Alumnus Duncan Ross has worked to shift the model of helping street-connected children.
When non-profits work with street and homeless youth, they often focus on helping them return home and enrolling them in school. This may ultimately be the goal but, first, says alumnus Duncan Ross, it is essential to nurture a relationship that’s built on trust. Then, social workers and youth can discuss together whether education and reintegration into the family make sense for that particular child at that particular time.
“This takes patience and an approach that recognizes and respects the young person as an expert in their own lives and an agent of their own change,” Ross says. “If they don’t make a decision to change things themselves, then lasting positive change is far less likely to happen.”
As co-founder of StreetInvest, a UK-based non-profit that helps street children, or homeless youth, Ross has worked for over fifteen years to improve the lives of the tens of millions of street-connected children and teens around the world. In 2022, StreetInvest merged into the Consortium for Street Children, the sector’s largest global alliance of over 180 front-line organizations supporting street children in more than 135 countries.
“More children have been coming to the street as a result of the economic impact of Covid, too,” adds Ross, who retired from J.P. Morgan in 2005 as a managing director in the firm’s equities business in Singapore.
From local to global
Ross joined J.P. Morgan in 1994 by way of a merger. Previously, he’d worked at merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co. in London and Hong Kong. Chase acquired Fleming before it merged with J.P. Morgan.
Before Fleming, Ross had been at a development finance bank promoting private sector development in developing Asia. His first job out of university, where he majored in development economics, was working as a painter and decorator of council houses in South Wales which, he says, gave an interesting early insight into the workings of the private and public sector.
At J.P. Morgan, Ross was responsible for global client relationship management. “I went from a regional organization to a global one,” he says. “The challenge was to provide global service to global clients. That was exciting and challenging, and not irrelevant to what I’ve done since.” He served clients at J.P. Morgan for eleven years.
Transferrable skills
Ross first worked with street and homeless youth the year after he retired from the firm. He accepted a job as assistant fundraiser with the non-profit Street Child Africa.
One of the first homeless youth he met, Robbie, made a huge impression on him. The 13-year-old had lived on the streets in Zambia for several months, but, working with the street social workers, he had decided he needed to leave the street, however challenging the circumstances that had led him there in the first place.
Robbie was the same age and build as one of Ross’ three sons. The two boys even had the same Manchester United shirt. “I thought, what’s the difference between him and my son?” Ross says. “My son has a network of support, people he can trust and believe in and that believe in him, and Robbie just didn’t have that. That was the least we should offer to Robbie, just like we would for our own children. I then looked past Robbie, and behind him I could see a huge line of other Robbies without that support.”
Ross co-founded StreetInvest in 2008, and with it he’s helped to shift the model of non-profits supporting street and homeless youth from one that is restricted to a local, specialized approach, to one that has access to a global, more comprehensive view, linked by common principles and values and offered practical advocacy, research and training support.
“Organizations working with street children tend to be very small and very local and that’s a challenge for the sector,” he says. “Somebody has to think, how can you work for all children? It’s an investment in these young people.”
StreetInvest’s strategy has been to build a global alliance of trained and trustworthy adults working with street children where local experts are empowered by a common set of global principles. “I learned at J.P. Morgan that could be done,” he says, “and we should strive for it.”
Other lessons learned at J.P. Morgan have helped him over the years, too, he says, in his work with youth. For example, navigating a variety of cultures and coming to appreciate and embrace scale. His expertise in fundraising—understanding clients’ needs and putting together a strategy and pitch—has also been an essential transferrable skill.
Empowering youth
Ross notes that StreetInvest has trained some 10,000 people helping street children, including social workers, police, community members, and children themselves. The recent merger into the Consortium for Street Children, offers the opportunity to expand that reach globally.
Ross says how you perceive children will impact how you support them and it’s critical to look at the positive side of street children. “That better facilitates them being positive, productive members of society,” he says. “It’s not a welfare approach or a criminalization approach. It’s an empowerment approach.”
StreetInvest and the Consortium were integral in advocating for the United Nations to issue guidance applicable to all countries on creating long-term strategies for street children. In 2017, the U.N. issued the General Comment No.21 on children in street situations, the first time the rights of street children have been explicitly recognized.
Ross retired from the non-profit in 2022, though he continues to volunteer. He prioritizes spending time with his wife, three sons and three daughters, their partners and his three granddaughters.
To fellow alumni, Ross says, “Remember that your expertise and experience are transferable, and can be incredibly valuable to small charitable organizations, many of which are under-resourced. You can do this part-time alongside your existing job, or full-time like I did.” He does add, though, that, “If you work with a non-profit, bring your skills, but also listen to and learn from the experts. These young lives are complex and the children are among the most vulnerable”.
“If you do. It is fantastically rewarding,” he says. “On the street, you have to be strong and brave. Street Children are the most resourceful, resilient and responsive young people I have ever had the honor of meeting. They are just truly inspiring.”
