Our next chapter: Rosie Ferguson OBE Joins UK Youth as CEO

UK Youth is thrilled to welcome Rosie Ferguson OBE to lead the organisation into an exciting new chapter for young people and the youth sector. Her leadership brings energy, vision, and a deep commitment to young people, and the organisation looks forward to working with her to create lasting impact across the youth sector.

With over 15 years of senior leadership experience in the charity and youth sectors, Rosie has previously served as CEO of London Youth, Gingerbread, and The House of St Barnabas, as well as former Chair of ACEVO. She also served as a trustee of UK Youth from 2012 to 2015. Her contributions to the sector were recently recognised with an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours for services to Charity and Charity Governance.

Rosie has a strong commitment to youth work, equity, and impact, with extensive experience in organisational transformation, championing youth voice, and building major partnerships. Her appointment marks an exciting new chapter for UK Youth as it continues to strengthen the youth sector and champion the power of youth work.

A word from Rosie

“I’m thrilled to be joining UK Youth at such an exciting time and can’t wait to meet as many partners, network members and supporters over the coming months.

My first priority is to work with our Board and Senior Leadership Team to develop our strategy and focus for the next phase of our organisational journey, and to ensure this is informed by robust evidence and the insight of our network and wider community, as well as by the needs and passions of young people.

We are eagerly anticipating the launch of the National Youth Strategy in Autumn 2025, which will guide our work in ensuring every young person has access to opportunity, support, and inspiration. UK Youth has played a pivotal role in supporting the youth consultation process for the strategy, ensuring that young people’s voices are heard at the heart of national policymaking. We believe the youth sector has a huge contribution to make in successfully delivering the ambitions of the strategy, and we are committed to working with partners across the country to make this vision a reality.

In the meantime, there is a lot happening at UK Youth and across our network…

• This October, we’re launching the Joined Up Institute in Leicester — a dynamic new pilot designed to bring together local professionals and volunteers who work with young people. Born out of the insights and feedback from last year’s Joined Up Summit, it aims to bridge the gaps across youth-facing services, foster collaboration, and ultimately improve outcomes for young people in the community. This pilot has real potential to become a blueprint for community-driven change.
• We are also preparing to roll out the Active Futures programme, a collaborative initiative in partnership with Sport England and The Young Foundation. This programme focuses on developing young people’s physical literacy by uniting the youth, sport, and outdoor education sectors around shared leadership, innovation, and a collective vision. Active Futures is a powerful example of what can happen when we strengthen our networks, share what works, and keep young people’s voices at the centre of programme design.

These initiatives demonstrate UK Youth’s commitment to strengthening networks, sharing best practice, and putting young people at the heart of everything we do.

As well as championing new initiatives though, I also want to celebrate and call out the great youth work happening year-in, year-out, night and day, in centres and on the streets, up and down the UK, supporting young people to be the best they can be without fanfare.”