Poku Osei

Babbasa is now a Queen’s Award Winning enterprise, which has supported over 2,200 young people to date. It has 13 paid staff, 124 active mentors and 167 partner agencies, and provides young people often disadvantaged by their race, education or social status with access to career-oriented employment, education, and training opportunities in Bristol. Osei has set up a consultancy arm to Babbasa to make it one of the few social enterprises in the UK that is not grant reliant. The consultancy sells services that enable businesses to improve inclusion for ethnically diverse people at the workplace. These include training, policy and strategy advisory and project commissions.

Osei has also been a member of the West of England Regional Recovery Task Force: Established by the Prime Minister, Poku is a part of the task force which will support the recovery and renewal of the West of England’s economy following the significant and far reaching impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He has been a board member of the Quartet Foundation, Bristol City Council City Funds and One Bristol. Osei sits on these boards to ensure that funding criteria are objective and grant awards are evenly distributed to impact marginalised and ethnic minority communities. He is the co-founder of The Black Professionals Network. The BPN was founded to help ethnic minority professionals in the UK better connect, represent their chosen career profession and become role models for younger generations.

Image credit: Bhagesh Sachania Photography