Why I Started Renaissance Foundation
In celebration of starting our new blog and exploring our charity’s beginnings, we sat down with our founder and CEO, Sat Singh, to discover exactly how Renaissance Foundation began…
When I think of where Renaissance Foundation is now – with our own Youth Hub in Aldgate, a strong internal team and plans to continue growing – it’s hard to believe that it all started with my local McDonalds.
A situation had arisen within my group of friends that I could see was getting out of hand, and what they wanted to do didn’t feel right to me. I also knew that, despite my protests, they wouldn’t listen to me; I needed to speak to someone who would have a bigger influence on my friends than I could.
That was where Tyrone came in. He had turned his life around after coming out of prison and gone into the Church; someone from my Grandmother’s church put us in touch. Hearing what was happening with my group of friends, Tyrone agreed to come to our local McDonalds – where we hung out after school – and speak to us.
One thing that stood out to me about that meeting was that Tyrone was very calm and authentic. He’d been through similar situations as me and my friends; he was asking us questions, listening to us, making my friends think about what would happen after they got revenge. That’s probably where I got the first lightbulb moment: I noticed the shift in my friends around me, the way they respected Tyrone and what he had to say. I realised that one person can literally change people’s lives.
The next opportunity arose with someone I met called David; he had been in a similar situation to Tyrone but managed to turn his situation around and had become a senior producer at the BBC. He invited me and my friends to go to White City for a tour of the Television Centre. At first, it was difficult to convince them to make the journey – we weren’t at our McDonald’s anymore – but then David mentioned that a musician we know, Ludacris, would be there and we could watch his performance, and suddenly everyone was on board.
We looked up the route and went west to White City. As soon as I arrived, I thought, “Okay, this is quite cool.” Everything about it inspired me – the location, the people, the experience of being somewhere new. It was like a physical force. I was hit with the idea again, that your whole life and outlook on your future can change when you get to meet someone or go somewhere you usually wouldn’t have the opportunity to go. That was the seed that started Renaissance Foundation and has continued to be the beating heart of the charity.
I think something that is often not talked about is, when you’re a young person with something like alcoholism or addiction in your family, you’re caring for family member, or you have an ongoing medical condition, that can take over your whole life. For some people, going home means home – it’s positive – but not for everyone. I’ve come across so many people who resonate with that. It doesn’t matter if you live in an address in Kensington or an estate in Tower Hamlets, if you’ve got an issue at home, you don’t always feel safe or comfortable there.
That single moment, the experience of getting out of your home environment and realising what is out there, can be life changing. I know it from personal experience.
I was written off at school. I was a young carer, I had dyslexia, I was one of the naughty kids; my school wouldn’t even let me do my GCSEs properly because I’d failed a lot of my mocks. When you’re in that cycle, you’re often not even given the opportunity to try… and when you finish school, where do you go? You might not be in education, but you’re also not in training and potentially unemployed. It’s like you’re written off by the system, and for some that can be the beginning of the end.
When I was around sixteen, I had a lot of issues with my immune system. I was in and out of hospitals a lot, missed a lot of school… But one person that really stood out to me during that time was one of my specialists. Professor Staunton: he was a professor, a leader, a consultant in Europe in these conditions. He spoke to me with such dignity, treated me like an equal… It was so important, and so refreshing compared to the adults I was used to. It made me realise that I didn’t have to listen to the naysayers, those who had written me off.
As well as this, those of us who have issues with our immune systems from a young age… It can affect your life expectancy. The thought gave me a sense of urgency – you need to get things done, and get them done quickly, because how long have you got? It’s safe to say I’ve been pretty intense ever since, because every day really is a gift. It’s what has given me so much drive and passion for the charity, what has kept us going these last fifteen years through the highs and lows of Renaissance Foundation’s history.
That sense of purpose, a camera and my university student loans were the three things that I used to set up Renaissance Foundation. What started as a meeting in a McDonalds transformed into something bigger than I could ever have imagined. I was interviewing inspirational people – names like Venus and Serena Williams, Lewis Hamilton, singers like Alicia Keys – and always asking myself, who would a young person listen to? How can I engage with young people in a meaningful and impactful way?
We officially registered as a not-for-profit organisation in 2006. I think I was about nineteen years old. We got our charity status two years later, in 2008, when I was twenty-one. Since then, Renaissance Foundation has adapted and changed, expanded and retracted, as we’ve navigated our way through highs and lows – I talk about our history in one of our other blog posts, you can check it out here. But our fundamental beliefs have stayed the same.
Tyrone and David made time to inspire a group of young people when they didn’t have to; not to get paid or anything, but because they wanted to help the next generation. This gives me hope: my journey has been full of people giving me a chance, support and help, and I want to do the same for others. Having those early challenges in life, and those experiences, sparked a drive in me that has never stopped. I think all young people should be able reach their potential, no matter their background or difficulties in life. At Renaissance Foundation, it’s our mission to bring hope to our young people; to help them expand their horizons, meeting inspirational people and seeing first-hand what they can achieve.