With growing youth unemployment, an escalation in the youth mental health crisis, and 1 in 6 children growing up here in poverty, the need to mobilise resources is greater than ever, but we know achieving lasting social change takes time, innovation, and investment.
In a bold move to bridge the stark divide between Oxfordshire’s world-changing innovation ecosystem and local youth inequality, Oxfordshire Youth have unveiled its pioneering “Business Guardians” programme.
The contrasts in Oxfordshire couldn’t be more striking: while brilliant minds develop solutions for societal and global challenges in world-renowned institutions, just streets away, one in six local children remain trapped in cycles of profound inequality. Young people in neighbouring communities battle immediate survival challenges—food and housing insecurity, educational barriers, and limited economic mobility—creating an opportunity for unprecedented social transformation that the Business Guardians programme aims to seize.
As an infrastructure organisation, Oxfordshire Youth will also be working to ensure that the coalition positively influences the wider Children and Young People’s voluntary sector it is proud to champion and serve, including sharing opportunities to proactively engage talented corporate employees into trustee positions within grassroots organisations.
“Oxfordshire’s young people are bursting with creativity, potential, and resilience, but they need more
than just support, they need equitable access to opportunities that unlock and nurture their potential,
that see them beyond any labels given to them or limitations.The Business Guardians Programme recognises that transformative change requires collective action. It’s a call for businesses to act boldly, to invest in a generation that will shape our shared future.”
Jodie Lloyd-Jones
Chief Executive Officer
Oxfordshire Youth
This isn’t about charity. It’s about solidarity with young people facing trauma, inequality and exclusion. It’s about moving beyond funding youth services to reshaping the systems that continue to fail them.
The campaign marks a deliberate shift from strategy to action. It targets three deep-rooted challenges facing young people today:-
The Business Guardians is designed to help dismantle what’s holding young people back – and to create the solutions for real, lasting change. We cannot keep applauding resilience in young people without asking why it’s needed.
Calling all young people in Year 7 to Year 11 in and around Cowley in Oxford. Oxfordshire Youth are launching our weekly Digital Skills Youth Club for you to upgrade your Digital Skills on Monday 4th November 2025. Join our mailing list for this youth club to stay up to date!