A Core Team Series: The Legacy Project

To conclude the series, our final post will draw on the discussions we have had previously and introduce to you the reasoning behind why The Legacy Project began and where it fits within the social mobility sphere.

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Why did you choose to start up a social mobility organisation? Where does The Legacy Project fit within the social mobility sphere?

Preliminary

There is something I should make clear before answering this question. Social mobility is a space that benefits from a proliferation of new organisations. There is no such thing as 'bad competition' in this field. Instead, we all strive to focus on different pockets of society and help each other thrive. Nothing I say here makes TLP 'better' than any other organisation; we're all working towards the same goals.

What is The Legacy Project?

Now that’s out of the way, let me explain why we established TLP and how we differ from other organisations. 

For those of you who are short on time, here is the brief answer. We believe that empowering students from a low socio-economic background means more than just helping someone achieve good grades, getting into a top university, or finding a corporate dream job. We emphasise a holistic approach to development, centred around encouraging individuals to think big and realise their goals in line with their genuine interests, passions, and skills. This thinking underpins our four areas of work: careers and academia, soft and hard skills development (TLP Development), mental health awareness (TLP Mental Health), and grassroots, charity, and third sector work (TLP Give). 

Still, want to know more? Well, here is the (slightly) longer answer. 
Last summer, as a group of friends, we decided to raise money for charity. The response was overwhelming - we raised over £5000 for Orphans in Need within just a few days. Thereafter, we realised the power of unity and hit the boardroom to pin down how we could use our skill sets to benefit people around us; establishing a social mobility organisation was the immediate consensus. From experience, we understood that help with Universities and desired careers alone was insufficient for long-term progression and development. There are multiple barriers to success that individuals need to overcome. 

To combat these barriers, we established four pillars: TLP Careers & Academia, TLP Development, TLP Mental Health, and TLP Give. The latter three are areas of development we believe make us unique. 

Firstly, it remains an unfortunate reality that soft skills are underdeveloped. An Etonian may end up in the same university as someone on free school meals, but that does not mean they are on an equal footing. Private education develops children to be polished individuals, not all state education does. Public speaking, networking, and critical thinking (to name some) are vital skills for success, if some state schools aren’t providing this, who should? 

Secondly, mental health issues are still stigmatised in disadvantaged communities. Having interacted and worked alongside mental health organisations, it is clear to us that this remains a pressing issue within our communities. At TLP, we have three main objectives we are looking to achieve through our work: raising awareness, breaking the social stigma surrounding mental health issues and encouraging individuals to manage their mental health through self-help mechanisms or referrals to external organisations. We aim to create an empathetic environment wherein individuals can feel comfortable to express their concerns

Finally, we need to encourage more people who are successful or have ‘made it’ to give back to their communities. My childhood and early teen years were spent around the council estate I grew up in. We did not have many people who made it to the city, but of those who did it wasn’t common to hear back from them. To effectively ‘give back’, we need to do more than deliver seminars. Instead, we need to speak in the familiar language of that community. 

What does The Legacy Project stand for?

Underpinning our work is the TLP ethos which builds upon a variety of ideas. One such idea is to accept the uniqueness of individuals - everyone has unique hardships and skill sets. One of my favourite books, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, breaks down the notion of 'self-made' success as partly or primarily dependent on external uncontrollable influences. As disadvantaged as my upbringing was, I found myself understanding that even my successes were partially due to rare opportunities and external factors beyond my control. The simple fact that I am blessed with loving parents is an advantage that many individuals are not blessed with. With this in mind, how can I superimpose my blueprint for success when many individuals have unique hardships I've never experienced? How do I guide people effectively while respecting differences? 

That's where mentorship and my team come in. Each one of us has unique perspectives to bring to the table, all useful for different people. 

Mentorship opportunities should aim to match mentees with mentors who can resonate and understand them properly. On paper, I've had some impressive mentors who've done it all and achieved great things but have had minimal impacts on my life and aspirations. On the other hand, I've had mentors who were not impressive on paper but have had a life-changing effect on how I think and live my life. Many mentorship opportunities are about matching a corporate lawyer, or banker to a mentee who wants to go into that field. Whilst that is useful for some aspects, the critical ingredient for effective mentoring is perspective. Mentors should understand your capabilities and make you think deeply about how you plan the rest of your life. We need more mentors who help individuals tap into their inner selves and realise their potential, whilst also being able to accept perspective privilege. 

A second idea that underpins the TLP ethos is a notion called 'Ikigai'. In short, this idea emphasises the importance of finding meaning in life through pursuing your passion. During my years of mentoring and teaching, I realised that corporate is sometimes seen as the only route to financial independence and success. While there is nothing wrong with it per se, one should survey the paths to financial independence more attuned to personal skills and interests instead of automatically adopting the default. Each of you has an ‘unfair advantage’ (as per Ash Ali and Hassan Kuba) that you can utilise to pursue a path that pays well, makes you happy, and provides you with meaning and fulfilment. For brevity (and to avoid the editor having a go at me for waffling) I'll draw a close to my explanation of ikigai here. But do check it out. It's a seriously cool and applicable concept. 

Put these two ideas together - the uniqueness of individual backgrounds and ikigai - and you get a framework for guiding mentees. Instead of promoting a single blueprint for success, we prefer to guide individuals to self-realisation and autonomy. We want benefactors of TLP to go on and be mentors for us who can embrace these two concepts. 

Where does that leave TLP now?

Currently, we are in our early stages. We aim to continue to help people with their personal statements, applications, and career choices. But, behind the scenes we are working to develop the additional three branches of TLP and establish programmes, events, and content that fulfill our objectives. We have already delivered nine seminars at schools and youth clubs, and are working towards creating long term ties with small youth-based organisations and schools. 

I am very lucky to have a team of long term thinkers and I can't wait to see what the future holds. 

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Raihan Karim