Our journey began humbly in 2014 with just 12 teenagers, a shoestring budget, and a community hall with a hole in the roof. That week-long pilot blossomed into the six-month Social Justice Leadership Fellowship comprising over 400 hours of workshops, speakers, discussion groups, and real-life campaigning.  “They tried to bury us, but they did not know we were seeds.” This powerful sentiment captures the essence of why The Advocacy Academy (TAA) was founded on the 20th of February, 2014, the UN Day of Social Justice.

Emerging from cohort members in 2015, this campaign formed part of TAA’s Affordable Housing work in partnership with Christchurch Road Community Land Trust (CLT), fighting for permanently affordable housing in Lambeth. Through sustained organising, the campaign secured an early commitment from Lambeth Council to support a community-led housing model, helping to lay the groundwork for South London’s first Community Land Trust and advancing the case for genuinely affordable homes for local people.

During the 2014-2018 period, we had 67 young people from 17 schools across South London through the Social Justice Leadership Fellowship. Our work focused on three core areas: delivering highly regarded community organising training programmes (the Social Justice Fellowship, Spark, and Changemaker Development programmes), developing young people’s campaigning work through a membership model, and fostering community and solidarity in Brixton. Our Advocates were featured by over 50 national press outlets from Channel 4 News to Vice to BBC Radio 5 Live.

Founded in 2018, Legally Black challenged the stark lack of Black representation in UK media, where just 1% of lead roles were held by Black actors at the time. Collaborating with an artist, the campaign reimagined iconic film and TV posters including Harry Potter, The Inbetweeners and Doctor Who. These posters were then made available to people to put up, with a shared the message: “If you’re surprised, it means you don’t see enough Black people in major roles.” The campaign sparked a nationwide conversation, secured a meeting with Channel 4 commissioners, and won the MTV Generation Change Award, pushing forward the call for diversity in media.

Fill In The Blanks challenged the absence of colonial history in UK education through bold, youth-led public action. At its core was Metru, a reimagined newspaper asking what the news would look like if it told the truth about colonialism, with 5,000 copies distributed across London. The campaign gained national attention, built a community of 11,300+ followers, and saw organisers approach Ed Miliband on the Tube, securing an interview on his podcast Reasons to be Cheerful (‘School of Rocking the Boat’), while also joining a government advisory group.

Formed by cross-cohort members from Latinx communities at TAA, LatinExcluded set out to amplify Latinx voices and secure visibility and representation across South London’s institutions and cultural spaces. The campaign has driven tangible change, including successfully lobbying for a Latinx HR category at Lambeth Council and King’s College London. Its work spans policy, arts and community-building, hosting the Latin X Brixton Celebration Festival (2023) and producing the sold-out play My Uncle Is Not Pablo Escobar. This momentum also led to the creation of the South London Latin American Forum, an intergenerational space aiming to tackle the invisibility and lack of representation the LatinX community faces in the UK.

In 2019, we launched 13 Campaign Collectives, bringing Alumni from different cohorts together to sustain the campaigns they initiated during the Fellowship. These Collectives addressed crucial issues such as immigration reform, climate justice, intersectional feminism, racial justice, and criminal justice. Each Collective voted in its organisers and established its own governing principles, with the Campus serving as a physical base. As graduates, our young people joined the alumni member community, where many continue to create impactful campaigns, making a real difference in their local communities and beyond.

In 2020, Choked Up was launched at  The Advocacy Academy, a climate campaign led by four black and brown young people pushing for cleaner air legislation, greater public awareness, and a political response that recognises how air pollution disproportionately affects marginalised communities. Since then, they’ve partnered with Client Earth and Asthma UK, attended international climate conferences, and collaborated with the Mayor of London on ULEZ policy.

Collective Punishment Campaign was launched by activist and campaigner Jemmar Samuels  (TAA Class of 2016), to tackle the impact of parental imprisonment on families, particularly children. The campaign has developed a storytellers’ network to amplify lived experiences, while building partnerships with the Black Lives Matter Festival for Liberation, representing the Parental Imprisonment Collective at a global conference, and creating solidarity spaces. Alongside this, the campaign has contributed to policy development in this area, while securing vital funding to sustain and grow its work.

HOST was launched in 2023 as TAA’s campaign incubator and accelerator, supporting young organisers to start, grow and sustain campaigns for justice. Rooted in a decade of experience training 250+ young people and supporting 30+ campaigns, HOST provides wraparound support across organising, fundraising, strategy and wellbeing. Based at The Liberation Centre, it also built partnerships with barristers at Doughty Street Chambers, strengthening legal expertise and enabling campaigners to scale their work and drive long-term systemic change.

In 2024, TAA opened The Liberation Centre on the side of the iconic Brixton Rec, transforming previously unused warehousing space into a permanent home for youth organising. The space was launched by our Patron Helen Hayes MP, and our very own John Paul Ennis (Class of 2016), who was inaugurated as local Mayor in 2024.  Secured on a 10-year lease with potential to extend, The Liberation Centre is a growing hub for excellence, solidarity and community, positioning TAA as a national home for youth organising in the UK.

After 11 years, TAA reimagined its flagship Fellowship to strengthen collective organising and create clearer, more accessible pathways into campaigns. While the six-month programme built strong foundations, new entry points were introduced to widen participation and deepen engagement. This included the Ignite Weekender, a two-day introduction to youth organising, and Just Us, an open-access programme designed to reach broader communities. Together, these shifts have made it easier for young people to get involved, build solidarity, and grow a stronger, more connected membership of organisers.

In 2025, TAA was awarded funding from the National Lottery Climate Action Fund to deliver a five-year national coalition for youth-led climate organising. In partnership with Football Beyond Borders, The National Youth Agency, Integrate UK and Friends of the Earth, this work is set to grow into one of the largest youth-led climate movements in the UK. With a national network taking shape and a landmark summer camp planned for 2026, this marks a major step in scaling youth climate leadership.

Ahead of the May 2026 local elections, young people from The Advocacy Academy brought together nearly 100 participants from five local youth groups to host a reverse hustings. Scott Ainslie, Green Party Leader for Lambeth, and Claire Holland, Labour Party Leader for Lambeth and Leader of Lambeth Council, took to the stage to respond directly to young people’s questions and demands on community wealth, housing, and youth services. Featured on the BBC, the event marked a powerful milestone for youth-led political organising.