EFL Week of Action: Meet Victor

Actor, mover, shaker and one of the faces of The Way Forward, Victor Okokwa-Onyerunma typifies the work done at the Foundation.

Victor Okokwa-Onyerunma. Image by Kimia Modaressi Chahardehi.

Victor Okokwa-Onyerunma came aboard the Foundation in November 2023 after what turned out to be a fruitful job hunt. Victor joined us as a Peer Researcher on our Peer Action Collective team, becoming one of a number of young people leading in creating change for their community and their contemporaries in Bradford. Victor applied because he needed a job, but didn’t want to do just anything to earn money. The year after he finished his GCSEs, he worked in a fast food chain for a few weeks and hated it. He wanted something where he could work collaboratively, collectively, and not get shouted at by hungry punters.

When he came onboard, he found Foundation life difficult. Victor had only recently moved to Bradford, and had to contend with fitting into a new job, and a new city, and a new city with its many complexities. He wasn’t au fait with what working and living in Bradford meant. The first couple of months in the role he spent getting acquainted not just with PAC, but with Bradford, and the social issues and postcode battle lines that entailed. Victor credits his colleagues on the PAC team with getting him up to speed with the city, its history, its future, and that mythical ‘t’ the locals like to squeeze into the way they pronounce the city they live in. Victor highlights the role Kimia Modaressi Chahardehi (who supplied those rather dashing headshots) and Pavan Sembi, who heads up the PAC project, with making him feel comfortable in his new home, both personally and professionally. Before Bradford, Victor moved around a lot, and landed in the city from Abuja, Nigeria, finishing his studies and attaining his GCSE qualifications shortly after.

Victor joined the Bradford City FC Community Foundation in November 2023. Image by Kimia Modaressi Chahardehi.

Year one on the project saw Victor attend a PAC getaway in Lincoln, a chance to get closer with the Bradford team and fellow collectives dotted around the country. That team, newly formed, went on to great things. They produced a campaign film tackling unwanted sexual behaviour on the nation’s transport networks, in conjunction with Northern and British Transport Police. The result was the Railway Guardian App, a platform for people to report USB, becoming free to use. Next was a roundtable discussion with First Buses, and a second campaign on safe and affordable access to transport for young people in the city. Victor then co-designed a directory for young people to connect with their communities and access diversionary resources to support them - the (patented) Positive Activities Map. In lending his voice and likeness to our campaign films, offering repeated insights at roundtables and forging and leading conversations with policymakers, industry-leaders and other, similarly significant people, throughout his time with the programme and under the Foundation banner, Victor has grown as a person and a professional.

It’s not just about his youth-led, social action exploits. Victor is fostering a relationship with both the Foundation and the club - he joined us at half a dozen games last season during City’s promotion-winning campaign, and played a big role at the Foundation's inaugural Community Takeover day in February this year, leading local children on a lap of honour around the pitch, and deservedly accepting a fair amount of applause himself.

What’s next? Victor and his PAC comrades are in the process of co-designing the future of youth work at the Foundation. Together they are sourcing and seeking funding to expand the Foundation’s provision, to continue to lead on making a difference for young people in the city, and to ensure that their collective experience and expertise continue to make an impact in the place they call home.

Victor plays keyboards at the Click & Connect Exhibition opening. Image: Kimia Modaressi Chahardehi.

Victor also has a prominent place in our Click & Connect exhibition, with his images being featured in the photography set which captures his personal view of the city he lives in.

One of Victor's images, which features in our Click & Connect Exhibition.

From PAC to acting, Victor aspires to tread the boards on the stage or on the screen or both. He is currently appearing in a show about the Portrait of Mai (Omai) by Sir Joshua Reynolds, from 1776, which is currently on display in Bradford’s Cartwright Hall. Victor now appears in a show, put on by Commonwealth Theatre Company, which addresses identity, and explores how the portrait of Omai depicts him as less oceanic, and more European. Victor has also appeared in a show with the same company as part of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture called Public Interest, an immersive experience which challenges the Criminal Justice System and is devised by Common/Wealth, Bradford’s political theatre pioneers. The show had its initial run in May 2025. 

In short, Victor is a multi-talented multi-threat, multiple times over. He attributes his ever-growing confidence and courage in pursuing his acting ambitions with some of the skills he has developed as part of the PAC programme, where a need for courage in engaging with people, those being fellow peers, policymakers and many, many more from across the country, is a must. Victor keenly feels a more courageous, outspoken and collaborative young person as a direct result of his journey through the Foundation.

Victor credits the Foundation with instilling confidence and courage. Image by Kimia Modaressi Chahardehi.