The School of International Futures and Ignite Philanthropy designed Sprout as a next generation fellowship and movement for young leaders addressing childhood sexual violence. It was not created to tweak around the edges. Sprout uniquely reimagined how change happens by centring youth agency, survivor leadership, and cross sector collaboration holistically. Rooted in trauma informed practice and community care, it moved beyond siloed interventions to explore how power can be shared, grown, and held collectively. From September 2024 to April 2026, we ran two Sprout cohorts featuring a total of 35 young leaders (aged 18-35), with participants across Sub Saharan Africa and Europe. These leaders became our Sprout fellows, with the Sprout movement also engaging learning partners from across the sector.

The Learning Journey

Sprout was a living, responsive experience. A bespoke learning journey designed to support transformational change at different levels: 

• Personal (from silence to voice)
• Relational (from isolation to community) 
• Systemic (from urgency to emergence)

Through a combination of an in-person retreat, coaching, learning partnership and virtual community sessions, Sprout nurtured such change. It transformed power, brokering narratives within the sector, and empowering young leaders of change to reimagine the system.  Weaving together storytelling, futuring, systems thinking, and embodied practice, we delivered a holistic learning experience that activated the shift from doing to being. Sprouts were not given fixed interventions but claimed their own agency in the system, activating their own powerful journeys of reflection, purpose, and leadership.

“From my experience in other trainings and fellowships, there is often an unspoken expectation that you should already know something before you arrive that you need to come prepared or ‘qualified’ to be in the space. What made Sprout different was that it removed that pressure. It created an environment where you could simply show up as you are” – Kenneth Usoro, Sprout Fellow 2025-2026

Impact

Sprouts were supported financially, with each being able to access 3000-4000 USD in impact funding. This was not just about resourcing projects and movements, it was about challenging outdated practices of philanthropy, redistributing decision-making power, and modelling how funding can reflect trust and collaboration. Through the impact fund and held by Ignite, Sprouts have travelled to each other’s countries and organisations, built the Sprout global alliance movement, engaged local communities, participated in courses to advance their own skills, and taken time to invest in their own self-care – all vital elements in their leadership journeys. SPROUT shows the power of investing in the agency and imaginaries of young people.

What remains is a living legacy. A network of leaders, relationships, and practices that continue to shape the system.

“Young leaders are often over-structured and under-trusted. Programmes that allow space for reflection, adaptation, and personal growth, not just outputs, create deeper, more sustainable impact” – Olamilekan Olajubu, Sprout Fellow 2025-2026

What now

Following two cohorts, Sprout has come to a close as Ignite Philanthropy sunsets its operations.

The question is what comes next. 

How do we nurture this legacy and sustain this movement?

How do we continue to invest in young leaders and their vision for change?

How do we foster intergenerational community and connection?

How can we use Sprout to strengthen existing programmes and shift the system?

The seeds have been planted. These young leaders are already driving the legacy of Sprout forwards – work collaboratively to design and hold space for transformation across their communities. Will you help them grow?

“Change does not come from sameness. It comes from difference. Together, those pieces form something whole, something human, something hopeful.” – Destiny Ehi Asuelimen, Sprout Fellow 2025-2026