Breakthrough Social Enterprise

Marketing Lead

3T Collective CIC

Founding Community Member

Quick Fox Labs

Digital Marketing Account Executive

Freelance Copywriter

Flickto

Senior Marketing Associate

Marketing Associate

Prison To Purpose | I Help Brands Rise Above The Noise

It's not easy to keep your mission alive.

You have to balance impact and revenue. You try and get donations but only a few people know who you are and what you do. Your mission is admirable but you don't know how to spread it with the world. 

I can imagine how frustrating this gets.

But trust me when I say this, there's still hope.

I've been telling my story for the last 9 months and have seen how powerful it can be. 
Business opportunities, speaking engagements and podcasts. All from sharing my journey.

Guess what. You can do the same and get even better results.

I know you want your mission to be soaked up from all corners of the world.
But that won't happen without telling an effective story.

Let me give you a hand. And together we'll bring your mission to the masses.

Drop me a dm. Let's see if we fit.

Kaidon Adams

Prison to Purpose | Justice Partnerships @ Beam

I went from medical school to prison. And from prison to leading a global social enterprise where I help empower overlooked communities with the skills to thrive in a tech-first world.

I care about human-first leadership, compassion without saviourism, and building things that last.

My journey shaped how I see the world and why I run Breakthrough. We deliver AI and digital skills to people on the margins: those written off by systems not built for them. Since taking over in late 2023, we’ve grown from a struggling social enterprise into a global initiative, partnering with the UN, IBM, and justice systems to train over 700 people across 40+ countries.

My focus is on AI diffusion — getting emerging tech into the hands of those who need it most. I’ve helped crypto startups raise millions, advised policymakers, and developed a curriculum delivered everywhere from UK prisons to East Africa.

If anything here resonates, feel free to reach out.

Sobanan N.

Bringing together global majority communities to understand, develop, deploy and diffuse ethical AI technologies is a fundamental part of my personal and organisational mission 

It's an honour to join the senior leadership team at Black AI Futures with Hameed Adigun, Giulia Selene Remondino, Tanya Samuel, Viv Ahmun (He/Him) and Alicia Richardson 

Here's to continuing the brilliant work behind Black AI Futures to build positive AI futures for global majority communities 🌍 

I’m happy to share that I’m starting as Evidencing Lead at Black AI Futures!

https://lnkd.in/eheEsx3q

Sobanan Narenthiran

From prison to global impact, I help the forgotten thrive in the future economy and write on justice, tech & transformation.

Five months ago, we welcomed a 55-year-old woman into our AI bootcamp. She’d just been released after 29 years in prison and thought she was too old to start again.

Today, she’s confident, using ChatGPT every day, and rebuilding her life with what she learned. 

This is the power of technology when it’s used the right way.

When she first joined, she could barely open her laptop without freezing.

But after weeks of learning, failing, and trying again, she finally got a hang of it

Our goal at Breakthrough Social Enterprise isn't just education or employment (there are already enough programmes in the UK doing that)

It’s about creating environments where people get to see themselves differently and clearly.

Because we believe, once you change how you see yourself, technology stops being intimidating and starts becoming a mirror for what’s possible.

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After being in prison for a year, I’ve seen how technologies like CCTV or AI only make violence more sophisticated instead of creating space for change.

I recently read a report about how the UK government is trialling AI tools to predict and prevent violence in prisons.

The system analyses CCTV footage, behavioural data, and movement patterns to flag potential incidents before they happen.

On paper, it sounds like progress.

But in reality, it’s another version of control that doesn’t solve the root problem.

CCTV made violence harder to record as prisoners found creative ways to hide it.

AI will just make it more efficient for the system to monitor it.

That’s why, inside prison, a “Listener”: a human mediator is far more powerful than any machine.

Someone who can de-escalate violence not through force or surveillance, but by listening.

Because you can’t reprogram human behaviour through control or punishment.

It changes when people feel heard, seen, and understood, even at their lowest point.

This is the story of Mr Singh, an Indian man I met in prison.

He arrived on our wing, and I met him in the first few days I was inside.

He didn’t understand a word of English. He had no family in the country, and he had no one to explain why he was even there.

The officers couldn’t communicate with him, and the official translators hadn’t shown up.

So Pratik Doshi (my best mate) ended up translating as best he could. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the only option anyone had.

Mr Singh was clearly unwell.

He wandered the wing quietly, confused and scared, clutching a small bag of things that made sense only to him.

One day he came to our door and handed us a bottle of baby lotion with a smile.

It was the only way he knew how to say thank you.

The more Pratik spoke with him, the more something unsettling hit me: he hadn’t done anything “wrong” in a way that made sense.

He had come to the UK legally, but the system processed him as an “offender” because he was distressed and unable to explain himself.

And this is where things get bitter… when a system can’t interpret context, it defaults to punishment.

A mentally unwell man gets treated like someone violent. Someone who can’t explain themselves is treated like someone who refuses to. Someone with no English and no advocate is pushed down the same path as someone who understands every step.

Vulnerability has no place in the design, so vulnerable people absorb the consequences.

This is a system where people don’t fall through cracks… the cracks are the system.

Which is why cases like Mr Singh aren’t rare outliers.

There are thousands like him sitting in prison cells for reasons they don’t fully understand, carried along by a structure that was built to process paperwork rather than people.

Every winter, the homeless face two choices: freeze on the streets or steal a loaf and spend Christmas in a cell.

When you understand that, it’s no surprise petty crime rises every December in a country where the only guaranteed warm bed is behind a locked door.

I still think about one young guy I met in prison during that time of year.

He couldn’t have been older than twenty. Malnourished, cold, and strangely quiet.

He’d been arrested for shoplifting and for pushing a police officer when they grabbed him outside the store. Nothing planned or malicious. He just wanted warmth, food, and somewhere to sleep.

Inside, he walked from cell to cell with a small stash of bread and teabags tucked into his jumper: the only currency he had.

He’d knock gently on doors, offer a slice, ask for a cup of hot water.

And what cut deepest was this: he was happy to be there.

Prison meant heat. It meant three meals. It meant people around him, even if they were strangers. It meant he would make it through Christmas alive.

He preferred it because he was vulnerable and this was his best shot at survival.

But inside, that vulnerability got noticed by the wrong people.

He told me, almost proudly, that someone had offered him “a way to make money” on his next sentence. Get released, carry something back in, and he’d never be hungry again.

That’s how people with nowhere to go become tools for organised crime.

That’s how a young man who just wanted to stay warm ends up deeper in a world he never chose… simply because the system was never built with someone like him in mind.

2 years ago: I took over Breakthrough as CEO with a mission to rebuild an education model that works for everyone. 

Today, we have supported over 700+ learners across prisons, communities, and public-sector programmes. 

Every learner brings new layers of responsibility: safeguarding, reporting, pastoral care, and daily support. 

But carrying this load for two years has made one thing very clear: individual effort isn’t enough. As the workload increases, the systems around it need to get stronger.

Only then can we deliver the same quality to our 1000th learner as we did to the first.

That’s why the next chapter in Breakthrough will be defined by the strength of its internal architecture. 

The systems, processes, and capacity need to support real scale, both for the team and for the people we serve.

7 years ago, when I stepped out of prison, I felt completely unprepared for life outside: no career, no direction, no future.

Today, charities like the Prison Radio Association are supporting people like me…fresh from prison to rebuild their lives with purpose.

If you’ve followed my work for a while, you know how deeply I care about giving people a fair shot at rebuilding their lives.

Prison Radio Association is one of the few charities doing that work with real integrity.

I also recently featured on their “Life After Prison” podcast, and I’ve seen their commitment from up close.

Through their in-prison and on-release programmes, they give people the skills, structure and belief they need at the moment it matters most…inside the gate, and in those fragile first months after release.

If you’re able to contribute, whether it’s £5 or £50,  it will go further this week than at any other time.

Your support doesn’t just fund a programme, it opens a door someone once thought was closed forever.

They’re aiming to hit £10,000 by 9 December, and every donation is doubled until they get there.

Here’s the link if you’d like to help: https://lnkd.in/eZ3bDCgN

Meet Indi Sinha. He’s 35 and our current CFO. He joined our Digital Skills Bootcamp to upskill himself on technology and uses of AI.

But our course changed the way he saw himself…

…and there was no going back

Before joining the program, he was:

– Working in an accounting role in a large organisation for more than a decade.
– Deep in operations and delivery, but far from the decisions that shaped them.
– Unsure how to use his skillset as a leader, even with years of experience.
– Doing great work, but feeling like he’d hit a ceiling he couldn’t name.

Today:

– He’s the Chief Financial Officer at Breakthrough.
– Leads with confidence and clarity, shaping the systems he once followed.
– Has built financial frameworks that power our growth across 40+ countries.
– Brings the same precision he learned in finance to help an organization that works in collaboration with the UK govt and United Nations. 

If you’re like Indi: experienced, capable, but waiting for that next leap, we’ve since improved our courses to help people just like you - our Leadership & Management Bootcamp is open for applications.

Apply here: https://lnkd.in/e-TBwE_k

The most important KPI inside a growing business is how often your team tells you what you don’t want to hear.

It comes from the simplest way I’ve found to track the real health of a company, and it splits in two.

(1) How well are we running the work?
(2) How well are we running our relationships while we do it?

Most founders obsess over the first...

Metrics, delivery, systems, velocity.

Very few have any way to measure the second.

That’s where the early cracks form.

The first sign is usually triangulation. Someone has an issue with a colleague, but raises it with a third person instead.

It looks harmless. Almost considerate. But it marks the moment when honesty stops moving in a straight line.

Give it long enough and people stop saying what needs saying.

Culture fades, meeting by meeting.

If you want a business that lasts, track that signal.

It tells you more about your company’s real health, and the quality of the relationships it rests on, than any operational dashboard ever will.

--

Grateful to my team who always let me know the hard things early, before they turn into real problems.

tagging a few here: Indi Sinha, Amira Al-Shabazz, Jasmine Hasmatali, Pratik Doshi

As 2025 winds down, I’ve been reflecting on how this year pushed us harder than any before. Here’s my wrap-up of our biggest challenges and the lessons that came with them.

→ Top reality check: more money = more problems.

Not to sound ungrateful, but growth brings its own weight. As the business gets bigger, the problems stack up. I’m at my best when I’m ready for that… when I see revenue not just as a win, but as a responsibility and a reminder that the work ahead is about to get tougher.

→ Top challenge: the labour market is in a race to zero.

CVs look polished and everyone sounds impressive in an interview, but skill, discipline, and intent differ more than ever.

→ Top insight: age is irrelevant in business.

I met 21-year-olds with more instinct than managers twice their age, and senior leaders who were simply running on fumes to keep things moving.

My top four lessons from the market in the past twelve months:

(1) Hire people who understand the bigger picture rather than people who only complete tasks.

(2) Hire people who show intent to grow rather than a polished CV.

(3) Take your mental health seriously and make time for therapy each week, or you’ll eventually feel the pressure catch up with you.

(4) Stay honest about what you don’t know rather than pretending you have everything figured out.

Most of all, I’m thankful for the team at Breakthrough and everything they’ve put in this year. It’s been a privilege to lead a group with that much talent and depth of knowledge.

Tagging a few here: Indi Sinha, Jasmine Hasmatali, Indi Sinha, Amira Al-Shabazz, Izzy Hughes

We talk about AI like it’s just background tech. It isn’t. It’s already influencing decisions that affect people every day. 

The reality is sharper: decisions about housing, education, benefits, policing, and access to services are already being shaped by systems most of us never get to see. 

When you can’t see how those systems work, you can’t question them. And when you can’t question them, you lose control of the decisions made about you, your students, or your community. 

That’s the reason Amira Al-Shabazz and I are running a free live session on 25 November: “Rethink AI: Use It for Real-World Good.” 

It’s a clear, practical introduction to human-centred, ethical AI... the mechanics, the failure points, and the choices that still sit with people, not machines. 

We also put together a short video explaining why this conversation can’t wait. If you care about fairness, public services, or simply understanding AI without the noise, this will help you get there.

Sign up free: https://lnkd.in/ed64w9yA

What the justice system is using AI for in the UK: stopping wrongful releases.

What it should be using it for: rebuilding the broken processes that cause them.

Yesterday I read a report on the two men who were mistakenly released last week and the government’s plan to roll out “AI chatbots” across prisons to prevent it from happening again.

You see, I am not against using AI in prisons. There are a lot of problems it could help with but most of what is being proposed right now is a band-aid on deeper wounds.

The technology will not make a dent if the foundations still look like this:

– Paper based processes instead of clear, digital workflows
– Fragmented systems that do not talk to each other
– Officers stretched thin by staff sickness and constant turnover
– Senior staff leaving faster than new staff can be trained
– Probation and prison systems operating in separate worlds
– A court backlog that still has not recovered from Covid

In that context, AI chatbots might work in the short term. 

They may help an overstretched officer cross-check a date, interpret a rule or reduce a few of the most obvious release errors.

But the question that worries me is different.

Do we use AI to build a more resilient justice system, or do we pour automation on top of a structure that is already cracking?

After reading 100+ self-help books on “how to communicate better” and replaying every argument I’ve ever had…here’s what I’ve learned about making a point (without turning it into a fight)..

The truth is, most arguments don’t come from disagreement.

They come from “projection”.

When someone reacts strongly, they’re not necessarily responding to your words; they’re reacting to what those words mean to them.

So here’s what has actually helped me get across my point without creating a rift:

(1) Pause before responding: Notice what you’re reacting to - their point, or how it made you feel.

(2) Validate, even if you disagree: People calm down when they feel understood and respected.

(3) Ask, don’t assert: Questions invite reflection; statements invite defence.

(4) Don’t aim to win. Aim to understand: You can’t change someone’s mind if they feel unsafe in the conversation.

Once you see everyone, including yourself, as a mirror, communication becomes less about control and more about connection.

You stop trying to fix people and start trying to understand them.

With AI being rapidly embedded in everything from our workplaces to our public services, the line between right and wrong has become hard to see… and even harder to challenge.

That’s why Amira Al-Shabazz, our Chief of Staff at Breakthrough Social Enterprise, and I are hosting a session on 25 November called “Rethink AI: Use It for Real-World Good.”

The purpose is simple: bring clarity to the real questions people are struggling with as AI becomes part of everyday decisions.

– How do you spot when an AI system is being unfair?
– How do you trust an output without outsourcing your judgment?
– How do you work with these tools without crossing ethical lines you didn’t know were there?

We’ll break down practical ways to work with AI responsibly and to stay in control of the decisions it shapes.

It’s free, online, and open to anyone who wants to use AI with confidence, but doesn’t want to lose their judgment or their agency in the process.

“If humans were naturally selfish, airlines wouldn’t need to remind you to put your own mask on before helping others."

I just finished reading “Humankind: A Hopeful History” by Rutger Bregman, and this quote from the book is something I can’t stop thinking about.

It’s a simple sentence, but it challenges so much of what we’re taught to believe about people.

Most of us grow up hearing that humans are driven by self-interest.

That left to our own devices, we’d look after ourselves first.

That we need systems and strict rules to stop society from falling apart. But look at the smallest moments around you…

…think of the times when a stranger went out of their way to make things easier for you.

…think of the time when someone noticed you were struggling and stepped in before you even asked.

Our instincts give us away.

People aren’t as selfish as the narrative suggests.

What we call “selfishness” is often what happens after people have been pushed into systems that reward fear, scarcity, and competition.

But underneath it, most of us want the same things: safety, connection, dignity, a chance to do right by others.

The Panopticon was an 18th century concept introduced to control behaviour inside prisons, but today, it’s the blueprint of modern leadership.

The idea was simple.

One central tower.

Dozens of cells around it.

Everyone is visible.

No one is sure when they’re being watched.

As a result people behaved for optics, without ever changing within.

I couldn’t wrap my head around it in prisons.

But now I see how it shows up in offices too.

Slack, dashboards, endless check-ins - they’ve become the modern watchtower.

But when people are always being observed, they learn how to perform.

That’s why, as a leader at Breakthrough, I try to detach myself from outcomes and control.

It’s something I learned through experience and something deeply rooted in Eastern philosophy too: be attached to the process, not the outcome.

Because honestly, I think…real change doesn’t happen under constant observation.

It happens when someone feels trusted enough to act differently when no one’s watching.

8 years ago: I was standing in the dock for a crime I didn’t commit and thought my story was over.

Today: the same tragedy has become the guiding story of the work I do at Breakthrough.

The same chapter I was ashamed of… the same moment I didn’t want anyone to know about has become the backbone of my business today.

In fact, over the past few years, I’ve worked with some of the biggest institutions in the country: the Government of the UK, the UN, and organisations around the world to push forward my mission…

…all because I found the courage to own my story and learned how to use it with intention.

But most people have never been shown how to do that.

They either hide their story or smooth it out so it sounds more acceptable.

This is why, on 18th December, I am hosting “Story into Strategy: Leading with Depth in a Distracted World”: a session on how to take the experiences that shaped you and turn them into a message that moves people, guides your work, and stays rooted in who you actually are.

If you have a story and want your brand to grow from a place of truth, I’m sure this session will help. 

Here is the link to enrol: https://lnkd.in/e4YMVeCK,

The AI revolution is a rerun of the “dot-com” boom where the same ten companies run the show while everyone else cheers from the stands.

Back then it was: Microsoft. GE. Cisco. Intel. ExxonMobil. IBM. Nokia.

Now it’s: Apple. Microsoft. Nvidia. Amazon. Meta. Alphabet. TSMC. Broadcom. Tesla. Aramco.

Different companies, same concentration of power.

The only thing that’s changed from the dot-com era is how deeply we now depend on their infrastructure.

Today, when another model launches or a new API opens, it feels less like innovation and more like the expansion of the same empire.

Every week there is a new breakthrough: Sora, Gemini, Claude, ChatGPT, and each is framed as progress.

But, are they really?

These gains only matter if you are a specialist.

If you are a teacher, a policymaker, or a small social enterprise trying to integrate AI responsibly, you are still playing inside someone else’s infrastructure.

That is why I have stopped calling this moment a revolution.

Revolutions redistribute power.

This one is concentrating it.

Which honestly is a waste of real potential and everything this technology could stand for.

A few years ago, transcribing a one-hour meeting took a skilled human 4–5 hours. Today, AI tools like Otter.ai can do it in 5–10 minutes.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with a 55-year-old policymaker around the same time.

I suggested AI could support prison officers, giving them case notes at their fingertips instead of relying on memory as they moved between wings.

He dismissed me outright: “Transcription isn’t better than human note-taking.”

I could have left it there, but instead, I opened OtterAI on my phone, hit the record button, and let it capture the entire conversation in real-time. 

When the meeting wrapped, I showed him the transcript, where every word, every detail, was neatly summarised.

He sat there, astonished.

The same person who had just told me it wasn’t possible.

I still think about that day.

Because it showed how policy often clings to the familiar.

It’s easier to trust what you’ve always known. Pen and paper, memory (the old way) than to imagine something different, but that’s where the gap opens.

Between what’s possible and what actually can be done.

And too often, it’s the people inside the system who pay the price for that gap.

With the current wave of AI enthusiasm, everyone is rushing to launch their own “AI solution” without understanding the ethical weight or real-world consequences of these systems. 

But if you don’t do the ethical groundwork before you build, your system becomes a multiplier of all the bad patterns already running through society.

It’s why Amira, our Chief of Staff at Breakthrough Social Enterprise, and I are hosting “Humanity x AI: Creating Change in the Age of AI”: a two-week, human-centred course for people who want to build AI responsibly, and contribute to the kind of progress that actually serves society.

It’s a space to slow down and understand what you’re putting into the world. 

Across the two weeks, we’ll work through: 

– How to spot bias, gaps, and blind spots in the systems you’re using 
– How to design ethical AI solutions using human-centred methods 
– How to evaluate real case studies and understand their effect on work, identity, and fairness 
– How to communicate, pitch, and advocate for the right kind of progress 

You’ll leave with a tested concept, a responsible AI plan, and the confidence to be the adult in the room when everyone else is racing ahead.

Enrollment will close on Monday, December 8, so now's your chance!

The course begins on 9 December.

If you want a seat at the table when the big decisions get made, this is where you start. Enrol here:
https://lnkd.in/enRMUQbA

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Sobanan N.

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