The Difference - Episode 4 - James Blake

The Difference Podcast: James Blake, Chief Executive of YHA (England & Wales)

“It isn’t rocket science, nor is it incredibly expensive.”

That’s James Blake, Chief Executive of YHA (England & Wales), on realising that YHA’s impact didn’t need a big new programme or budget – just a different way of using the moments the charity already had with every guest.

James has led YHA since 2017. Before that, his career ran through central and local government, from neighbourhood renewal policy under the Blair and Brown governments to Chief Executive of St Albans City and District Council. 

James’s YHA story is one of the case studies in the book. This is the conversation behind that chapter.

Finding the North Star

Coming out of Covid, Trust Impact were invited to help YHA think about impact. They put a question to YHA’s board and exec team: are you a social tourism business, a wellbeing charity, or a youth charity? The debate didn’t land on any single answer. Instead it produced something sharper: connection, between people inside the hostel, and between people and nature and heritage outside it, eventually distilled into three measurable outcomes – connection, confidence, and belonging.

Impact you don’t need a big budget for

The interventions that came from this insight cost next to nothing to implement: a different conversation at check-in, staff prompting guests to talk to each other in a self-catering kitchen, clearly marked walking routes. James built connection, confidence and belonging straight into YHA’s KPIs and dashboards. YHA has now completed its first full year of baseline data – one early outlier being Black Sail, a hostel reachable only on foot, running at roughly 140 against an average score of 100.

Also in this episode

• Why prioritisation was the hardest part of the process for James and the team
• How aligning impact and income, rather than treating them as competing, de-risked decisions across fundraising and school trip programmes
• What James is now recommending to Hosteling International, the global federation of youth hostel associations
• His honest answer on whether the work of YHA will ever be “done”

Listen now

James Blake is Chief Executive of YHA (England & Wales). His case study features in The Difference: How to Understand, Measure and Maximise Social Impact, out now and a number one Amazon bestseller.

The Difference Podcast is hosted by Matt Stevenson-Dodd and Helen Gregg.