Together We Make the World We Want to Live in
Our youth-focused ‘Be Human’ campaign is a key pillar of our mission in 2026. Through creative workshops, volunteering, work experience, paid placements, internships and further education, Be Human challenges and inspires young people to consider the simple questions: What makes us Human? How can we act as good humans in our lives? How can we make the World Better?
Public Art Installation “Children of Moria”, London (Caroline Burraway/Karmabank)
Working with partners across the spectrum, Be Human provides young people with smart, creative, immersive and intensive work and volunteering experiences. We engage young people on an adult level while also acknowledging their vulnerability as urban teenagers from a wide variety of socio-economic, ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
Using our core methods of cooperation and bottom-up design, we see this programme as a critical opportunity to invest in the future.
Disruption can be a good thing for a startup, but the impact of COVID and influences of social media and toxic role models has left youth in a confusing limbo: how to be male or female? How to value ourselves and others? How to contribute to the planet? How to define success and happiness? How to be human?
This year, we successfully tested Be Human with year 7’s and teenagers in London, and BA students from a US University, using art, entrepreneurship and creative thinking.
Our current Pilot includes five students from St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College, who enjoyed experiences at the Design Museum, Imperial College, Grayson Perry at the Wallace Collection, and with RAW Gallery during Frieze Week.
Najma Arefi, Afghan refugee football player
Our projects start as pilots that we co-design with influential organisations, such as London Sport and the Institut Français. Together, we incubate concepts that address both local issues, from improving mental and physical health for low-income migrant communities, finding school places for families seeking asylum, and helping young families access baby banks, to larger issues of participatory justice, ie. Improving female leadership in sports, and tackling inequality in the art market.
Our annual art competition for all ages, Appeeling Art, annually attracts more entries each year, some from war zones such as Ukraine. A participant wrote to us that making her submission stopped her thinking about the bombs. One teacher in a war zone encouraged her whole class to submit entries.
With the Institut Français, we host art sessions after film screenings, in which up to 60 attendees create art inspired by the film’s themes. the climate change themed film ‘Flow.’ One of the young Ukrainian refugees we support led the workshop.
You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think– Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh
Existing partners for Be Human include St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College, Goldfinger Future Makers academy, Imperial College Young Producers programme, Oxford University, St. Cloud Minnesota Catalyst Programme, Slade School of Fine Art, Chelsea Theatre, Kensington Palace, the Rotary Club, English National Opera, St. Mary’s Ukrainian School, London Youth Choirs, Morley College, Young K&C, TimeGivers, and the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. We have longstanding relationships with many of our partners, we connect them for relevant co-designed projects, and rely on them for donated spaces and resources.
”How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world
Anne Frank
We highlight the horrifying impact of war and climate disasters on children and women through joint projects with award-winning artists, such as Caroline Burraway. ‘Children of Moria’ was a powerful 15metre long public art installation in a public park and a busy street, highlighting the 13 million displaced children at that time.