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April 17, 2012
Lumia

Social Innovator of the Week: André Campbell



I’m about to draw your attention to a guru of social innovation. The word guru conjures up visions of an old wise being, equipped with a cape, beard and a walking stick does it? Well, this guru is a little different, I’m talking about an individual that is wise well before his time, in fact, extract the word wise from that last sentence and forget the rest.

Arguably Andre Campbell has inspired a whole generation of young people and he has achieved lots in such a small amount of time. We don’t just award this kind of praise to any old person…..so let’s find out why he’s a guru.

This Saturday up to 500 young people from across London will address the issue of youth unemployment by joining forces with business professionals, key decision makers and leaders at the Enfuse Conference London.

Enfuse Youth is the brainchild of Andre Campbell (the former NUS Student of the Year 2009), who has become a regular commentator on the state of youth unemployment both online and offline (he even sits on the Channel 4 Education Board!).

But how exactly is Andre helping young members of society through Enfuse Youth?

‘Enfuse Youth is a youth led Community Interest Company (C.I.C) that provides interactive career development opportunities for young people, igniting their enthusiasm to achieve their dream career. The company have been on the front line, gauging the mood of young Londoners towards career prospects and encouraging a sense of hope for the future, despite the tough economic climate’.

Andre’s Enfuse Youth London campaign work has been recognised by many influential people, including The Mayor of London and SB.TV founder Jamal Edwards. Jamal had this to say about the cause:

“I support the Enfuse Youth London campaign because it shows young people how to use their passion and natural enthusiasm as a basis for their career. This is what I did and this is why I love what I do”

Andre has spoken to over 50,000 people around the world about the future of education, young people and entrepreneurship. He was also one of the founding members of ‘The Spirit of London Awards’. Here are some very important people talking about the great knock on effects that the awards ceremony has had (look out for Andre at 1:59)…

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I caught up with Andre the other day to talk more about his work and the future. Let me hand you over to our social innovator of the week:

“We all have an engine, but if we fail to ignite it, we are going nowhere!”

This sums up exactly what we are about, igniting enthusiasm for life and career in a generation which faces challenges. Our aim is simple in the present, how do we get more from less, for many many people.

The vision for Enfuse Youth in 10 years is to ignite enthusiasm through ‘National Enthusiasm Week’ within 50 countries worldwide. Like the Duke Of Edinburgh Awards we want young people to develop their personal brand and be acknowledged, celebrated and embraced for doing so. This goal is based on 2 models:

TOM Model: Tools, Development Opportunities and Mentors (Wisdom). These pillars are fundamental for how we address the issues young people face. The key however is how we do this on scale.

ACE Model: Acknowledge, Celebrate and Embrace. We hope to raise the importance of young people driving change and achieving their personal goals through being entrepreneurial, which is a different direction from the current government who believes, ‘there is a business in everyone’ – we say no there isn’t and neither should there be!

We have worked our butts off to figure this out. We finally believe we have found the model in National Enthusiasm Week. The UK’s largest personal branding challenge and an event which can scale worldwide.

The team driving Enfuse Youth will always be full of fresh blood who live and breathe youth issues. They all enjoy doing what they love and loving what they do. It’s the only sustainable option for a generation that will work until they are 80 if born this year! Ultimately, you may have guessed that the reason we focus on career and enthusiasm is due to the fact that in the end we all share one goal. To live a life full of happiness and joy. We felt career was a huge part of the solution in which we could shake up!

Here was the official launch of Enfuse Youth from way back in 2009:

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I think you’ll agree those were some wise words from a social innovator who knows what he wants in life! Nokia will be down at the Enfuse Conference London this Saturday. As one of the headline supporters we would love it if you could come down to show your support for a great company like Enfuse Youth. Andre will be there, along with:

– Jamel Edwards (Founder of SBTV)

– Charlotte Hill (CEO of UK Youth)

– Shaun Bailey (Youth Culture Advisor to the Prime Minister)

– Siobhan Benita (London Mayoral candidate)

– Sophie Livingstone (CEO of City Year)

– Seema Malhotra (Labour MP)

– Stacey Adams (CEO of Raleigh)

Get your free tickets for the event: here