Visage – Winter 2021

lewisham
Young Leaders’ Academy
at St Dunstan’s College
Anne Collard
Eastside Young Leaders was the first young leaders’ academy
in the UK, established in 2002 and modelled on the Young
Leaders Academy in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. It thrills us
19 years on to acknowledge our newest institutional family
member, the Lewisham Young Leaders Academy – set up by
our sister academy Westside YLA.
Westside Young Leaders but crucially
for the community of Lewisham, which
will no doubt benefit from the excellent
support provided. It will help students
access high quality educational and
learning programmes, regardless of
their background and working with the
other young leaders academies carve
out pathways to further education
and employment whilst preparing the
Since our genesis we have seen the
establishment of Southside, Westside
and Milton Keynes young leaders’
academies, and today we congratulate
Westside for their recent news.
Lewisham Young Leaders opened
its doors this September, in partnership
with Lewisham Council and
St Dunstan’s College. A group of
parents and community leaders were
driven to act by the attainment and
outcomes disparities for African Caribbean
children in their local area. They
recognised that the young leaders’
academy model would be the best fit
to address this imbalance and achieve
positive outcomes for their youth.
This is a significant step not only for
young people for leadership in their
community, city and country.
From all of us here at Eastside, a
massive congratulations to the founders
of LYLA, the WYLA trustees and
the incredible team that is: Andrew
Muhammad, David Okoro, Mark
Muhammad and Kirsty Jones.
18