Rui Jorge Octavio
All social entrepreneurs want their business to improve the world and some have a personal reason for wanting change. Few have as strong a motivation as Rui Jorge Octavio, however.
In 2006, his friend - 15-year-old Kiyan Prince - was stabbed to death outside his school, the London Academy, in Barnet.
It was, he recalls, a time when Britain’s youth was getting a particularly hard time in the media and he felt somewhat as though the negative stories were just making the situation worse. “My friends and I thought the best way to empower young people and change things was to pursue positive pathways and recognise the good things they were doing,” he says.
This led to them to create NUTMEG, which stands for New Unique Talented Motivated Energetic Generation.
Six years later and NUTMEG is now running a fast expanding programme of workshops, events, festivals and life skills courses for young people in North London. The social enterprise has worked with everyone from charities to the MET Police and local schools, and, was shortlisted for the 2010 ‘Community Champions’ Spirit of London award.
Keeping the peace
In 2008 Rui and his two co-founders, Claudio Simao and Darwin Bernardo, put on their first event, Everyone Together (E2G), which saw 200 young people taking part in workshops and talent showcases. He invited community organisations, including Youth Connections and the Scout Association, to offer young people opportunities to get involved in positive activities. “We wanted them to get a piece of da peace,” explains Rui. “That’s our motto.”
Subsequent events brought in triple the number of people and, encouraged by the reaction, different community organisations began to ask NUTMEG to run workshops for them on personal development, bringing in speakers to share stories, organise debates and even host their own youth festivals.
As all the action was getting going, Rui was studying business management and accountancy at Brunel University in West London. It was hard to juggle NUTMEG and study, but he was determined to do both. “I didn’t want to give up my studies, but I felt I couldn’t postpone NUTMEG any more. It was sparked by the death of my friend and it felt urgent. I worked hard to keep both going” he says.
As the oldest of seven, Rui says he’s always been motivated to be a positive role model. This has meant pushing himself hard. When he went to university, he had a fear of public speaking. His response was to join the university entrepreneur society and force himself to overcome his anxiety. “Ever since then, I’ve deliberately exposed myself to different environments and put myself outside of my comfort zone,” he says.
Pay time
To date, NUTMEG has been funded largely by grants. It has received just under £10,000 from the Home Office for a three-year programme to tackle issues around knife and gun crime. Barnet Homes has also provided funding, and the Edgware Safer Neighbourhood Team has provided in-kind support, such as helping with security at events and providing sound systems.
After leaving university last year, Rui started working as a part-time youth volunteer advisor at the Volunteer Centre Barnet. Increasingly, though, he and his colleagues were looking to boost trading revenue from NUTMEG training and events, to allow themselves to draw a proper wage. In recent months, finances have allowed that, marking the maturity of the enterprise in many respects.
There’s a sense that, after two years working in the community, the NUTMEG team really believe that they can succeed. They’ve always had support from local people, and their young age has never been a problem. “People have opened up to us,” says Rui.
But perhaps the biggest boost to their self-belief was the nomination for a Spirit of London award in November 2010. “It wasn’t just about meeting the Prime Minister,” explains Rui, “it was about feeling we had the credibility to further influence others and for young people to take us seriously. I’m still young and exploring – I don’t know all the answers. But the award showed that we can lead by example. In the long term, we think this could be a national movement. We want to get out there and make a difference to as many people as we can,” says Rui.