Second Corner started in the field — talking with 13–15 year olds across Southwark and Lambeth about the opportunities they feel are missing from their everyday lives. This is what we heard, and what we're building in response.
Employability shouldn't start at 16. For young people who want to complement their studies with a technical, hands-on approach, the years between 13 and 16 are the ones that quietly decide a lot. We meet them there.
Not every household can hand out pocket money or a small stipend for simple tasks. We help young people earn their own — safely, legally, and close to home — through age-appropriate work with vetted local businesses.
Mentors, boxing gyms, youth workers and coaches already exist in every neighbourhood — they're just not connected. Second Corner stitches the existing network together so a young person isn't passed from form to form, but from person to person.
Social value has become a tick-box exercise for too many businesses and procurement teams. We make it measurable: every pound funds a real young person, in a real postcode, doing real work — with the evidence to prove it.
Working with under-16s carries real responsibility. We'd rather over-explain than leave any room for doubt about who we are, what we do, and how a young person gets paid.
Second Corner is a project run by Empath CIC, a not-for-profit Community Interest Company based in Lambeth. We are not an employer and not a labour agency — we work as an intermediary between young people, vetted workplaces and the adults already supporting them.
Young people are paid through social value packages funded by businesses. Social value is a procurement requirement: when companies win large public contracts, they're obliged to give measurable benefit back to the local community. We turn that commitment into paid work, mentorship and safety for a real young person in a real postcode.
A typical package funds
Second Corner is a project run by Empath CIC, a not-for-profit Community Interest Company based in Lambeth that uses sport, mentoring, and community-based programmes to support young people’s wellbeing, skills, and sense of belonging. Meet the co-founders building it.
Founder of Champs Within and Co-Founder of Empath CIC, Sammy is a professional boxer who uses sport as a tool for mentoring, discipline, and emotional growth. Drawing on his own lived experience, he creates spaces where young people feel seen, supported, and inspired to reach their potential.
Founder of Ebrik and Co-Founder of Empath CIC, Ana brings a background in social impact, research, and creative community work. Her focus is on designing programmes that connect skills development, cultural identity, and social value, building bridges between creativity, wellbeing, and opportunity.
Testimonials from students, teachers, and coaches on what Empath CIC's work looks like in practice — from boxing sessions to creative projects in school.
Year 6 students at Merton Abbey Primary became filmmakers for a day, creating their own school video from a pupil's point of view. Hear from the students, Headteacher and Assistant Headteacher on what they learned and why it mattered.
Paid work involving under-16s is a sensitive area, and one that hasn't been solved well before. We're naming that risk out loud, and these are the concrete commitments we're building Second Corner around so it can never be perceived — or used — to take advantage of a young person.
We're building a small, independent safeguarding panel — including a children's social worker, a youth-law solicitor and an educator — with explicit audit rights over our placements, policies and finances. Names will be published once confirmed.
Apply, or suggest someone →Anonymous monthly check-ins for every young person on a placement, with aggregate results published openly. The fact that we actively invite criticism is itself part of the safeguard.
We publish a per-placement breakdown of every sponsored pound — how much goes to the young person, the mentor, vetting and safeguarding, and Empath overhead. No hidden cuts, no fine print.
Every placement starts with a plain-English one-pager signed by the young person and their guardian. They can withdraw at any point, no questions asked, no penalty — and the placement ends within 24 hours.
We run stipends through a regulated payroll provider so sponsors don't have to put a minor on their books — no PAYE setup, no employer NI (under-16s are exempt), no employment liability. The young person is paid directly and traceably; the sponsor gets one clean invoice and a full audit trail.
We say the risk out loud: paid work involving minors can be exploited. Our public ethics statement names exactly how we prevent that, and we welcome challenge from anyone who thinks we can do better.
Working with young people can't happen in isolation. It takes a multi-sided approach — combining efforts from every part of their world so no one carries it alone.
13–16 year olds ready to learn, earn and build skills outside the classroom — finding a second corner behind them.
Employers who benefit from supervised youth work and want to invest back into their high street by being part of a young person's second corner.
Companies and procurement teams turning their obligations into measurable local impact — funding second corners across the city.
The coaches, boxing clubs and youth orgs already doing the work — now connected as part of every young person's second corner.
The trusted everyday spaces that spot young people early and help connect them to a second corner.
Parents, carers and the trusted adults who know the young person best — the ones who can advise, encourage and help them find a second corner.
Pick the group that matches you for the answers that matter most.