The Natural History Museum has hosted its share of grand occasions, but The Big Spark brought something different – an evening driven by intention. A room full of people who genuinely care about what it means to grow up in today’s world. Inner Spark has already reached nearly 250,000 young people through a programme built around five qualities often overlooked in mainstream education: Self-Awareness, Purpose, Accountability, Resilience and Kindness. Not buzzwords, but human tools – the foundations that shape how we show up in the world.
Throughout the night, guests spoke openly about the pressures facing young people; educators compared notes with business leaders; and three young voices, Jayden, Hebah and Hellena, took the stage to share something rare: unfiltered truth about the emotional realities of adolescence. Their stories cut through the usual metrics, creating a collective acknowledgment that the inner lives of young people matter – and that they deserve structured support, not platitudes.
At the centre of this movement is Anita Goyal, Co-Founder of Inner Spark and Chair of the Goyal Foundation. This first gala raised over £300,000, a milestone that will enable the organisation to reach more than 100,000 additional young people in the coming year, many of whom would never otherwise access free personal development workshops.
“For the first time, we’ll be able to expand into regions where teachers have been asking for our workshops but simply didn’t have the resources,” Anita explains. “We can train more facilitators, improve the digital tools that support students long after the workshops end, and build stronger partnerships with multi-academy trusts and local authorities.” In simple terms: this funding allows Inner Spark to say yes to far more young people who deserve support, confidence and hope.
Inner Spark is evolving not just in scale, but in its influence on how the UK understands youth wellbeing. “I see Inner Spark becoming a national movement, not just a school programme,” Anita says. What the organisation is demonstrating is that wellbeing is not a “nice-to-have” – it’s a foundation for lifelong resilience, mental strength and personal agency. In time, Inner Spark hopes to help shape policy conversations, working alongside government and education leaders to shift how schools support emotional development.
Ultimately, the ambition is not only to reach a million young minds, but to help the UK recognise that mindset is a skill – and when young people are equipped with self-awareness, purpose, accountability, resilience and kindness, everything else follows: attainment, behaviour, confidence, belonging.
Nearly 250,000 young people have already been reached across the Goyal Foundation’s wider initiatives, and Anita carries with her the stories behind the numbers. “A young girl came up to me after a workshop and quietly said, ‘Today is the first time I’ve ever felt proud of myself.’ She’d been struggling with confidence, barely speaking in class, feeling invisible. But that day, something shifted when she did a board break with me – she saw her own strengths clearly for the first time.
“Another young boy once told us, ‘I didn’t think people like me could dream big.’ Hearing that, and then watching him set goals with excitement, reminded me why Inner Spark exists. It’s those small, deeply human moments that stay with me. Behind every number is a young person who wants to feel seen, capable and hopeful – and when the spark ignites inside them, it’s powerful.”
