Drive Forward Foundation

Who we are

Established in 2010, Drive Forward Foundation exists to enable young poeple with experience of foster, residential or kinship care to achieve their full potential.

We belive that sustainable and fulfilled employment, education, and a career of their own choice offers the best hope for young people to take contol over their own lives and become successful and happy adults.

We're a small and vibrant team, wehre everybody is encouraged to utilise their unique skills, creativity and enthusiasm to further our charity's mission and provide the best possible support for the young poeple working with us.

With our purpose of developing a model of best practice that can be replicated and scaled across the UK, it is our vision to contirbute to creating a society in which all care-experienced poeple enjoy opportunity, empathy, and respect.

Our culture and values

We are:

visionary

We explore, learn, and thrive. We ask bold questions seeking to expand our insight and knowledge to drive leading practice, reframe mindsets, and build better futures

people focussed

People are at the heart of everything we do. People are at the heart of everything we do. We lead with commitment, champion individuals with compassion, and nurture aspiration

collaborative

We evolve together. We know our strengths and actively pursue opportunities to work with people who make us stronger; building a supportive community that strives to elevate one-another

empowering

We encourage honest reflection, cultivate self-belief, and enable our community to break down barriers to promote positive change within and around them

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

At DFF, we are committed to ensuring fairness, equity, and inclusion across our workforce and the young people we support. Addressing systemic inequities is central to our mission, and we actively oppose all forms of discrimination, including racism, sexism, ableism, and classism.

Our work with care-experienced young people requires an intersectional approach, recognising how race, gender, and socioeconomic factors shape their experiences. Around 75% of the young people we support are from racially minoritised backgrounds and face compounded barriers from structural racism and the care system. To provide meaningful support, we prioritise cultural competence, trauma-informed care, and lived experience representation.

Diversity within our own organisation is fundamental to this approach—over 60% of DFF staff are from Black, Asian, or other racially minoritised backgrounds, and a third of our trustees have lived experience of care. This representation fosters trust, empathy, and accountability in our work.

Beyond our internal practices, we advocate for systemic change through our Care Experienced Policy Forum, amplifying the voices of care-experienced young people from racialised communities to challenge disparities in criminalisation, homelessness, and mental health. We remain committed to dismantling inequities and fostering a truly inclusive environment within our organisation and beyond.