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Velos Youth
Eyes Open - is this the next leader of your organisation?
tlds; (too long didn’t scroll)
Velos Youth transitioned to become a locally-led organisation within its first 2 years, navigating a handover between founder, Jonny Willis, and long-standing team member Mustafa Mohammad. Mustafa became the Project Manager and eventually became CEO. Being open to different styles of leadership, creating opportunities for sideways career progression and recognising the potential of everyone in your team can help create an enabling environment for all to thrive and grow.
Who should read this?
If you’re a leader or manager committed to promoting refugee leadership, or an employee with lived experience looking to develop professionally, read on!
Why should you read this?
The process of transitioning to local and lived experience-led leadership is not easy. Organisations big and small struggle to create the conditions necessary to develop and appoint people into positions of power. This exemplary story offers both inspiration and practical ideas.
What’s the take-away?
Promoting refugee leadership goes beyond words and fancy policies. It requires an open-minded way of working that sees potential in everyone, creates space for developing sideways not just upwards, and openness to different work approaches. It takes time and a commitment from all parties involved, and a willingness to understand and blend different ways of working, in-line with cultural differences.
What’s the story?
When Mustafa joined Velos Youth, Jonny was the founder and director. In a short time, Jonny saw that Mustafa was emotionally invested in the organisation, demonstrating an exceptional desire to learn, grow and give back to young people experiencing difficulty in Greece. Always looking for the next opportunity, Mustafa first started as a volunteer Cultural Mediator, later becoming the Senior Caseworker before progressing to Project Manager and eventually CEO. Throughout this process, Jonny and Mustafa formed a friendship and professional working relationship typified by respect for each other’s ways of working and excitement at the ideas they mutually sparked off in each other.
From the beginning, Jonny wasn’t explicitly looking to ‘promote refugee leadership’. Rather, he was focused on building a locally-led organisation. Jonny was on the lookout for staff that had a deep connection to their community, the issues they were addressing, and who demonstrated enduring compassion and sympathy. When interviewing he looked beyond language ability, to body language and motivation. Going forwards, provided there are equal access opportunities underpinning this way of thinking, for Jonny, it is then logical that those with emotional and professional expertise - which may well include lived experience - will end up in leadership positions if that’s where they want to be.
To facilitate the team’s development, Velos Youth intentionally uses loose job descriptions. This allows individuals to develop horizontally and organically. For Mustafa, this meant that his initial role didn’t limit him to just ‘translating’, but meant he could directly support young people and build his own caseload, whilst bringing new ideas that helped innovate across the organisation. With a fresh perspective, early on Mustafa helped streamline case work through its digitalisation and through the strengthening of participatory youth work practices.
Every organisation faces its own enablers and blockers in this process. For Velos Youth, flexible funding meant the organisation could develop organically (another reason why unrestricted funding is crucial). However, both Jonny and Mustafa encountered challenges in changing the mindset of some team members for a period. In a short period, Mustafa went from translating for these staff to being their manager. Not being a trained social worker, it took time for the team to recognise Mustafa as an expert through his experience, and as an efficient and adept manager.
For a while, people continued to see Jonny as the ‘real boss’, but as Jonny stepped aside and supported Mustafa to take ownership of the organisation - diving deep into strategic planning, decision making and implementation -- this reputation changed. The final step of the transition required Jonny to take a remote supporting role, in order for Mustafa to really own the space he was now leading.
A key challenge for both directors and the team was the transition to a different leadership style: where Jonny was seen as more flexible and patient, Mustafa had a more direct, no-nonsense approach. He says, “For me Velos’ clear priority is the young people. If there is a challenge in the team and it is not serving the young people, then it demands immediate resolution.” Through discussion, negotiation, and then blending of these styles, a more balanced approach was forged, which ultimately benefited the organisation.
What's the impact?
The result is a thriving, locally-led organisation that continues to support hundreds of young people in Greece each year. Since Mustafa took over, Velos Youth has continued to win big grants and expand its team of local professionals. Velos’ programmes are underpinned with a strong and informed approach to youth work, including co-design where young people participate in creating what’s on offer. Velos Youth shows that even a young organisation can successfully manage a transition from a ‘founder’ to a new CEO and to a structure where refugee leadership and local inclusion are core.
5 Top Tips
See every person you interview as a potential future leader of your organisation
Give everyone a sense of responsibility and ownership so they can grow, and promote the creativity that enables this
Be open-minded to cultural differences and alternative leadership styles, and seek to create the perfect blend!
Be firm if encountering any prejudice from staff during a leadership transition
Underpin everything with equal opportunities and the individualised support needed to make this the reality
What should you do next?
You can read further stories of good practice here. You can also follow and get in touch with Velos Youth to find out more here(opens in new window). As a leader, examine your own norms, assumptions and current processes and identify areas you can take immediate action to change for the better.
