Khan's Deputy's "youth democracy charity" - that received $89.2K from the US Embassy

Part 7 of Eco Emergency

Have you heard of the charity “My Life My Say” (MLMS)?

Its former CEO is Mete Coban, London’s Deputy Mayor for the Environment.

In July Coban resigned from that role and became Director:

Not that you’d be able to tell from his statement five days earlier:

“Being a part of this organisation from the beginning, and leading it for the last eleven years, has been one of the most transformative and rewarding experiences of my life. We founded My Life My Say to give young people the confidence to stand up and be counted when important decisions are being made about their future, and what an impact we have had. The past decade has been truly remarkable… 

We set a benchmark for youth engagement, genuinely led by young people, for young people. While I may no longer be in the starting lineup at My Life My Say, I will be rooting hard for this incredible team and the work you do to champion young people’s voices and increase participation from some of the most marginalised communities.” 

MLMS - which is divided into a company and charitable wing - empowers a “generation to participate in democracy, by creating spaces for dialogue across communities and generations, and by providing young and socially excluded citizens with the tools to lead change within society.”

It has some famous supporters:

Tony Blair is such a fan of MLMS that he partnered with it for the recent Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) Future of Britain Conference 2024:

Impressive! Especially given who was in attendance.

Jon Sopel hosted the event:

Pat McFadden and Wes Streeting also joined the proceedings - just four days after Labour’s General Election victory:

Music star will.i.am was even there to discuss “the role of #AI in artistic creation”. Other tech attendees included former Indian minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar - to explain why everyone needs digital ID - and Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of Google Deep Mind. There were also discussions on Net Zero with a panel that included the founder of Octopus Energy Group.

What a great day out! And all thanks to a special partnership:

Coban (left) is a man of many talents and connections.

He, Khan and Miliband go way back:

In July he rose to towering Labour heights when he became Khan’s Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy (£148k per year). Before that he was Hackney’s Council’s Eco Man, plugging the borough’s £61 million investment in “climate action”.

At the time he wracked up 40,000 in air miles - hardly very environmentally-friendly - but he explained he was needed at the “highest levels of decision-making, including at the G20, United Nations and The White House”.

My Life My Say is certainly an important charity, as far as the US is concerned. The US Embassy in London gave it $89.2K in grants from 2020 to 2023:

The grants were to help the charity “promote democracy to a UK young audience that has traditionally been too hard to reach by mainstream institutions.”

It’s certainly had a lot of financial help to “promote democracy”.

£149,610 from Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust to “mobilise” young voters:

£150,000 from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation (which is also a funder of HOPE not hate Charitable Trust and Gendered Intelligence - and has received just under £1.4 million from British taxpayers)

The National Lottery Community Fund also gave it “£495,000 to continue its work empowering young leaders through ‘Democracy Cafés’”:

Campbell is a massive fan of democracy cafes, incidentally, as well as The Body Shop:

Lots of organisations and influencers really care about “youth democracy” it seems - promoting MLMS’s “GiveAnX” campaign:

Give an X is a “non-partisan” movement, apparently, even though a Labour Councillor - now Khan’s Deputy - runs the charity behind it:

It has two other founders behind it: the #iWill Movement and Shape History. The latter retweeted Amelia Dimoldenberg - “CEO of Chicken Shop Date” - promoting the Give an x campaign:

A very non-partisan individual:

Shape History clearly works with C40 Cities. Here’s it is listening to “updates on city climate resilience”. Wow, fascinating:

Last thing… Coban’s campaign was promoted by Outernet London:

Which Khan has promoted today:

Outernet and the Mayor of London are partners:

Outernet is run by Global (LBC, The News Agents) - hence the name OuternetGlobal.

Here you can see Global involved in promotions with Outernet.

And an exhibition that included Carol Vorderman (above on the far right), who has a show on LBC.

Vorderman is a big fan of US politics, incidentally:

Just like Coban. Congrats on that award!

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At the moment I have been in the thick of “net zero/ green research” - while maintaining Woke Waste at the same time. It’s all part of the same phenomenon (unknown forces in our democracy/ ideologies people didn’t vote for). I am trying to extricate all of this - but it’s a mammoth job, and essentially I need more paid subscriptions to keep going (although paid subscriptions have really been going up, so thank you so much!). I am keeping this content off paywall because I want as many people as possible to know about all this green stuff (lots more to come). But, without sounding like Oliver Twist, it means I take my eye off commercial work to give it my all - so am ever-more reliant on Substack moola. You will get bang for your buck in return. Thank you everyone for reading and supporting!

More of Eco Emergency (parts 1-6):