Boys Lead Expands Global Boys Development Work to Peterborough County, UK

Boys Lead Foundation is expanding its global work in boys’ development to Peterborough County in the United Kingdom, bringing its focus on mentorship, structure, leadership and community into a local response to the challenges facing boys in the area.

The organisation says its approach begins with listening. Rather than applying the same solution everywhere, Boys Lead seeks to understand the realities boys are facing in each community and develop responses around those needs.

In Peterborough County, the focus includes knife crime, gang pressures and what the organisation describes as a deep need for belonging among boys and young men.

Through Boys Lead Peterborough County, the organisation is creating spaces where boys can be seen, heard, challenged and supported, with mentorship and brotherhood at the centre of its approach. The goal is to help boys develop a stronger sense of purpose and make positive choices about their futures.

The Peterborough chapter is being led locally by Boys Lead Charter Leader Babatunde Ashaye, whose commitment on the ground is helping translate the organisation’s broader vision into a community-based response for boys and families in the area.

The expansion is part of the wider work of Boys Lead Foundation, founded by social entrepreneur, author, educator and global boys-development advocate Owolabi Williams. The organisation focuses on the intentional development of boys and young men through mentoring, leadership, education, character formation, entrepreneurship, skills development and community engagement.

Through its programmes and initiatives, Boys Lead has reached more than 20,000 boys and young men across the United States, Canada, Nigeria, the United Kingdom and other communities internationally.

For Williams and Boys Lead, expanding into different cities is about recognising that while boys may face similar challenges, the realities surrounding them are not always the same.

“At Boys Lead, we believe every city carries its own boys’ crisis,” the organisation said. “When we open a chapter, we listen first. We identify what boys are facing on the ground, then we move in with real, practical solutions rooted in mentorship, structure, and community.”

The organisation’s growing presence in the UK adds another dimension to its international work as Boys Lead continues to build local leadership and partnerships around the development of boys and young men.

In Peterborough County, that work is focused on helping boys find something that can be just as important as keeping them away from negative influences: a sense of belonging, purpose and possibility.

For Boys Lead, the ambition is to help cities respond to their boys before crisis becomes their defining story.

“This is how cities change, one boy at a time.”