Our mission

To nurture, champion, and enable the dreams of the global youth.

Our team

  • Karen Pluess

    CEO, CO-FOUNDER

    advocate, sensitive, critical thinker, social researcher, ex-treasurer, solver of tough puzzles, believer

  • Michael Pluess

    SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR, CO-FOUNDER, TRUSTEE

    innovator, professor, developmental psychologist, leader, bass player

  • Charlene Chen

    TRUSTEE (TREASURER)

    global citizen, social impact-driven, extrapreneur, community-builder, connector, operations geek/mentor

  • Hannah Elwyn

    TRUSTEE (SAFEGUARDING LEAD)

  • Tobias Fluck

    TRUSTEE

  • Katherine Tait

    TRUSTEE

Our values

  • ❤ Love

    First and foremost, love drives what we do. And we absolutely love seeing young people being all they were made to be. Without love, we wouldn’t last a week.

  • 🧠 Expertise

    We love good work. This means you can trust that everything we do is based on evidence and grounded in research. As scientists, we love a bit of rigorous research!

  • 🤝 Partnership

    To realise the big changes we long to see, we have to and want to work with others. No one is the sole answer and we’re better when we work together, playing to each other’s strengths.

  • 🚀 Being Explorers

    Being curious keeps us humble - we don’t know everything. We love to keep exploring, learning and growing! This helps us stay agile and open to new opportunities.

Our story

In 2017, Michael was visiting Embalenhle, a township in Mpumalanga, South Africa. He was there for a research workshop with other academics exploring the resilience of young people. He saw that life can be tough in townships, with many young people drawn into gangs and dealing drugs. Some of the young people Michael met, however, seemed different - despite facing the same tough challenges, they remained positive, determined, and even hopeful.

What set these resilient youth apart was their dreams for the future. Msizi aspired to become a nurse. To do that, she said, she needed to work hard at school and keep out of trouble. Thulani didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do with his life but knew he wanted to get out of the township and build a better life for himself and family.

Inspired by the transformative power of dreams, Michael proposed a new approach. Instead of deterring youth from destructive paths, he suggested helping them actively pursue their dreams. With research funding and collaboration from colleagues in the UK and South Africa, the Dream Lab programme was born.

Rooted in principles of positive psychology and inspired by a faith-based course developed by us in 2014, Dream Lab was piloted in both countries. The promising results led to the establishment of Dream Lab Foundation in 2022, which was officially recognised as a UK-registered charity by the end of 2023.

Karen and Michael Pluess

Co-founders and co-dreamers

“Dream Lab has to teach the whole world about dreams and how to pursue them!!”

— Dream Lab graduate, SOUTH AFRICA