I'm George Imafidon and I would describe myself as a humanitarian engineer. I’m the CEO of Motivez, an ambitious, youth-led organisation, born out of desperation for STEM opportunities in Peckham, South-East London. At the core, we are passionate about leaving every place better than we found it and have always believed in the transformative power of STEM as a platform for social change.
My motivation came from experiences growing up in one of London’s poorest areas, Peckham, where I fixed bikes for my peers as a kid when the bike shops were too expensive. Despite enjoying this, I always felt a little lonely as a young black boy pursuing STEM without a relatable community. This was coupled with the Motivez team witnessing drastic cuts to youth provisions; inadequate career advice and training to secure jobs in STEM; educational failure from the GCSE level; low social capital due to poor visibility of positive role models; and a lack of professional development opportunities. This has made young people most susceptible to low-income jobs as a means of survival instead of thriving in society - we wanted to change this.
In our organisation, we are trying to do things differently in the residential care space. We recruit great people who have the ability to build strong relationships with young people, and provide them with the training necessary to support children from vulnerable backgrounds. We use social pedagogy as our main approach, which focuses on finding the strengths in each child and nurturing them as they grow up. We enjoy doing lots of activities together – camping, basketball, cycling and more! We have built our first home for six 12-17 year olds, which is based in south west London and has been newly refurbished based on design principles from best practice in the UK and abroad. Below is a picture of our home.
The team, most of whom have been around for 5+ years, empathise with the community as we grew up in a poor, single-parent household where at 14 years old, I personally saw my brother falsely imprisoned for murder. Despite the socio-economic barriers and injustice, the team went on to defy the odds by studying at top institutions and working with global organisations such as J.P. Morgan, Google, Rolls-Royce, Blackrock, Credit Suisse and Crossrail. We understood that these experiences would directly contribute to the intrinsic value of our programmes, as they encourage intimate relationships with young people and provide the platform for a robust network of partnerships.
Without opportunities to improve our social mobility, we may have never realised our potential. This is why we started Motivez and are passionate about empowering young people from marginalised backgrounds to access STEM careers at scale, where there is a shortfall of 480,000 technicians and graduates in the UK. To magnify the work of Motivez, we partner with the likes of Idris Elba and Sir Lewis Hamilton's electric race team, Team X44, to act as examples for young people as we advocate for racial equality in STEM and climate action.
Within the last two years, the Motivez core team of 7 with 30+ facilitators have delivered and managed 10+ grassroots and employability programmes across London for young people aged 14 – 25 to access personalised opportunities, particularly within science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). This has been fuelled by partnerships with organisations at the grassroots, business, and governance levels. Moreover, the team hold positions as trustees, school governors and youth workers. These all further our existing expertise in effective ways to engage with young people, exemplified by 85% of our programme participants going on to access employment or higher education opportunities within 6 months.
Michael: “With a passion for Engineering, I decided that I would love to pursue a degree apprenticeship at Dyson to get more hands-on experience in the process of learning. Meeting George and Treasure from Motivez who both studied Engineering at university, I was supported by the Application Season Programme which made me stand out in my interviews. The process was tough, especially during the pandemic, but with their help, I was successful in securing a place and started the course at the beginning of October 2020.”
In our organisation, we are trying to do things differently in the residential care space. We recruit great people who have the ability to build strong relationships with young people, and provide them with the training necessary to support children from vulnerable backgrounds. We use social pedagogy as our main approach, which focuses on finding the strengths in each child and nurturing them as they grow up. We enjoy doing lots of activities together – camping, basketball, cycling and more! We have built our first home for six 12-17 year olds, which is based in south west London and has been newly refurbished based on design principles from best practice in the UK and abroad. Below is a picture of our home.
To date, Motivez has supported 8,000+ young people from underrepresented backgrounds to access personalised opportunities, particularly in STEM, to become local STEM changemakers transforming their communities. Our impact has resulted in receiving recognitions from the Royal Academy of Engineering such as the Young Engineer of the Year 2022, The Diana Award and the late HM The Queen.
In 2023, we will scale our grassroots work and formalise our recruitment arm. I am really excited as this is, finally, the vehicle I wish existed all those years ago. The recruitment arm will be the platform where young people can showcase themselves within the community and access a range of STEM opportunities with our partners.
Blessing: “My Motivez experience from Peckham Academy to college has been life-changing. I’m learning so many beneficial things that help me in every part of my life”
As pressures continue to mount for young people, and equity and climate change becomes an increasing priority, we are so grateful to Ajaz and the team for believing in our vision and helping us to support more young people. The domino effect of this will be felt across the neediest communities as they receive hope and take back control of their narrative.