Spotlight on: Josh Babarinde – from Dot Dot Dot guardian to our non-executive board director

In 2015, Josh signed up as a Dot Dot Dot guardian. Throughout his two year guardianship, he was able to focus on establishing and growing his award-winning social enterprise, Cracked It. In 2020, Josh’s passion for fighting for a fairer future for all led to his election as an Eastbourne councillor. In the same year, he re-joined us at Dot Dot Dot in a slightly different capacity. Discover more from Josh as he plots his journey from guardianship to joining our board of non-executive directors.

Back in 2015 when I was doing the Year Here development programme, I lived as a Dot Dot Dot property guardian. During this time I volunteered at a local youth centre where I was working with young people who were involved in crime or at risk of being involved in crime to develop employability skills. I also got stuck into some projects in the community. There was a local church, a community garden and I also developed a good relationship with the local housing association. All of these were great opportunities to get to know the community – something which I may never have had time to do had I had to work longer hours in order to pay expensive living costs in the private rental sector.

After finishing the Year Here programme, I carried on being a property guardian for another year and half. Living in a great location in London with low living costs meant that I was able to devote the time that my social enterprise venture needed to grow and thrive. Thanks to Dot Dot Dot and the time I was able to commit to fundraising, I’d saved up enough money to be able to pay myself a full salary running Cracked It, my award-winning social enterprise. Without a doubt, if I hadn’t been a guardian, I would not have been able to build and grow my social business supporting ex-offenders to move away from crime and into employment.

I respect and love Dot Dot Dot for the really important role it’s played in my life, career and aspirations. Becoming a non-executive director for the company in order to help others benefit from property guardianship was really exciting to me. I get invited to serve on various boards but what’s special about Dot Dot Dot is their values and integrity – I also felt it was really important for there to be a former guardian voice at board level. I’m glad to be able to contribute to continuing their great work so that more people are able to save money, perhaps to buy a house, have the resources they need to start their own business or simply benefit from living in a really great area.

Read more stories from our 10 great guardians who we’re highlighting as part of our tenth birthday celebrations.