EPIC at the YMCA

On 28th January 2025, EPIC had the privilege of attending Stoke’s YMCA for the first time, to talk to young residents who had shown a keen interest in becoming an entrepreneur in business.

We were met with a room full of enthusiastic 18–25-year-olds, who were keen to learn more about how to start and grow their own business with our support, educating, funding and mentoring. Three of the young people have already started their own business and were looking for advice and support to progress, the rest of the YMCA group have brilliant ideas and want help starting up.

Throughout the EPIC Build a Business Workshop, we were blown away by all the young people’s enthusiasm and focus. The YMCA offer a lot of opportunities for their residencies, and are currently extending to accommodate more sports activities and housing, but it was clearly voiced that EPIC was offering a new opportunity to engage in.

At EPIC, we had a misconception that all young people use social media, however, our day at the YMCA taught us that this is not always the case, which highlighted to us the importance of in-person visits to organisations like the YMCA and made us re-think how EPIC can reach out to budding young entrepreneurs in other ways, so people who have faced adversity in life, can access these opportunities.

The young people of YMCA businesses included cakes, clothing, algae, photography and tech-repairs.

EPIC is a CIC and supports 16-25year olds, who have faced adversity, such as care leavers, refugees and neurodivergent, to start up and/or grow their own businesses. We offer a comprehensive business programme, mentoring, funding, networking and so much more.

Thank you to YMCA Stoke for having us and we look forward to our next visit soon!