A 15-year-old who already has been through 34 foster homes walks into Focus Charity and says his next stop will be a bridge he plans to jump from to end his life. Matt Lilley, the organization’s CEO, doesn’t know what to say. So, he asks the young man for help.

Lilley had been preparing for a session where participants will plan for who’s responsible for what during an upcoming community project. The young man agreed to help set up equipment and chairs. Conversation happens more easily when the participants are being active together rather than sitting across a table. During that time, he and Lilley talked about people in the world who loved the young man and would miss him if he wasn’t around. At the end, Lilley said he also could use the young man’s help tomorrow if he could come. He did.

“Now he has a girlfriend, a full-time job, and he’s in a good place,” said Lilley, whose Leicester, England, UK-based organization received a $5,000 Global Grant in 2024 from the MDRT Foundation. “We try to help young people recognize that they have value. That’s why, rather than try to help him, I asked him to help me to give him some sense that he had purpose, even though at that moment he felt the world would be a better place without him.”

Sparking dedication

Lilley was studying the history of architecture and had no intention of doing this sort of work. But on his third day as a Focus Charity volunteer in 1995, he helped resolve a conflict between 14-year-olds during a summer trip for 40 young people. The argument began after one threw water on the other’s bed. Diffusing the tension and empowering the kids to manage their emotions was the start of Lilley’s now 30-year career with an organization that believes helping others is key to building self-esteem for 13- to 25-year-olds.

While more than 40% of young people in Leicester grow up in poverty, Focus has an open-door policy and supports as many people as they can for as long as they are needed. About half are referred by teachers, mental health professionals, social workers and others, while the remainder come with a friend or because they heard about Focus. While some are initially reluctant — a core principle is voluntary participation — it’s crucial, Lilley says, for people to know they won’t be forced to do anything and aren’t signing up for any length of time. One young man recently spent the last three weeks coming to Focus only to stand outside the room listening to music and didn’t join anything.

“We’re starting to find out a bit more about him,” said Lilley, noting that Focus serves 300 young people per year (more than 21,000 since its inception) and 30 to 50 at a time. “He’s here and wants some support but hasn’t told us what that is yet.”

How it works

Staffed by two full-time employees, six part-timers and 40 volunteers, Focus is open for a few hours three nights a week in addition to during the day on Tuesdays and every other Saturday, along with managing a community garden on Fridays. Many projects are always in the works, such as participating in festivals that celebrate the area’s diverse community, including Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims.

After a young person arrives at Focus, they are introduced to other participants and given a chance
to settle in. They are paired with another young person or a volunteer who acts as a mentor and shares more about what Focus does.

Taking action

Importantly, young people are given a chance to share what matters to them and what they’d want to get involved with. Focus’ festival-related initiatives — which included making a documentary that explained Diwali and an event featuring cooking lessons and dancing to Indian music, plus involvement in Leicester’s Pride festival, Caribbean carnival and much more — came from a conversation with young people about what they loved about their city.

Focus also works alongside parents and other area organizations on gender equality, homelessness and safety outreaches like partnering with the Violence Reduction Network to address an increase in knife crime and young people carrying knives.

“The work we do in our professional capacity is all about helping the people who come across our desks, charging a fee for our professional services,” says Kris Amliwala, FPFS, MSc, a two-year MDRT member from Leicester, who discovered Focus five years ago through a local networking group and sponsored the MDRT Foundation grant. “Focus Charity is all about helping people during tough times at no cost to the people they meet.”

The grant supports Focus’ “Facing the Future” program, which provides volunteers with mental health training to serve young people struggling with the cost of living, social media, post-pandemic life, or any number of problems in the news and the world. More than 20 volunteers now can recognize when a young person is struggling with their mental health and can initiate a conversation or respond appropriately when a young person requests help. The grant helped pay for staff time, volunteer training and expenses, travel costs for young people and background checks for volunteers to ensure the safety of participants.

“Many young people feel their lives are not living up to their expectations and never will, that the world is a terrible place, and that no one really cares about them,” Lilley said. “We try to show them that they live in an amazing city that has incredible opportunities and great communities that are really supportive and welcoming, and the world can be a much better place if we can only see it.

“It’s a privilege to be part of that.”