How we started

Michelle Levy, CEO and Founder

I wanted young black girls to see themselves in successful black women.

My story starts from the humble beginnings of a teenaged Puerto Rican mother and an AfricanAmerican father who passed away before I was five years old. I was raised by my grandparents, and later due to my desire to obtain a better education, boarded with a white middle class family in the suburbs of upstate New York. My story is truly a ‘Tale of Two Cities.’ I wondered many times later in the more successful chapters of my life, once achieving two master degrees, and starting my own angel investing syndicate, what would have happened to me without the role models and mentorship I was blessed to receive as an impressionable girl.

Over the years I’ve always had a passion for mentoring young people and coaching budding entrepreneurs. Through my work with a previous mentoring programme for disadvantaged girls in London, two things became very clear. First, there is a tremendous disparity between state schools and private schools (where I am fortunate to be able to send my children). Given the pressures and challenges faced by state schools, I could see there was a gap between the breadth of skills, support, and exposure my daughter was obtaining from her private education and what the girls in the mentoring programme were able to access. Second, the mentoring programme had very few mentors of African and African Caribbean heritage. Due to the lack of exposure to role models in their personal environment, the young black girls needed to see themselves in successful women. For me, it was a question of how to bring my incredible network of high-achieving black women together as a community and attempt to fill that gap for these bright and very abled young black girls? Hence, the concept of Inspiring Tomorrow’s Leaders was born.

In, 2017, I started planting the seeds to build the initial network of women who would later become the role models for our pilot programme, the Leadership Conference that took place in July 2018. By January 2018, I co-founded Areté Network, which is an organisation made up of successful and motivated professional women of African and Caribbean heritage from various industries and walks of life. While working to organise and rally the women, I also planned and organised the 2018 Conference. I funded the pilot conference myself. I knew that if I could create what I had in mind, the support would eventually materialise. By August 2018, I was able to secure 80% of the cost of the conference from corporate sponsors through women who attended.

For 2019, with the incredible support of Barings, we have increased the number of role models from 30 to 50 and students from 80-100 from the previous year. We continue to grow. Since July of 2018, we have impacted the lives of over 180 girls, helping them to dream of a brighter and more promising future. On my journey with the girls and women who made this charity possible, there are many people to thank and recognise. None of this could have been possible

without the support of my family and Adenike Adenitire, my right hand. Adenike, without hesitation, agreed to come on board in early 2018. Her passion and experience in working with young people was exactly what was needed. She naturally connects with our young girls and has been instrumental in the development of the program and liaising with our partner schools.

From the early stages, my family has embraced the spirit of this charity. My husband, Keith, agreed we should personally fund the first pilot conference until we later procured corporate sponsorship. With all hands on deck, the night before the conference my young son, Keith Jr, helped sort goody bags and name badges for the girls. My daughter, Michaela now 16 years old, continues to be ITL’s Youth Ambassador. From the start, she has had an active role in providing her relevant perspective for the programming and the tools that we develop. She introduces the programme to students and assists with the setup of the venue days before the conference. Michaela even helped to create the brilliant ITL logo.

I cannot express how overwhelmed I become with emotion on conference day when I see the transition of the girls from the moment they get off the bus in the morning until they get back on to go home. Their amazement at seeing a room filled with successful Black women, the questions they ask, and the expressions on their faces as they experience what we have on offer tell me I have to keep pushing for them. It is so rewarding knowing we had an impact not simply for a day but knowing our efforts are helping the lives of others. I struggle at times, saying to myself in earnest ‘We need to do more. These children need our help’. These simple words have fuelled my resolve even through the difficult moments. This was especially true when the UK charity registration application process, which started in January 2019, appeared as if it was not going to be approved by the UK Charity Commission. I was disappointed and frustrated when I received their initial response in June 2019 asking to clarify the need for such a charity. Fundamentally, I did not understand how someone could not see the work being done as certainly for the “benefit of the public good”. The UK government’s 2018 racial disparity data was not enough. Determined to convince the charity assessor in our favor, after several long nights of research, armed with more relevant studies and my husband’s support, I pulled together a response. I had to overwhelm the assessor with a justification of why our work was so important and why without question ITL should be granted charitable status. We finally received approval in August 2019.

So where do we go from here? In order to expand and build the program further we recognise the importance of assessing the program and determining where we need to improve. To best meet the needs of the students, we are working to more effectively capture real time feedback throughout the program from all participants.

I wanted successful black women to see themselves in young promising girls.

Inspiring Tomorrow’s Leaders is the catalyst for change in the lives of disadvantaged young people of African and Caribbean heritage.

We owe a special thank you to Barings for their support in analysing the feedback data. Here are some interesting highlights of the 2019 Conference feedback:

● The age distribution of girls was 21% aged 13, 71% aged 14 and 8% aged 15.

● Many knew the reasons why dining and etiquette were important (93%), but very few had any indication on the proper etiquette. This was evident in the differing behavior at lunch between those who had already participated in the workshop and those who had not.

● Being inspired was the most popular response as to what people got out of the conference. The girls left feeling good about themselves.

● The analysis revealed a very important key learning: the number one thing the students and role models would change is the opportunity to have more interaction together. We are planning to incorporate more oneon-one interaction through of use of smaller focus groups with the role models as well as a networking session in the afternoon.

The broader vison is now to expand the program to impact a larger number of girls, and also to include a separate programming directive for young boys. This will require leveraging a network of male role models and securing extensive multiyear funding. Our longer term vision will be to follow the girls and boys through extended duration from high school to university, and then prepare them to mentor those just beginning in the same program. The story of my journey rests upon a simple truth: I see my younger self in the eyes of these girls, and I know the journey of Inspiring Tomorrow’s Leaders is just beginning.

PANELLISTS: Rob Knight, Managing Director Barings (Sponsor) Vanessa Emilien, Founder and CEO of Rich Kit International Omotunde Lawal, Managing Director Barings Christine Ohuruogu, Olympic 400m Gold Medallist Dr Nneka Abulokwe, OBE, Founder of MicroMax Consulting Kim Johnson, Creative Director and Manager of Hype Coiffure Ariel White-Tsimikalis, European Counsel at Davis Polk & Wardwell

Inspiring Tomorrow’s Leaders was born out of a desire to see a fundamental increase in career exposure and skill-building opportunities for school-age girls of African and Caribbean heritage and show them real life possibilities. In only its second year of operation, ITL has impacted the lives of over 180 young black girls.

Did you find the role models approachable?

97% said ‘Yes’

July 2018

1ST CONFERENCE 80 girls, 30 role models

July 2019

2ND CONFERENCE 100 girls, 40 role models

October 2019

November 2019

Black History Month workshops Financial literary and career day at Baring