Refugee Youth Service

What Refugee Youth Service does

Refugee Youth Service (RYS) is a UK-registered Community Interest Company (company number 14555927) that has provided direct services to unaccompanied refugee and displaced children since being founded in 2015 in the Calais "Jungle" camp in northern France. Over the subsequent decade the organisation operated field programmes in France, Italy, Greece and the UK, delivering safe spaces, child protection casework, access-to-rights support, non-formal education, integration assistance and capacity-building for frontline workers. Its core training product, "Journey with an Unaccompanied Child," has been used to upskill roughly 1,000 practitioners, and its UK arm launched the "No Children in Hotels Project" in April 2023 to advocate against hotel accommodation of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. Since 2016 RYS states it has supported more than 10,000 displaced children.

RYS runs as a grant-funded non-profit with no commercial revenue model. Funding has come primarily from charitable trusts and donations, with the Blagrave Trust (January 2023 grant) and Prism the Gift Fund cited as named institutional supporters. The operating model relies on a small core team of approximately six employees supplemented by freelance trainers and a board of directors; RYS spun out Velos Youth for its Greece operations in 2017, and Velos transitioned to full operational independence at the end of 2024. The organisation has no proprietary technology platform; its principal codified asset is its training curriculum, which in July 2026 was productised into the RYS Learning Hub to extend reach to remote frontline workers globally.

In summer 2026 RYS will cease operations, citing the inability to secure replacement multi-year grant funding. The closure is positioned as a managed wind-down rather than an insolvency event, with the Learning Hub intended to carry forward the organisation's training IP as a legacy asset. The trajectory is therefore one of contraction to termination, with the Learning Hub representing a final attempt to monetise institutional knowledge in a sustainable form.

Name

Refugee Youth Service

Legal name

Refugee Youth Service UK CIC

Website

https://refugeeyouthservice.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Refugee Youth Service is a UK-registered non-profit that has delivered child protection, safe spaces, education and frontline-worker training to unaccompanied refugee children in France, Italy, Greece and the UK since 2015, supported through charitable grants and announced for closure in summer 2026.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Humanitarian Youth Services

NAICS

Child and Youth Services (62411), Child and Youth Services (624110), Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Refugee & Immigrant Support Services (BPAGAEAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Integration & Inclusion Services (Housing, Education, Employment) (BPADAHAI), Refugee, IDP & Migration Humanitarian Assistance (BPAGAAAH), Protection Services (GBV, Child Protection, Safeguarding) (BPADAHAF)

Keywords

• Refugee youth support
• Unaccompanied children services
• Humanitarian child protection
• Frontline practitioner training
• Community-based integration support

Headquarters

HQ city

Not specified

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Grant funding and donations: RYS operates as a charitable organisation funded primarily through grants from trusts and foundations (e.g., Blagrave Trust) and public donations. The organisation is closing due to insufficient funding.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Refugee Youth Service delivered direct humanitarian services to displaced unaccompanied children and young people across France, Italy, Greece, and the UK, organised around five pillars: child protection, access to rights, education and life skills, integration, and capacity building. Its named standalone offerings include the Journey with an Unaccompanied Child practitioner training, the No Children in Hotels Project in the UK, and the RYS Learning Hub online resource platform.

Product overview

Refugee Youth Service (RYS) was a nonprofit organization (registered CIC) that provided services to displaced and unaccompanied children and young people through five foundational pillars: Child Protection, Access to Rights, Education and Life Skills, Integration, and Capacity Building & Raising Awareness. The organization operated several programs including the 'Journey with an Unaccompanied Child' training program for frontline workers, the 'No Children in Hotels Project' in the UK, and the 'Learning Hub' - an online resource platform containing Insights, Practice Guides, and Tools. RYS was founded in 2015 in Calais, France (the 'Jungle' camp) and worked in France, Italy, Greece, and the UK before announcing closure in summer 2026 due to funding constraints.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Journey with an Unaccompanied Child Training A training program for practitioners and frontline workers that provides an understanding of what it means to be an unaccompanied child, covering their journeys, common experiences, and how these shape their needs and behaviors. Delivered online and in-person for durations of 2–5 hours, free to attend.
• No Children in Hotels Project A UK-based project helping age-disputed asylum-seeking children leave adult hotel accommodation and enter appropriate care systems. Provides welfare-based support, access to information and rights, wellbeing monitoring, peer-to-peer support, and advocacy.
• RYS Learning Hub An online repository of practical learning, guidance, and tools drawn from a decade of frontline experience. Contains Insights, Practice Guides, and Tools for humanitarian, charity, community, and caring work professionals.
• Velos Youth (formerly RYS Greece) A safe space and social service for displaced unaccompanied young people in Athens, Greece, founded by RYS in 2017. Provided access to legal, social, and psychological support, holistic care, and supported accommodation. Became fully locally led and independent of RYS at the end of 2024.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 10,000 displaced children and young people supported across four countries since 2016
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Velos YouthcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerVelos Youth was founded by RYS in Athens, Greece in 2017. RYS nurtured this local organisation to eventually become entirely locally led and independent of RYS. The journey to full independence was completed at the end of 2024. Velos Youth continues to support unaccompanied young people in Athens independently.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• Refugee Action: UK charity supporting refugees and asylum seekers through advice, integration, and advocacy programs. Comparable to RYS in integration support services, asylum-seeker focus, and UK-based grant-funded operating model, though at a much larger organizational scale.
• Refugee Council: Largest UK charity working with refugees and asylum seekers, providing advice, advocacy, and frontline support across a wide portfolio. Comparable to RYS in target population (asylum-seeking children and adults) and policy-advocacy orientation, but operates at substantially larger scale across the UK.
• British Red Cross: Major UK humanitarian organization providing refugee support, family reunion, and capacity-building programs. Comparable to RYS in working with asylum-seeking and refugee populations in the UK and in offering volunteer training pathways (Massi, an RYS freelance trainer, also volunteers for British Red Cross).
• UNICEF UK: Global child-rights organization with a UK office delivering advocacy and programs for children affected by displacement, conflict, and poverty. Comparable to RYS in child-protection focus and unaccompanied-children advocacy, with a board member (Bhargabi) having prior UN humanitarian experience.
• Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) / Médecins du Monde: Major humanitarian medical NGOs operating across Calais, Greece, and other migration routes to deliver frontline services and advocacy. Comparable to RYS in operating across the same migration corridors (Calais, Greek islands, Italy), serving displaced populations, and combining direct service with advocacy on migration policy.

Direct peers

• Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) UK: Faith-based organization accompanying refugees in the UK with destitution support, integration, and advocacy. Comparable to RYS in accompaniment-based model, focus on asylum-seeking populations including vulnerable groups, and practitioner/community capacity-building work.
• Help Refugees (Choose Love): UK-based charity founded in 2015 in response to the Calais Jungle, providing direct aid and support to refugees across northern France and beyond. Directly comparable to RYS in founding context, geographic focus (Calais), target population (displaced people on the move), and grant/donation revenue model.
• Calais Migrant Solidarity: Grassroots volunteer-led organization providing direct aid to displaced people in and around Calais since the Jungle era. Directly comparable to RYS in Calais base, volunteer-driven operating model, and target population, though RYS specialized specifically in unaccompanied children.
• Safe Passage (project of Citizens UK): UK-based charity helping refugees access safe legal routes to family reunion, particularly child refugees in Europe (including Calais and Greece). Directly comparable to RYS in focus on unaccompanied children, legal access-to-rights work, and UK-Greece-France geographic footprint.

Emerging players

• SolidariTee: UK student-led charity funding legal aid for refugees and raising awareness on displacement. Comparable to RYS in youth-engagement orientation and refugee-rights advocacy; a board member of RYS (Rhia) previously worked at SolidariTee, evidencing overlapping networks.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/refugeeyouthservice
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/refugee-youth-service

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Refugee Youth Service