How does a 17-year-old teenager cope when his basketball scholarship is ripped away from him at the last minute? This was the position Sebastian Thiel found himself in 2008 when an NBA player who was due to sponsor him pulled out of the deal.
But instead of getting depressed, Sebastian looked at what else he could do to make his mark on the world. He decided to leave behind his A Levels in media, psychology and sociology to develop a clothing label that he and his friends had been working on, called It's Upshot.
The idea behind the label, which features t-shirts and accessories emblazoned with fun images, and friendly slogans, was to put out some positive messages to young people.
“We started it because we were aware of gang culture in our neighbourhood and we wanted to promote an alternative youth subculture,” says the young entrepreneur, also known as ‘Bassy’.”
Fast success
Sebastian, now aged 20, began developing the enterprise, using self-taught graphic design skills and before he knew it, he was selling hundreds of t-shirts and accessories online. The brand soon began expanding into a digital TV channel, event company and more.
Each TV programme or performance is created to deliver serious messages in a humourous style to It’s Upshot’s young audience. But Sebastian is careful not to preach. “Upshot is not about telling people not to get into certain bad ways. It’s just about giving them an alternative which is fun.”
The entrepreneur - who was born in Zambia, but came to London with his family when he was three – quickly gained recognition for his skills.
In November 2008 he was awarded £1,500 for the business in an annual competition known as Mini Mogul. Then three months later, Sebastian landed a cool £8,000 in The Big Challenge competition, which awards money to young people who want to change the world.
These are just some of the highlights in his career to date, but there are plenty more memorable moments. “There are too many,” he says. “From seeing my designs on clothes for the first time, to bringing in the likes of artists including Sway, Flawless and Dynamo to perform at the It's Upshot launch party.
I was also totally honoured to be invited to The Black Ball in New York in 2009 –an event to support Alicia Keys’ Keep A Child Alive charity, which provides anti-retroviral drugs for people with HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.
African connections
Sebastian stills feels a strong connection to Africa, he says. He has been back a number of times in his life, including in 2009, when he visited a village in Malawi to have beaded necklaces made for It’s Upshot.
Some of his t-shirts also promote his sense of pride at being African. He loves the place, as do his parents. “The culture, the people, the beauty, it is my favourite place,” says Sebastian. “My parents are just about to move back there. They have worked hard in London, my mum as a care worker and dad as a bus driver and now they want to relax in a bigger house with a slower pace of life.”
Over the last year Bassy has spent time developing himself as a business person and entrepreneur, attending the School for Social Entrepreneurs course in London. The school offers a training programme for the country’s most promising social entrepreneurs, with the emphasis on learning from experienced peers.
He feels the course, which he graduates from this month (March 2011) has been invaluable. “Seeing the other entrepreneurs in action, hearing all their stories and experiences has really brought a lot of things home to me. I know that being a social entrepreneur can be really hard, but I love it. I feel more prepared now.”
Business values
He has lots in the pipeline for the coming months, starting with a variety show fundraiser this month, with live music, comedy and video screenings at hip East London venue, the Underbelly.
A £7,000 grant from UnLtd – the foundation for social entrepreneurs -will keep him going for a while as he continues to grow the business. But, Sebastian says that once it’s spent, he won’t be applying for any more grants.
“The time has come for the business to work as a business," says Sebastian. "I want to get away from funding now, it will be a hard journey, but with support I can do it. An alternative youth culture is still very much needed in our society and It’s Upshot is here to provide that."
While London is blessed with a wealth of beautiful parks, plenty of young people from the city never get to experience the countryside in all its glory.
When he moved to England in 1997 and started doing community work, Paul Aiken - who grew up surrounded by natural beauty in Jamaica – became acutely aware of this.
So, in 2004, he and five other like-minded people - all from very different backgrounds – decided to set up a charity called Global Generation with the aim of giving inner city kids more access to nature.
Seven years on and the charity has worked with more than a thousand young people based in London, some of who are from youth offending programmes or homeless shelters. It has shown them nature in its most tranquil state and taught them how to look after land, grow produce, sell produce, install renewable energy systems, build relationships, and look at their inner selves.
Respecting the land
One of Global Generation’s main activities has always been running regular trips to Pertwood Organic Farm in Wiltshire, where young people bond with the earth and each other, get to work on the land and eat local food.
Paul says the effect of the trips is phenomenal. “Many of them have never been to the countryside, so it is a real joy taking them. Some turn up with their rucksacks full of junk food and we take that away from them and give them a wholesome diet using food from the local community including butchers and fisheries. By day two, their whole attitude and disposition begins to change.
“I’ve seen tough streetwise boys lie down in the grass listening to the wind as though they’re in a whole new dimension,” says Paul, joyfully. “We’ve had African kids break down on camp, because it reminds them of the villages they’ve come from. There was a girl from Uganda who melted when we took a group of them to see the sunset through the fields. She said she hadn’t experienced that since she left home.”
The fact that kids of different ethnicities mix so well with each other under the Global Generation umbrella is particularly important to Paul, now aged 55. “The ability to draw together a wide cross-section of people is beautiful, and I believe it’s necessary for social regeneration,” he says warmly.
While the camps have been a crucial component of what this charity gives to the next generation, there’s a whole lot more it offers besides.
Over the last couple of years, the young people have created award-winning gardens in disused spaces back home in Kings Cross, in which they have grown food for restaurants, such as Acorn House, Konstam, and the cafe at the Guardian Newspaper offices.
They have also learned how to install renewable energy systems on local buildings for companies like The Office Group, created gardens at local schools, been given expert leadership and public speaking training, and enjoyed poetry, music, carving and photography projects.
“The camps will always be important, but the gardens and our other projects can make us some money, so we are keen to keep diversifying,” offers Paul. “We’ve been more socially enterprising in the last few years and we now sell the produce we grow with the kids, as well as the things they make, such as plant pots and garden accessories.”
The team has been lucky with receiving grants in the past, including a substantial sum from the Big Lottery’s Local Food Fund in May 2009 which brought in nearly £350,000, and a number of grants from Camden Council, The City Bridge Trust, the Home Office and more.
Sustaining the business
But Paul feels that grants won’t necessarily last forever, though, so Global Generation is increasingly looking at ways to make money via introducing a more formal social enterprise arm to the charity.
To bring in another source of income, they’ve also opened themselves up to a number of ‘corporate’ days over the last couple of years. These see companies pay for their staff to come and work with young people on projects as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility strategies.
The charity’s impressive work has seen the team win a range of awards in recent years, including a Camden in Bloom award, an Estates Gazette Green Award, and the prestigious London Business Award 2010 for best regeneration project.
Additionally, the organisation’s project manager, Neerja Vashishta – one of its four paid members of staff – was recently crowned one of Striding Out’s Future 100 social entrepreneurs in 2010 for her development work with Global Generation.
“It is good to see our projects gaining so much attention,” says Paul. “Teachers are looking at our model and we even featured in an American TV documentary earlier this year.
“I would like to see the model spread to other communities now. I think the global side of our name will bear fruit in time. And, maybe if I go back to Jamaica, I can start Global Generation there. Every community needs something like this.
For some teenagers, a gap in their A Level timetable is the perfect excuse to take a break for a few hours each week. But when Birmingham-based Kamara Bennett found a few hours spare in her study programme, chilling out was not on the agenda.
The 17-year-old decided she’d like to use her time to do some work with older people and got in touch with the youth volunteering programme Vinvolved, run by Changemakers.
The opportunities she was offered to work with older people didn’t fit with her timetable, but she was given the chance to create and lead a project of her choice instead. Rising to the challenge, she started researching ideas and quickly realised that clothes upcycling was becoming increasingly fashionable as a way of reducing clothes waste.
“I’d always been interested in taking things apart and putting back them together, I used to do that with my clothes at home. And, I liked the idea of a project focused on reducing waste, so I set up a venture called Sew Your Own,” explains Kamara.
Workshop wonders
Based at the Changemakers offices in Birmingham, she now runs regular Sew Your Own sessions attended by dozens of young people.
“We have all sorts of young people come to the workshops, from women in their early twenties, to boys as young as 12,” says Kamara. “Everyone helps each other learn techniques and skills for customisation and upcycling, and we’re lucky to have some very talented people involved, like local fashion students.”
“What I love most,” she says, “is seeing someone come in who is reluctant to use a sewing machine, and then a couple of weeks later you see them showing other people how to use it.”
Those coming to the sessions bring their own clothes, and some clothes are donated or picked up in charity shops. “Lots of people who come say the same thing - they’ve had a growing pile of clothes sat at home that they don’t wear any more but don’t want to throw out. At Sew Your Own they can cheaply create a new wardrobe from clothes they already had,” explains the entrepreneur.
Kamara has come across people who think that running Sew Your Own sounds like a lot of effort for someone so young. Other teenagers might prefer to be doing something less socially-minded, they say. But, she feels that running her enterprise - which has now been live for more than two years - has taught her so much.
“Having to manage the project and the people has definitely enhanced my leadership, planning and organisational skills,” Kamara says. “It’s given me a lot of opportunities, directly and indirectly, and a lot of confidence.”
For her dedication to supporting young people with this forward-thinking creative project, Kamara has earned herself a regional Vinvolved award, picking up a prize of £2,500. Additionally UnLtd, the foundation for social entrepreneurs and a charity called Nominet, have just allocated her £2,500 in their Better Net awards.
Making money
This money will see the 19-year-old develop the next phase of her enterprise and one which she hopes will bring in more funding to the business. Her business model already sees her making some money from selling upcycled clothes at events, but the new UnLtd cash will go towards creating online tutorials on clothes customisation, for which she plans to charge a fee for.
“The videos will mean that a lot of young people across the country can benefit from what we are doing, not just those here in Birmingham,” Kamara explains.
“We also have a lot of talented people who work with us, but they are very busy and can’t always make it to the sessions, so this way, people will still be able to learn from them.”
The young entrepreneur is using the gap year she’s currently taking to spend more time building the business before she goes to university in September. She is getting advice from UnLtd, to help her keep developing her ideas into a thriving social enterprise.
Kamara wants to make a profit and inspire people and something like Sew Your Own, which encourages young people to think about disposal fashion while learning new skills seems to be a winning combination. With Kamara at the helm, national success is surely within easily within reach.
