Exit Foundation is an organisation dedicated to providing support to those ready to exit a life of crime, gang-related activity and those struggling with mental wellbeing & trauma and abuse. Through our tailored mentoring programme and gang awareness training, we help young people develop the tools they need to progress into employment, training, and education.
Exiting old life style into a brighter future
At Exit Foundation, we believe that the most important weapon is love and aim to always inspire this mindset. It is by trusting that love never fails that we can provide hope for a better life in those who need it most.
It is with your support that we are able to continue paving the way for people in need to find a brighter future. We appreciate and thank you in advance for any donations that you are able to give.
Our results
With the continual funding of our generous supporters, we have helped build a better future for the lives of many.
90
of our clients have entered education, training or employment
95
of our clients do not offend whilst on the programme
10
years of experience helping our clients discover a better future
95
of clients who had to move house due to safeguarding purposes were safely rehoused
Our 'Informed' App
Exit Foundation has worked with Vitools to create a ground-breaking interactive resource for parents and carers that informs and educates about gangs and grooming. The Informed app provides high quality content in the form of video clips and interactive tasks in order to offer an engaging and thought-provoking user experience.
Informed: Gangs, Grooming and Your Child was developed to educate and to help parents and carers in recognising the signs of grooming; to understand what child exploitation is and and where and when it is likely to happen. It aims to raise an awareness of the shared responsibility we all have to be proactive in safeguarding our children within our localities and within the wider societal context also.
Informed features an intuitive design free from clutter and easy-to-use. It contains 4 sections with 5 clips and a task per section. Informed offers cues to users to learn more through stoking interest. It even contains an interactive map with intel on known gangs, information about targeted hotspots, a terminology dictionary and real-life case studies of grooming.
Our impact
We are proud to have impacted the lives of many across the Essex and Greater-London area. Find out more about the people we have worked with below.
Trustees
Lakis
Lakis comes from a medical background He has developed an extensive experience in residential, commercial property and warehousing. Lakis has an ongoing relationship with both the Dioces of Rochester and Vinyard Churches and is now devoted to philanthropic purposes. He believes that forgiveness is the “FOOD” for the repair of Broken Hearts and the only route to forge a new way of life ahead, that’s always in the “Light” and never again the “Darkness”.
Pauline
Pauline joined the Exit Foundation team to offer professional development training to staff in care homes as well as writing and co-delivering gang awareness sessions. She is also involved in delivering skills for life courses for troubled youth in East London.
Mark
Mark is a Criminal Barrister at Great James Street Chambers in Central London. Mark’s practice is predominately defence, where he regularly appears in the Crown Court for cases involving serious violence, serious sexual offences, high value fraud cases and drug supply cases that involve human trafficking. Mark also has experience in extradition and is on the Transport for London licensing
panel.
Mark has gained a reputation as being a maverick who fiercely defends clients at court and rises to the challenge when dealing with complex legal issues and incorporating novel points of law into his submissions. Mark is approachable and down to earth, in no small part being a self-confessed proud East Londoner from very humble beginnings, where Mark views it as a priority to convey legal advice to his lay clients in a way they understand.
Before his career in law, Mark was a BBC Radio 1Xtra presenter and professional DJ for over 20 years playing throughout the UK, USA, Canada, and Europe. He was a music producer, having released an album with the Ministry of Sound, and has been responsible for several high-profile remixes of chart hits for artists such as David Guetta and Akon. Mark was an events promoter.
With this wealth of experience within the music industry, Mark welcomes instructions for reputation and brand management, contractual issues arising out of artist management and the live music events industry.
Mark previously worked for and still advises for leading Youth Justice Charity, Spark2Life, part of The London Borough of Waltham Forest’s Gang Prevention Programme based in Walthamstow, East London. He was the prison in-reach coordinator for 5 years and developed various programmes and initiatives that assisted young offenders involved in gangs to access housing, education, and employment. He regularly sat on the probation service MAPA panel, the London Borough of Waltham Forest Stop & Search committee and attended multi agency police intelligence meetings where Mark was instrumental in removing young people from the controversial Gangs Matrix. He also delivered one to one rehabilitative mentoring sessions with inmates inside HMP Feltham, HMP Thameside, HMP Isis and other prisons across the country. Mark previously assisted with the research of several commissioned reports: ‘From Postcodes to Profit’ and the ‘Lammy Review’. He is keen to continue with this important work and welcomes instructions for all public inquests and inquiries.
Sarah
Sarah has over 20 years of experience working with young people across various sectors—including youth justice, outreach, and education, and she has contributed to initiatives in settings ranging from prisons and communities in East London to international projects.
Currently, Sarah serves as the Lead Careers Advisor at a local Further Education (FE) college and she is a member of the safeguarding team. Sarah’s passion for careers advice stems from recognising the lack of adequate guidance and support available to young people striving to move away from street life. Sarah is dedicated to providing them with hope and a promising future by committing to long-term, side-by-side, meaningful engagement rather than relying solely on short-term programs. For these reasons, Sarah accepted the role of trustee at Exit Foundation, where her journey began as a volunteer and later as an office manager.
Sarah has a passion for languages, and she is fluent in French and Spanish, conversational in Portuguese, and she has some knowledge of Arabic.
