Our Impact

Creating change with young people - and beyond.

Our impact starts with young people. Through trusted relationships and meaningful opportunities, we help them build confidence, develop skills, strengthen connections and take their next steps.

What we learn through that work also helps us work with partners to create more accessible pathways, develop evidence-led approaches and share what works so that our impact can reach further.

Our impact at a glance

15,000+ young people supported since 2012

£148.9m+ social value generated in the last 5 years.

92% of participants reported improved confidence and skills

We Create Opportunities

Impact starts with the individual young person.

We start with young people's strengths, interests and passions. Through trusted relationships and meaningful opportunities, young people build confidence, develop skills and connections, and begin to see what might be possible for them.

Every journey is different as it’s about developing the individual. Progress might mean feeling more confident or connected, gaining a qualification, taking on a leadership role or moving into education, training or employment.

92%

of participants reported improved confidence & skills

93%

made new connections with people from different backgrounds.

Progression & Opportunity

Young people access new experiences, leadership opportunities and pathways into education, training and employment.

Connection & Belonging

Trusted relationships and shared experiences help young people build friendships, connect with others and feel a stronger sense of belonging.

Confidence & Skills

Young people build the confidence to try new things, develop their strengths and make decisions about what comes next.

We Redesign Pathways

Creating opportunity means changing what's around young people too.

We work with young people, employers, communities and partners to create pathways that are more accessible, inclusive and relevant to young people's lives.

By bringing together young people's experiences with the expertise, resources and influence of our partners, we can understand where barriers exist and work together to do things differently.

“The Rio Ferdinand Foundation is an impeccable partner; they truly understand and share our passion for levelling-up youth networks with their local communities across the UK and Ireland. We’re striving to bring together the cultural overlaps and opportunities in football and music."

Tony Harlow, CEO, Warner Music UK

Our work

Powering Potential

Creating more accessible routes into industry.

Powering Potential brings together RFF with employers and partners including UEFA, Ralph Lauren, Warner Music, Lyle & Scott, Live Nation/Festival Republic and the BBC to create more accessible routes into industries young people are passionate about.

Rather than simply preparing young people to navigate existing recruitment pathways, we work with partners to look at the pathways themselves - combining industry expertise with our experience of working alongside young people to understand where barriers exist and what could work differently.

We also connect employers with the wider network around young people - including schools and education providers, care leaver organisations, housing associations, community organisations, statutory bodies and funders - helping opportunities reach young people who might otherwise struggle to access them.

Hope Collective

Creating pathways to influence

Our work with the Hope Collective creates opportunities for young people to have a meaningful voice in the decisions, services and systems that affect their lives.

Through place-based UK-wide Hope Hacks, young people identify the issues that matter to them and engage directly with decision-makers and organisations with the ability to create change - creating a bridge between young people's lived experience and the people shaping policy, services and investment.

Sport for Development & Peacebuilding

From local learning to shared practice

For more than a decade, RFF has used sport and youth culture to bring young people together and build connections across communities in the UK, Ireland and internationally.

Our approach has evolved through direct delivery, partnership working, research and learning - including our long-standing work in South Africa and cross-community peacebuilding in Northern Ireland and Ireland

We are now bringing that experience together into approaches that can be shared and adapted with others, building local capacity while continuing to learn from different communities and contexts.

From practice to shared methodology

Go Girl grew from RFF's experience of understanding the barriers that can prevent girls and young women from engaging in sport and physical activity - and what helps create environments where they feel comfortable, confident and able to participate.

Working with adidas Foundation and UEFA Foundation for Children, we turned that learning into a practical toolkit that can be shared and adapted by other organisations.

“Developing a validated, long-term best practice toolkit for gender equity in sport is a truly remarkable achievement. We are incredibly proud to have partnered with the Rio Ferdinand Foundation alongside the adidas Foundation to support this work.”

Carine Nkoue, General Secretary, UEFA Foundation for Children

Our Evidence & Learning

Our work is shaped by evidence - and by what young people tell us.

We combine learning from our work with young people with research, evaluation and independent evidence to understand what works, strengthen our approaches and share that learning with others.

Download the Beyond the Ball - long report

Youth in Action Report 2022

Worth My Wellbeing Evaluation Report 2024

Oldham Digital & Enterprise Skills Programme Evaluation 2022