Alvin campaigns for policy changes to address poverty. In 2015 he ran the First Job Opportunities programme. First Job Opportunities are jobs-with-training for people in poverty who have never had a job. The first major success was the use of a procurement model which states that for every £1m spent on public procurement, one first job opportunity is created. Now, contracts in total worth over £760m are implementing the model.
As a community organiser, Alvin led the Citizens’ Inquiry into the Tottenham Riots. This was the community-led response to the events that shocked England in the summer of 2011. This grassroots effort engaged 10,000 local people and led to jobs for young people and the suspension of section 60 stop and searches in the area.
Alvin advises governments and global corporations on leadership and social impact. He is an advisor to a €5 million research project that is examining the obstacles and opportunities affecting youth employment in Europe. He is currently advising the government of Trinidad and Tobago to support the establishment of its statutory National Youth Commission.
In 2014 he was awarded a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship to research how community leaders are addressing social exclusion across the US. Alvin has lectured at the University of Connecticut, has delivered keynote speeches in the House of Lords, and has debated in Cambridge Union. He has also appeared on CNN, BBC, Televisión Española, AFP, and Channel 4 to discuss politics and economics. He was selected to attend the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2016 in Davos.
Before completing his master’s degree in social policy at the LSE, Alvin ran soup kitchens and did research for the think-tank Demos. He has also worked for the social business Catch22 focused on crime, youth justice, and gangs.
Outside of work he has been boxing since he was 16 and is a former British Grand Champion of the Korean martial art Tang Soo Do and won bronze in the world competition.
