Social Ark

Who we are

Social Ark is a charity, set up in 2015 with the aim of enabling resilient 16-30-year-olds from under-resourced communities to use their lived experiences to develop social businesses of their own. We primarily work across East London, our beneficiaries come from all walks of life, and are challenged by social and economic barriers.

We provide a programme of workshops, mentoring and personalised support which enables our young people to focus on their assets and talents. In this way, we build on their goals and create a springboard of positive action that results in sustainable change.

Social Ark isn’t like other programmes, we’ve created the Social Ark Family which consists of young people that have been through our programmes. Beneficiaries sit on our board as trustees and make up our senior management team along with our youth advisory group who shape and steer our work. Our members constantly tell us they don’t want to be “fixed or cured” by people that have “never walked a day in their shoes.” As our young people develop their enterprises, they go from feeling ‘written off, not trusted and overlooked’ to becoming role models and leaders in their own communities.

Our mission is to start a ripple effect of positive change by building on young people's lived experience and talent with the skills, confidence and support to run a social enterprise.

Our values are at the heart of everything we do. Inclusiveness, equality, respect and empowerment for the whole community regardless of race, religion, class or other social barriers.

Our vision is for an equal and inclusive society, where young people are judged for where they want to go, and not where they’ve been.