~ Collaboration between youth not-for-profits announced as Virgin Unite celebrates its 20th anniversary~

• Global Entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson, and legendary music icon, Nile Rodgers, today announced they are teaming up to empower the next generation of leaders to tackle some of the world’s most pressing issues from climate change to criminal justice reform.

• Virgin Unite, the independent non-profit foundation of the Virgin Group, will be collaborating with We Are Family Foundation, co-founded by Nile Rodgers, and influential youth-empowering not-for-profits Big Change and One Young World to promote collective action across every generation.

• Virgin Unite has committed over $1 million to support this impactful work.

• The effort will build on Virgin Unite’s approach to two decades of radical collaboration, working with leading organisations in youth activism to champion the movement around “Intergenerational Collaboration” in partnership with a growing community of changemakers from across the globe.

• Nile Rodgers & CHIC lit up the stage with an exclusive performance at Virgin Hotels, Shoreditch, to celebrate the collaboration and mark Virgin Unite’s 20th anniversary celebration.

London, Monday 28 October 2024: Global entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson, and legendary music icon, Nile Rodgers, joined forces on Monday evening to celebrate 20 years of Virgin Unite and to mark the beginning of a new partnership that will empower and collaborate with the next generation of leaders. The pair spoke of the vision for, and impact of, intergenerational collaboration as a meaningful way to tackle the world’s biggest problems including climate change, criminal justice reform and public health.

Both young activists themselves, at age 16, Richard established Student Magazine to give a voice to, and challenge perceptions of, youth culture – covering everything from pop culture and music to the Vietnam and Biafra wars. At the same age, Nile was a member of the Black Panthers in the Harlem branch in New York City working as a community organizer fighting systemic racism, inequity and injustice. Their biggest accomplishment was the Breakfast for Children program which provided free breakfasts before school and was subsequently adopted by all public schools in the United States.

The collaboration will unite leading organisations in youth activism to champion young changemakers with diverse experiences and initiatives and create a space for them to meaningfully partner on key projects. Through working with this network, youth voices can be better amplified at all key global moments and contribute their unique expertise to co-creating solutions to the world’s toughest challenges.

For the last twenty years Virgin Unite has looked to empower youth leaders in every aspect of its work. It has incubated trailblazing initiatives like The NewNow, a collective of rising leaders with exceptional track records of delivering real and lasting impact, committed to building unstoppable momentum towards a fair, sustainable future. The NewNow recently joined with One Young World to launch the next stage of The NewNow programme, a scholarship for young leaders from the Global South taking innovative approaches to address the challenges facing their communities at a systemic level.

This new partnership with leading youth not-for-profits will allow Virgin Unite to continue this important work of embedding these vital youth leaders in every aspect of its work, deepening our commitment to intergenerational collaboration. A prime example of centring youth activism has been Planetary Guardians, a collaboration between Virgin Unite and a number of other incredible partners, which launched last year. Planetary Guardians is built on this very principle, with young leaders like Xiye Bastida and Ayisha Siddiqa serving alongside global icons like Mary Robinson and Juan Manuel Santos. Similarly, Virgin Unite has backed young changemakers through Big

Change's Challenge which saw them support an impressive cohort of leaders, aged between 18 and 25, to develop and pilot early-stage ideas with the potential to positively impact the lives of thousands of young people.

Virgin Unite’s work will be underpinned by a commitment of over $1 million of support.

Speaking at the event, Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group and Virgin Unite Founder, said:

“When I was 16, I set up Student Magazine to give a voice to young people and to challenge perceptions of youth culture. Through the work of Virgin Unite we have always been committed to collaboration across generations, knowing the immense impact young people can have in tackling some of the world’s toughest challenges. The problems we face today mean it has never been more important to make sure that young people are front and centre in that conversation. We owe it to our children, grandchildren, and future generations to come.

“I’m delighted to be able to join with Nile Rodgers and other amazing organisations in this partnership.”

Nile Rodgers, multi-Grammy award winning musician and Chairman and Co-founder of We Are Family Foundation, said:

“We Are Family Foundation’s mission is to empower young people globally because we believe that problems that span generations require leadership that does too. I am delighted that Richard and Virgin Unite share this vision and I look forward to our collaboration.”

Taylor Wilson, The NewNow Founding Leader, said:

"Our world grows more complex by the day and needs a new generation of leadership to tackle the global and local challenges we face. By bringing together brave new thinkers and doers from diverse backgrounds and experiences, we can start to develop a new way of thinking about these challenges and their solutions."

Ciara Judge, Infectious Disease Epidemiologist, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and We Are Family Foundation Youth Ambassador, said:

“During my decade long journey as a youth changemaker it has been heartening to watch collaboration across generations start to get the recognition it deserves. As we celebrate 20 years of Virgin Unite, I’m excited to look back together on the movements Richard and Nile have been leading since their youth, and to look ahead to how we can all work together to tackle the world’s biggest problems.”

The event was hosted at Virgin Hotels Shoreditch, the newest property in the Virgin Hotels collection, attended by 150 of Virgin Unite’s closest partners to celebrate their collective efforts over the last 20 years, as well as their commitment to the next 20 years of challenging unacceptable issues and changing systems for good.

Virgin Unite knows it can’t change the world on its own, so it brings together entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and inspirational leaders to collaborate for good. This powerful global community is driving change and tackling the world’s toughest challenges facing people and the planet.

Over the last two decades, the foundation has worked with partners to help establish 20 not-for-profit collaborations, as well as working together with Virgin companies – across six core sectors and with over 40 Virgin branded businesses - collectively leveraging significant impact towards tackling the world’s toughest challenges.

Game-changing collaborations including The Elders, The NewNow, The B Team, Ocean Unite (now ORRAA), Carbon War Room (now merged with RMI), Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, Unite BVI, The Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship and Planetary Guardians.

ENDS

For further information contact:

Ben Murphy, Senior Marketing and Communications Manager

press@virgin.com

About Virgin Unite

Virgin Unite is the independent non-profit foundation of the Virgin Group and the Branson family – uniting people and entrepreneurial ideas to create opportunities for a better world.

Over the last two decades, Virgin Unite has helped establish game-changing collaborations including The Elders, The NewNow, The B Team, Ocean Unite (now ORRAA), Carbon War Room (now merged with RMI), Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, Unite BVI, The Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship and Planetary Guardians.

About We Are Family Foundation (WAFF)

WAFF was co-founded in 2002 by music icon, Nile Rodgers, and dedicated to the vision of a global family by creating programs that promote cultural diversity while nurturing and mentoring the vision, talents and ideas of young people who are positively changing the world. WAFF is largely based on Nile’s personal history of joining the Black Panther Party at the age of 16, leading to his belief that “young people must be authentically engaged in system change and decision-making processes at all levels.”

WAFF works with young people (ages 13-29) who are creatively trying to solve the world's biggest social issues, implementing programmes and building ecosystems that propel the impact of this generation’s social entrepreneurs, activists, innovators, creatives, and policy shapers.

Focus areas include civic and community engagement, education, equity, climate justice, criminal justice reform, technology and data, LGBTQIA+ rights, indigenous rights, accessibility and disability rights, and systems interrogation.

WAFF worked in partnership with The Possibilists and the University of Vienna to produce a global study on ‘Intergenerational Collaboration’, assessing the successes and failures within and beyond institutional systems. In the context of this study and WAFF’s broader mission of collaboration across different generations, it emerges as an indispensable tool for finding solutions to humanity’s most pressing problems. Because problems that span generations, require leadership that does too.

About Big Change

Big Change is unashamedly hopeful for a future in which all young people can thrive. As a catalyst for change, they back leaders from across generations who have early-stage ideas with the potential to shift systems and create lasting change for young people.

To date, Big Change has backed 63 projects, engaging over 8 million children and young people. With approximately £5M of direct funding, they’ve been able to leverage a further £60M; in other words, for every £1 given by Big Change, a further £12 has been unlocked. They’ve hosted over 2,000 Big Education Conversations bringing communities together and worked with 60 partner organisations from 26 countries, all of whom are contributing to Big Change’s global insight network and making the case for system change.

Founded in 2012 by a group of six friends including Holly and Sam Branson and Princess Beatrice, Big Change is committed to creating change, with and for all young people.

About One Young World and the NewNow

One Young World is the global community for young leaders. Its mission is to create a fair, sustainable future for all, by supporting the development of young leaders who are taking action to solve the world’s big challenges. It builds young leaders’ expertise, elevates their profiles and inspires them to increase their impact.

One Young World offers an unrivalled platform to affect change at a global level. With a network of more than 18,700+ Ambassadors, innovative initiatives led by the One Young World community have directly impacted 50.42 million people globally since 2010.

Virgin Unite and One Young World recently joined forces to launch the next stage of the NewNow programme, a scholarship for young leaders from the Global South taking innovative approaches to address the challenges facing their communities at a systemic level.

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