discrimination and stigma by: • Highlighting on-going and new transport access issues as vociferous and passionate disability rights campaigners; • Influencing service developments and eligibility criteria through our advocacy; • Engaging politicians and commissioners to alter practice and policy. Our overarching ‘theory of change’ is to grow the power of disabled and older transport users, so the political risks of ignoring us are not worth taking. We will sustain our ‘critical friend’ relationships with transport decision-makers such as TfL commissioners and transport engineers, by taking them on journeys with our members, so they can experience restrictions first hand.