About Us

To enable and empower young people and adults who faced disadvantage in childhood in England and Wales to recognise their resilience and strengths, unlock their full potential and realise their dreams.

Our Constitution sets out our charitable objective - the relief of need, the advancement in life and the promotion of social inclusion of persons who are aged 16 – 30 who are or who have been:

• In the care of a local authority;
• Estranged from their parents; or
• Subject to a loss of support through bereavement, serious illness or other significant change in family circumstances.

We know that we cannot solve complex challenges overnight, but with focus and by working in partnership with others we will support the dreams and ambitions of young people by:

Offering Mentoring: creating a cross- sector volunteering network to mentor and coach young people in support of their dreams and ambitions;

Providing access to a Next Steps Fund: a £10 million ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’ equivalent to provide direct financial assistance to meet short- term needs and achieve longer term ambitions;

Advocating for change: campaigning and lobbying on behalf of, and with, those we serve, focusing on how deep structural inequalities perpetuate and on the talent to be nurtured; 

Researching: with academic and other relevant bodies on areas such as gaps in data on outcomes in adult life and how developments in neuroscience, AI and trauma-informed therapies can improve social, health and economic outcomes for our beneficiaries.

In order to build a solid platform and ensure sustainable delivery, ATF seeks to raise £500,000 in development funding for:

• Research & Strategy
• Operational Execution/ Communications and Fundraising
• Scalable intergenerational mentoring theory of change model

Research and Advocacy Framework Following our Autumn 2025 launch, ATF will pursue a dual fundraising strategy:

1. Establish a £100 million endowment over the next three years to ensure long-term financial sustainability. The endowment will generate investment income to support ongoing programmes, advocacy, and operational needs in perpetuity.
2. Launch a large-scale fundraising effort to raise additional funds for immediate impact, ensuring sustainable programme delivery and scaling across England and Wales.

We recognise and have learned from the contributions that organisations like Social Finance socialfinance.org.uk have made in this field, notably that:

• Change is hard and takes time – often many decades – to achieve.
• No organisation can achieve it alone – changing systems requires many hands and diverse, sometimes unlikely, partnerships.
• Systems are complex.

We want to appoint Trustees who share our passion and commitment to both bring about systemic change and impact individual lives.

We are committed to working with our beneficiaries “every step of the way”.

Alongside the Board, we are setting up a Young People’s Advisory Group to advise the ATF. Members of which will eventually sit on the Board post launch. In the interim we are lucky to be working with youth ambassadors who actively help us to shape the development and excution of ATF initiatives.

Once the Trustees are recruited we will run a second phase of recruitment to expand that group and put it on a more formal and sustainable footing.