Change Ahead

A one-stop digital hub providing vulnerable humans with the support they need.
www.changeahead.org.uk

“You can turn your life around. There are people out there who can help you.”

In a nutshell

Change Ahead is a Digital Hub that connects vulnerable humans with opportunities to get help and become empowered. They do this via their app and website, acting as a one-stop shop, anyone who is seeking support can be matched with the right service they need at that time.

The Founders

Sheena Patel and Mohsin Ravjani founded Change Ahead three years ago. Sheena has a background in corporate finance and a passion for helping people and Mohsin has been an entrepreneur his whole life but their shared mission is a subject particularly close to his heart as he has first-hand lived experience of homelessness. Both spurred by a desire to help others, they conceived Change Ahead, with a mission to help people around them, anyone feeling lonely, vulnerable and going through difficult challenges.

The Work

Their vision is to provide an end-to-end digital hub where people who are in a vulnerable situation can come and find the support services, the help that they need, through a range of areas including employment, housing, wellbeing or provision of everyday essentials.

At their core, Change Ahead’s support ecosystem is based on a structure similar to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs where you have physiological needs at bottom, like water, food and shelter, then safety needs such as employment, then love/belonging and moving up into logical needs. Their hub allows vulnerable humans, no matter what stage they’re in, a central place to address these needs and connect to the services they will benefit most from.

Why we love them

In speaking to both Sheena and Mohsin, their passion is real. It’s abundantly clear they’re hugely dedicated and relish the chance to make a tangible difference to enhance people’s lives.

Two great quotes from our chat with them epitomised Change Ahead for us:

“Our mission is to allow support systems available to everyone, it doesn’t matter where you are, who you are or how dark your days are, we want to show you there’s always someone who cares. Being able to sleep knowing you’ve done something for someone else without any gain or personal benefit is rewarding beyond any imagination.”

- Mohsin

“As a result of the work we’re doing and the partnerships we’re building in helping people, we’re able to see the impact it makes, whether that’s route to employment or access to accommodation, being able to put a smile on people’s faces or give people confidence back is incredibly rewarding.”

- Sheena

It’s an incredible social impact organisation fundamentally providing a solution to support a critical mission of reducing homelessness and empowering vulnerable people. What’s not to love about this organisation?

Support

The best part is, you can help. Change Ahead are actively looking for volunteers across three areas:

Mentors — These are frontline volunteers where you can actively play avail part in helping someone through their challenges at every stage of their journey. This could be assisting with finding someone housing, helping someone gain employment or providing the right services to help their mental wellbeing. Essentially someone to hold someone’s hand in their journey to recovery.

Advisors — These are volunteers with specific professional skills, you could be in a full-time role but have spare time (or currently searching for their next role and have time to support). The roles include marketing / technical developers / copywriters / videographers and designers all contributing their skills to help a variety of brand awareness initiatives for example creating social content, newsletters, podcasts and videos.

Digital ambassadors — Something you can easily get involved with. They’re looking for ambassadors to simply spread awareness of their mission. You could be sharing and liking social posts, commenting and tagging Change Ahead on social stories, sending them stories to share or spreading news of great support services you used or that are near you.

For more details check out the Change Ahead website or get in touch directly with Mohsin and Sheena: info@changeahead.org.uk