Yasin El Ashrafi grew up on an inner city estate and never met his father who was deported before he was born. Expelled from school at 15, from 16 to 24 Yasin’s “main mission in life was to get high.”
When Yasin’s girlfriend became pregnant it was a turning point and he deleted all the numbers of his drug-crowd. “Not having a dad it was always important that if I had kids I’m going to be the best dad I can be.”
When his son was born with severe cerebral palsy, Yasin realised he needed to be his own boss in order to have the flexibility to care for him. He decided to start his first community interest company and piloted his first music project, which led on to him attaining a teaching qualification, starting more projects teaching music and enterprise skills, and the opportunity to take on a professional recording studio.
Over the last 8 years, Yasin has offered free studio space to unemployed young people to explore their talents. He went on to launch a Community Interest Company, HQ Creative Arts Network, which supports vulnerable and unemployed adults, using music and spoken word creation, music studio recording, events, and performances to combat mental ill-health, addiction issues and low confidence.
The business, a social enterprise, generates its own income streams through commercial studio hire, mastering and artist development services, and gives participants a way of making an income and a sense of purpose, with their activities often leading to employment. Yasin was named Mentor of the Year by The Prince’s Trust in 2018.
A business loan and grant package from Key Fund, a responsible finance provider, helped Yasin set up an additional recording studio to double capacity for his commercial clients, charitable funded projects, and record label HQ Familia. It also secured the recruitment of a full-time general manager.
In 2020 Yasin was named Social Entrepreneur of the Year” category in the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards, funded by the Citi Foundation, an annual celebration of Britain’s microentrepreneurs that have accessed “responsible” business finance.
