Three young people from our Street Elite programme were recently awarded life-changing grants from the Street Elite entrepreneurship fund. The fund partners young entrepreneurs with a professional mentor who helps them launch their own business.
The Street Elite entrepreneurship fund also offers successful recipients access to the Freestar mentorship programme. The Freestar mentorship programme is co-managed by Freestar and award-winning organisation, The Power. Freestar are a dedicated partner of our charity and have supported our Street Elite programme throughout the difficulties of the pandemic, whereas The Power are an independent youth marketing consultancy organisation, who are passionate about bridging the social inequality gap for young people.
Kian Bakhtiari is the founder of ‘The People’ and was named by the Financial Times as ‘One of The Top 50 Future Leaders’ in the UK and North America. As one of the mentors on this year’s programme, Kian will share his wealth of knowledge and personal experience with one lucky mentee.
Kian shared: “The fantastic thing about this programme is anyone can apply for a space so there is an equal opportunity for anyone to kickstart their own business”.
After successfully gaining a grant, each young entrepreneur attended a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style interview in September. After pitching their business concept to a panel of professionals from Freestar and The People, a few lucky entrepreneurs were selected and matched with a professional mentor.
Much to the delight of our mentee’s, each of them were assigned a mentor from the Freestar team who will help to design and execute an effective business plan.
One of the successful entrepreneurs Onyeka shared: “After I was made redundant in the pandemic I’ve found it difficult to feel confident about my professional future but having a mentor to support me as I get back on my feet is really reassuring”.
The three unique business concepts designed by our entrepreneurs include Halal-Korean take-away food, superfood meal replacement smoothies and premium Caribbean cocktails. All three of the entrepreneurs have already launched their businesses, attended networking events and launched marketing strategies on social media to advertise their company’s.
Find their business platforms on Instagram:
– @zaksfusionkitchen – Korean-Halal food owned by Zakirah
– @kolakocktails – Caribbean inspired cocktails owned by Nathaniel
– @pros_prep – Superfood meal replacement smoothies owned by Onyeka
Zakirah designed the Halal-Korean food concept herself and has even begun selling her food on the popular fast food platform ‘JustEat’ thanks to the support of her mentor Eddy.
Eddy is a Co-Founder of Freestar and a driving force behind the mentorship programme. He is passionate about recruiting mentors from a broad range of industries to grow the network of support that mentees can access.
Eddy shared: “Pairing the ideal mentor with a mentee is more likely to happen if we have a greater range of industry professionals to work with… so we’re recruiting mentors as well as mentees”.
If you would like to support the Street Elite entrepreneurship fund please contact Ross at rossdefoe@changefdn.org.uk .
If you know would like to become a mentor please contact victoria@freestar.co for more information.
