Bristol24/7 and Babbasa announce new partnership

Recognition of the barriers faced by many seeking a career in journalism has prompted a new partnership between Bristol24/7 and Babbasa.

We have named the youth empowerment organisation one of our charities of the year to support efforts to uplift and nurture the talents of the city’s more marginalised communities.

More than this, Bristol24/7 has committed to offer one-week work experience placements across the year for up to 40 underrepresented young people interested in a career in journalism, as well as mentoring support and ongoing opportunities.

It comes at a time when Covid-19 continues to impact young lives, disproportionately affecting those from lower income and minoritised backgrounds, and Babbasa is scaling up its employability support programmes to help people find and secure high quality work opportunities.

Babbasa works to empower young people from marginalised backgrounds and open up opportunities – photo: Qezia Gill and Bhagesh Sachania

Poku Osei, the founder and CEO of Babbasa, said: “We are hugely grateful to Bristol24/7 for their support and we look forward to working closely with the team to help meet the needs of disadvantaged and diverse young people to support them to gain meaningful insights and work experience in the media sector.”

He adds: “We continue to believe that young people, irrespective of background, are the architects of the future as we advance further into the fourth industrial revolution. We now have a real opportunity to bring people together across divides, to invest in their lives, through an initiative like OurCity2030.”

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Listen to an interview with Poku on the Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast:

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Only 19 per cent of young people from disadvantaged communities in the inner city have the necessary skills to meet their aspirations, get access to opportunities and gain meaningful employment, according to Babbasa’s recent Bridge to Equality report.

The St Paul’s-based social enterprise is working to change this through ongoing work and the implementation of the new OurCity2030 initiative, which aims to support at least one young person from each low-income household, starting with inner-city Bristol, to achieve a median salary role by 2030.

“We now have a real opportunity to bring people together across divides” – Poku Osei – photo: Ellie Pipe

Speaking about the new partnership, Meg Houghton Gilmour, Bristol24/7’s Community and Partnerships Manager, said: “At Bristol24/7, we recognise the barriers that a lot of people face when considering a career in journalism. We are also aware of the fact that generally the voices in media do not accurately represent the diversity of our communities in the UK.

“We have an opportunity to change this on a local level and, perhaps, create a model that can be adapted for use further afield.

“We have transformed our work experience programme to make it our most accessible, supportive and varied programme yet and we are delighted to be working with the team at Babbasa to help connect with young people in Bristol so that they might have their first taste of journalism with us.

“Work experience is just one of the ways in which Bristol24/7 are creating entry routes into journalism for underrepresented communities, we are also planning on implementing a career ladder programme and we continue to hire and train community reporters.

“Bristol24/7 have long been fans of Babbasa’s work and we are hugely proud to be working with them. We look forward to supporting them over the next year with their exciting plans and we’re grateful to be able to draw on their expertise when it comes to inclusion, accessibility and supporting young people in Bristol.”

Babbasa’s Bridge to Equality report highlights some of the current divides in Bristol – photo: Bhagesh Sachania

Main photo: Babbasa

Read more: Poku Osei: ‘How do we not leave a whole generation behind’

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