London 2012 Olympics/ Empowering Young People

london 2012 olympics/empowering young people to do the thing they love

Helen was commissioned by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and its Legacy Trust programme to find a way that young people across the UK could be part of the London 2012 Olympic Games. 

Helen brought together thousands of young people across the UK with strategists, creatives and researchers including Caroline Pay (Joint Chief Creative Officer, Grey), Yusuf Chuku (Chief Strategy Officer, North America at Y&R), Andrew Stirk (currently Head of Planning, Facebook), Iain Tait (ECD, Wieden and Kennedy), Jez Paxman (Creative Strategy Director, Live Union) and Jenny Owen (CEO, Ruby Pseudo.) 

Helen founded and became Executive Director of somewhereto_ after 18 months of in-depth development. At the core was the reality that young people across the UK come up against barriers again and again when trying to find space to do the things they love. Rather than creating an Olympic project young people signed up for, we needed to give young people the power of the Olympic brand to knock down doors and open up opportunities. 

Somewhereto_ empowered young people to hunt down spaces to do the things they love - a rooftop to dance on, a football pitch for a tournament, a spare garden shed to keep pigeons. The Olympic brand gave them the credibility, confidence and authority to talk equally with the people who managed spaces and get places opened up in the name of London 2012. 

After London 2012 the project went on to be delivered by Channel 4 and Livity with Big Lottery Funding, empowering thousands of young people to use the power of London 2012 in their communities. 

All images courtesy of Finn Taylor/DMB Represents.

Full Project development and delivery

• Strategic oversight of project

• Overall project management, planning and delivery leadership

• Insight and stakeholder consultation

• Photography and film commissions

• Brand development

• Budget and fundraising

• Community and youth outreach

• Project delivery

• Full communications

  • Website

  • Social media

  • Press and PR

  • Marketing collateral

  • Experiential and events

• Evaluation

• Running tender process beyond 2012