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Youth First threw a lifeline to children and young people in Lewisham when it won a tender to take over the delivery of youth services from the council in 2016.
The community benefit society stepped in at a time of increasing year-on-year budget cuts, which had left an uncertain future for youth services across the borough.
Lewisham was one of a handful of local authorities developing alternative models to provide youth services following other examples in Lambeth, Kensington and Chelsea, Islington and Devon.
These “mutuals” – where staff, and uniquely in the case of Youth First, young people too, operate a social enterprise – were seen as the best chance of delivering stable and effective youth services in local areas.
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