Last year, we commissioned a storyteller to work with 10 Pathways Fund partners to produce content for the sector in their own word. Part of this content is a four-part thematic essay series for the sector, capturing the key themes that came up from partners. This blog is part of the series, please read the other blogs here.
For many of the Pathways Fund grant partners, the pressure to lead change while managing studies, work, families, ill health or caregiving had not been sustainable, and the risk of burnout never felt far away. Some were leading campaigns while still in school. Others were navigating severe health conditions.
The emotional labour of being ‘lived experience’ added an extra layer of intensity to already demanding roles. The Pathways Fund didn’t just recognise that reality — it responded to it directly with a more holistic funding offering, which partners praised time and time again.
Blagrave’s Wellbeing Grant was cited as one of the most meaningful forms of support across the cohort. It helped groups plan collective rest, fund personal therapy or recovery time, and embed a deeper culture of care.
“The Wellbeing Grant has allowed us to support the well-being of our staff properly — and that’s essential, because the work is stressful. Well-being has to be at the forefront of everything. If people don’t look after themselves, they can’t look after the work. The Pathways Fund has helped us take that seriously, and we’re super grateful for it.” — Treasure, Motivez
Moments of burnout weren’t always predictable or avoidable. Several partners reflected on the emotional toll of leading from lived experience, often while pioneering new approaches in challenging environments and figuring out their own limits in real time.
“The women’s prison I worked in recently was the hardest one I’ve ever done — because I shared some of the same experiences as the women there, and it hit different. So, being able to take a day afterwards, to access the well-being grant and do something for myself, that was everything.” — Nadine, Young Justice Advisors
Blagrave’s support offering felt especially crucial for the younger leaders within the cohort. Many were still in education, juggling activism with coursework, internships, part-time jobs, and struggling with increasing living costs.
“With the Wellbeing Grant in particular, just having the opportunity to do things I wouldn’t normally do because I couldn’t afford it, either financially or time-wise, really made a difference. Being able to access resources for myself that I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise genuinely impacted the work I could do. I was in a better place, so I could actually do more.” — Beau, Choked Up
“I think the Wellbeing Grant really makes you pause and think carefully about what you need and that’s important. Especially with the kind of work we’re doing, and having a degree to do at the same time, being able to have that downtime is super important.” — Ava, Not A Trend
Across the board, partners described Blagrave’s relationship-based approach as a key source of stability. Quarterly check-ins with the Youth Led Change Manager felt less like funder monitoring, and more like mentorship, supporting not just the work, but the people behind it.
“The catch-ups I have with Blagrave’s Youth Led Change Manager really help me think through a lot of the work we’re doing and some of the issues I might be facing individually within that. They’ve helped me process things and figure out the best way to approach challenges. Honestly, the whole support package has been amazing.” — Treasure, Motivez
“It’s a very human approach. Being able to sit and be open and honest with Blagrave’s Youth Led Change Manager about what’s happened, how I’m feeling, why something isn’t going to work. That’s made a big difference. I’ve shared things with him that I haven’t shared with other funders, for lots of reasons. I think part of it is that Blagrave’s Youth Led Change Manager’s also a young person and he gets it in a way that others don’t.” — Nadine, Young Justice Advisors
External research confirms the heightened vulnerability among young changemakers. According to Mental Health UK’s 2025 Burnout Report, over one in three UK adults reported experiencing high or extreme stress ‘always’ or ‘often’ in the past year — but 18–24-year-olds were the most likely to need time off work due to poor mental health caused by stress. They were also the least likely to feel comfortable opening up to a manager about it, with comfort levels dropping from 75% to just 56% in the past year.
In this context, the support Blagrave offered had to be more than financial. It had to be human and honour the climate that young people are working within. The cohort wholeheartedly agreed.
“If you don’t have the means to support yourself or the people you’re working with, the internal workings of a campaign or organisation will just crumble. All the effort that’s gone into supporting the work can end up being in vain if the well-being of the campaigners isn’t taken seriously. Just making sure that the people doing the work are okay, in relation to everything else going on in the world. That’s really, really important.” — Beau, Choked Up
Even small moments for rest and well-being had big effects on partners. The chance to fund collective care like retreats, reflection time, or creative well-being, allowed teams to reconnect not just with each other, but with the purpose behind their work.
“The Wellbeing Grant made a huge difference. It meant we could have our first in-person well-being retreat. That was the first time we truly came together as a collective, and it helped us grow not only in connection but also in strategy. We talked a lot about what each of us needs to keep going as individuals, and how we can work better together. It helped us understand each other’s ways of working, and that’s been really important.” — Olamide, Halo Collective
Burnout will always be a risk in youth-led change. But it shouldn’t be inevitable. By making care central and not conditional, the Pathways Fund helped groups stay in the work, grow in it, and return to it with more strength, not less.