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BRAINCHILD: Gareth Ellis (right) with SBTV founder Jamal Edwards

AIMING TO tackle ‘head on’ the challenges surrounding youth unemployment and the dearth of quality events that engage disaffected teenagers, Gareth Ellis is set to deliver the UK’s first ever Inspire Festival in London later this year.

A qualified lecturer and teacher Ellis, 30, told The Voice that having worked with young people for the last ten years he’d grown tired of seeing the issues surrounding NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) amongst 16-21 year olds in the UK addressed in the same ineffective format.

Having cut his teeth organising small community initiatives and events since he left Nottingham University, the west London born entrepreneur said his experiences working with young people across the country led him to create the blueprint for Britain’s first ever youth-led festival.

Last year Ellis received the provisional backing of Quintain, the owners of the Wembley Stadium site, with a date for the inaugural Inspire Festival pencilled in for August 6.

Ellis said his vision is to provide an environment catering for up to 30,000 young people where they can access information and opportunity ‘on a multitude of levels’.

“While all of the events I have done before had a good natured, come and have fun and a laugh type feel about them, the Inspire Festival has a serious message.” Ellis enthused.

“The biggest difference between the Inspire Festival and anything I have done before is the expectancy level and the engagement level.

UNEMPLOYMENT

“The festival will tackle youth unemployment, social issues such as the radicalisation of the young which have culminated in the atrocities we recently witnessed in Paris, extremisms, substance abuse and a wide range of other areas.”

Having graduated from university with a degree in sports science, Ellis turned his back on pursuing a career in that area of vocation when he took up a position as a part-time assistant teacher.

It was in this role he found his love for working with teens. Within a short space of time he’d built up a healthy contacts book with the numbers of prominent community leaders.

However, moving back to London after 13 years in the Midlands meant effectively building again from scratch. But he believes the Inspire Festival is a vehicle for the youth to connect with a range of organisations who have a vested interest in providing opportunity for aspiring and misguided teens.

Positive about the prospects for the Inspire Festival, Ellis says being a trailblazer is an integral part of his character.
“We as black people are never seen as pioneers. I ask people if they know that a black man invented the traffic lights and ‘no, I didn’t know that’ is the usual answer.

“From my point of view, rather than just be, I would like to be someone that tries to pioneer, someone that tries to push the boundaries and someone that tries to trail-blaze.

“I feel that if the Inspire Festival isn’t successful, we still would have pioneered an opening for somebody else to do it or potentially for somebody else to come on board with me.”

LANDMARK: The famous Wembley Stadium is set to host the inaugural Inspire Festival

He added: “It is a full scale, huge operation, however, one of the things I believe in having is direct liaison with the police and the Princes Trust. These organisations in themselves usually deal with things on this scale.

“Another thing I am doing is calling on every service provider in the local area to come on board and make it that little bit easier.”

As uneasy as it may make some feel Ellis says he particularly wants to partner up with the Metropolitan Police.

“I know associating with the police will raise eyebrows but in keeping with being a trailblazer I think it’s time now that us as the black community start engaging and I feel it will only be more detrimental to us if we don’t.

“For example, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world and the fastest growing race to join Islam is now black people. I don’t feel we are identifying that.

“When we talk about radicalisation and extremism we are not identifying our young black males. However our young black males are now in a position like our Muslim males where they are socially deprived, they are no longer interacting with the communities, no longer interacting with the police and the police do not have access to them. These are issues that need to be tackled.

“I feel if we can work with the police with the Inspire Festival then we start to be preventative rather than reactive on issues that directly affect us.”

FEEDBACK

Ellis has already received positive feedback from the likes of SBTV founder Jamal Edwards with a possible partnership in the offing.

However the entrepreneur insists that he does not want to be more visible than the young people whom the Inspire Festival is aimed at.

With the event being built on the concept of being youth- led, Ellis knows well that no one talks to young people better than young people themselves.

He said: “Enabling the youth to understand that they are in charge of their future, they are in charge of how well they do in life is what Inspire Festival is all about.

“I hope that they glean from the festival that everything comes from within. So when we talk about it being youth- led, we mean everything from promotion of the event down to how the youth feel about what we are doing and why we are doing it.

He added: “We’re glad Quintain have been so supportive. Every kid knows about Wembley. It’s a world famous landmark. For us to hold the first Inspire Festival there will be a coup.”