Anna Smee steps down from Youth Futures

Jan 28, 2022

Youth Futures can announce that its CEO, Anna Smee, has decided to step down from the organisation.  Anna joined Youth Futures in 2019 as its founding CEO tasked with launching and building a £90 million foundation to support marginalised young people into employment. During Anna’s tenure, Youth Futures awarded £18.7 million in grants to support 17,982 young people embark on employment training programmes delivered by a wide range of promising frontline organisations. This is coupled with the launch of the biggest national programme of youth employment evaluations in the UK and the world’s largest global evidence base on ‘what works’ in this field.

Anna also helped Youth Futures to respond quickly to Covid-19 through her involvement in setting up the Inspiring Futures Fund in partnership with Children in Need to offer £6 million in rapid emergency resilience funding to charities delivering youth employment programmes. Youth Futures also co-founded the Youth Employment Group with Impetus PEF, The Princes Trust, Youth Employment UK and IES during Anna’s time as CEO, collectively mobilising over 200 organisations nationwide to influence Government policy making.

“It has been a privilege to lead Youth Futures Foundation at such a critical time for young people, when they have been faced with severe disruption to education and training, rising unemployment, and an uncertain future jobs market. I am proud of the Youth Futures team for the incredible work they have done building an organisation that reflects, understands and responds to the needs of young people right across England, and I look forward to seeing it go from strength to strength” – Anna Smee, CEO, Youth Futures Foundation

“I would like to thank Anna for her contribution to Youth Futures Foundation. Anna has helped to steer the organisation through a challenging period of set up and growth amid a global pandemic. I wish her all the best in her future endeavours as she steps away from grant making to return to frontline delivery for children and young people.” – Joe Montgomery, Chair, Youth Futures Foundation

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