In Episode Six of Season Three of The emPOWER Breakfast Podcast, Founder and Host Athene Parker sits down with Stef Jones, copywriter, former Co-Founder and Creative Partner of Big Al’s Creative Emporium, and Founder of Onwards & Upwards, for a candid conversation about advertising, faith, finding purpose, prison reform and belonging.

Stef spent years using creativity to build brands. Today, he applies those same skills to building businesses that help people with convictions rebuild their lives.

Approaching fifty, Stef had many of the things he thought would make him happy: a successful agency, a family and financial security. Yet something was missing. He talks about questioning what he had been working towards, finding himself unexpectedly emotional and beginning a search that would change his relationship with faith, work and the people closest to him.

Having moved between atheism and agnosticism, Stef describes the experiences that led him towards Christianity, the impact on his identity, and the change with friends and colleagues.

That journey took him into volunteering at HMP Brixton, where he began mentoring men in business before their release.

Men were leaving prison wanting to build different lives, but finding employers unwilling to consider them, unstable circumstances and few opportunities. Stef recognised a problem that creative thinking and commercial enterprise could help address. Onwards & Upwards was born.Through XO Bikes and XO Barbers, the charity creates routes into training, qualifications and employment, with XO Clobber among the ventures being developed next. Around that work sits a wider understanding of what people need to move forward: stability, support, dignity, positive relationships and community.

His advertising background runs through it all. The branding, the stories behind the bikes and the connection between a product and the person who made it become ways to challenge assumptions and help the public see beyond a conviction.

Athene and Stef talk about:

• His upbringing, and route into advertising
• Copywriting and co-founding Big Al’s Creative Emporium
• Having a successful life but feeling something was missing
• Finding faith and questioning his identity
• Navigating personal change within his family life
• Volunteering at HMP Brixton
• The barriers facing people leaving prison
• Building Onwards & Upwards, XO Bikes and XO Barbers
• Using advertising, branding and storytelling to change perceptions
• Employment, rehabilitation and the importance of belonging
• Gang4Good and its mentoring “Triangle of Trust”
• Finding practical ways to contribute

It is a perspective that asks us to look more closely at the circumstances behind somebody’s story, and at what becomes possible when someone sees their potential.

Through music and memory, this conversation follows Stef’s journey from building an agency to finding a purpose that draws on everything he learnt along the way.

To find out how you could support the work as a FOXO, a Fan of XO, contact [email protected].

🎵 Listen to Stef’s Playlist

Track 1 – A Message to You Rudy – The Specials

Track 2 – The Drifter – Ray Pollard

Track 3 – Who You Say I Am – Hillsong

Track 4 – Peace u Need – Fred again. (original choice not available on spotify was Detroit Soul 'All My Life')

Track 5 – Holy Forever – Bethel Music, Jenn Johnson

Stef Jones, Onwards & Upwards, Onwards and Upwards, Big Al’s Creative Emporium, copywriter, copywriting, advertising, advertising industry, agency co-founder, creative leadership, career change, finding purpose, faith, Christianity, spiritual awakening, reinvention, identity, marriage, fatherhood, HMP Brixton, prison reform, prison rehabilitation, employment for people with convictions, social enterprise, XO Bikes, XO Barbers, XO Clobber, Gang4Good, Gang For Good, Triangle of Trust, mentoring, storytelling, branding, community, belonging, emPOWERMENt, The emPOWER Breakfast Podcast, Athene Parker Please Follow & Subscribe

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