We’re pleased to share Breadwinners’ 2026 Impact Report, bringing together the stories, experiences and learning behind our work supporting young refugees and people seeking asylum.

This year, we wanted the launch to be a chance to learn together. In partnership with Earlybird, we hosted From Impact to Action, an online event bringing our community together to reflect on what is working, where we can improve, and how we can strengthen pathways into employment.

Bringing different perspectives together

We welcomed funders, charity and community partners, corporate organisations, international NGOs, young people, mentors and volunteers. Having so many different perspectives in the room made for a rich and open conversation.

We heard directly from young people alongside the organisations and partners supporting their journeys. Together, we shared experiences, challenged assumptions, and explored what it takes to create better opportunities for employment and inclusion.

Alongside sharing our own learning, we wanted to hear from others: what they are seeing in their work, the challenges they face, and where we could work together.

Our key learnings

Sharing our impact also means being open about what we have learned along the way. Three lessons stand out for us:

Keep your Theory of Change simple and stay focused on it. A clear, straightforward Theory of Change helps connect your activities with the difference you want to make. It also keeps impact measurement focused on the questions that matter most.
Involve the people you support in gathering honest feedback. Through our Participatory Action Research, young refugees helped shape how we gathered information and connected directly with our community to hear their experiences. This brought a double benefit: paid work for young people and research informed by their perspectives, helping us gather more honest, meaningful feedback.
Be clear about what you will do differently. This is perhaps the most important lesson, and something that can be missing from impact reports. Reporting results is only part of the work. We also need to explain what the feedback will change: what we will improve, what we will rethink, and how we will put the learning into action.

Explore From Impact to Action — Breadwinners × Earlybird.

Three conversations about what comes next

The event created space for discussion around three key topics:

Employment in Action: What helps young refugees move into work, and how can employers and organisations turn partnerships into meaningful employment opportunities?
Sector Solidarity and Collaboration: What challenges are we facing in increasingly unsettling times, and how can we work together more effectively?
AI and Impact with Earlybird: How could AI support better listening, learning and impact measurement, and how should we use it responsibly?

These conversations brought lived experience together with perspectives from programme delivery, funding, employment and technology. The ideas and reflections shared will continue to inform our work as we develop our programmes and partnerships.

Learning with young people

Our Impact Report sits alongside our ongoing Participatory Action Research (PAR) journey. Through this work, young refugees help us understand their experiences and shape how Breadwinners develops.

Listening creates a responsibility to act. The questions young people raise, and the changes they want to see, help us identify where support is making a difference and where more is needed.

We’re sharing our research so that others can explore the learning and consider how participatory approaches could inform their own work:

Participatory Action Research 2026: What We Learned Together — Read the 2026 blog.
Participatory Action Research 2025: High-Level Summary — Read the 2025 blog.
PAR 2023–24: Nitty-Gritty Details — Explore the 2024 findings.
How to Conduct Participatory Action Research — Read our practical guide.

Keep the conversation going

Thank you to everyone who registered, joined us and contributed their time, experience and ideas, and to Earlybird for helping us create this space for shared learning.

Whether you are a funder, employer, charity partner, mentor or volunteer, we hope these resources offer useful insights and open up further conversations about supporting young refugees.

Read our 2026 Impact Report, explore the research, and keep sharing your questions and perspectives with us. We look forward to continuing to learn and build partnerships together.