About the Contributor
This story was written by Toby Gorniak MBE and Joanne Gorniak, shared as part of The Impactful Voice Project™ — One Voice. Infinite Impact.™
Toby Gorniak MBE is a Roma refugee, award-winning community leader, and creator of the Gorniak Method, a research-backed framework for unlocking human potential. His work blends hip hop, compassion, and lived-experience leadership to create spaces where everyone belongs and no one is left behind.
🔸 Country: England
🔸 Connect: https://tobygorniakmbe.com/
The Birth of The Gorniak Method: A Story of Love, Hip Hop, and Not Leaving Anyone Behind
Key Takeaways
- Lived experience can become a powerful framework for social change when transformed into purpose.
- Community spaces rooted in love, belonging, and consistency can unlock the potential in people labelled “unreachable.”
- The Gorniak Method emerged from two decades of frontline work, proving that leadership grows through walking beside people, not above them.
- Real impact happens when no one is left behind and every person is seen as capable of greatness.
- Creativity — especially hip hop — can be a healing force and a path to identity, pride, and transformation.
It began in a church hall, a simple space filled with music, movement, and the most unexpected community. Two decades ago, my wife Jo and I opened the doors to a free Saturday dance class, welcoming everyone from babies in prams to grandparents. We kept it free for one reason: so that no one, no matter what their circumstances, would ever be left out.
Within a month, over 100 people were dancing together weekly. But beneath the rhythm and smiles, we noticed deeper struggles: low mental health, poverty, trauma, shattered confidence. Dance wasn’t just entertainment; it was a lifeline. We realised we weren’t just teaching steps; we were building a space where people could belong, breathe, and just be.
This wasn’t about placing a plaster over wounds. It was about real, lasting change. Instead of giving people fish, we wanted to teach them to fish. We wanted to walk with them until they remembered they were the creators of their own lives.
Listening, Adapting, and Never Saying No
As word spread, schools welcomed us with open arms. They needed solutions for young people who felt unreachable, and we became that bridge. But we soon discovered even deeper layers of need. Young people with additional needs, ADHD, autism, deafness, challenging behaviours, were being left behind. So we adapted.
I remember when Jo discovered the local deaf society had no positive activities for young people. I didn’t know sign language, but I knew how to connect. We turned speakers upside down so they could feel the vibrations. I greeted them with a big smile and high energy and it worked. Then I learned Makaton so I could speak with them too.
We kept listening. We kept pivoting. We kept evolving.
The Unreachables Became Unstoppable
Soon, schools, pupil referral units, and organisations started bringing us their “unreachable” young people. They’d say, “Toby, Jo, help. There’s no other option.”
We never said no.
We walked side-by-side with them, peeling back the layers of labels, limitations, and stereotypes society had stuck on them. Sometimes, it was the first
time they’d ever received a compliment. We watched as their heads lifted, their eyes met ours, and they remembered, they remembered their power. Their purpose.
Young people in gangs started graduating from top universities. Those written off became international artists. Most importantly, they became good humans.
All we ever asked in return was this: remember your roots. Remember how you felt when you first walked through our doors. And when you meet someone like you, pass it on. Open doors for them.
We called it Teach 2 Teach. The ripple effect over two decades has been nothing short of phenomenal.
From Community Roots to National Recognition
Our reputation grew. The police, crime commissioners, and government bodies began referencing our work as a benchmark of excellence. Universities reached out. Awards followed, over 50, local, national, and international. I was humbled to receive an MBE at Buckingham Palace. TEDx invitations, BBC features, ITV coverage, all of it flowed from one simple truth: we loved people, stood beside them, and never gave up on them.
The foundation was always the same: Respect. Peace. Love. Unity. And having fun.
The Research That Solidified a Legacy
Then Coventry University approached us. “Can we place a researcher with you for four years?” they asked. “It would become the UK’s first Hip Hop PhD.”
We said yes.
That four-year study didn’t create the Gorniak Method, it confirmed it. The method was born from over 20,000 hours of frontline work, 60,000+ volunteer hours, and thousands of transformed lives. But the research bridged our grassroots reality with academic validation, uniting two worlds that rarely speak the same language.
The Gorniak Method is more than a framework—it’s the living embodiment of my journey: from a Roma teenage refugee, hospitalised by skinhead men and left in a coma, to a man who vowed, “I am more. And I will ensure others become more.”
It’s a method built not in a lab, but in a church hall. Not through theory, but through tears, breakthroughs, and dance floors vibrating with bass and belonging.
This Is Just the Beginning
Today, The Gorniak Method is a universal tool for unlocking genius, building authentic leadership, and fostering unshakeable belonging, from community centres to corporate boardrooms. It’s been featured on Netflix, celebrated on TEDx stages, and embedded in systemic change from Slovakia to Australia.
But at its heart, it will always be about what it was on that first Saturday in the church hall: a good human being there for another human. No one left behind. Everyone welcomed home.
If this story resonates with you, if you believe in transformation, inclusion, and the power of human potential, I invite you to explore the method, share the message, and become part of this growing legacy of love.
Because together, we don’t just change lives.
We change worlds.
#LivedExperience #SocialImpact #CommunityLeadership #YouthEmpowerment #HipHopEducation #RefugeeStories #ChangeMakers #InclusiveLeadership #GorniakMethod #NoOneLeftBehind
Toby Gorniak MBE arrived in the UK as a Roma refugee after a violent attack left him in a coma at 11. Told he would never be anything, he vowed to become the good human he needed as a child.
For over 20 years, Toby and his wife Jo ran free dance classes from a church hall, creating a space where everyone belonged. What began as movement grew into a lifeline for thousands—especially those labelled unreachable.
This frontline mission became the Gorniak Method, a research-backed framework for unlocking genius and building authentic leadership. Honoured with an MBE, over 50 awards, and the UK’s first Hip Hop PhD, Toby’s work proves: when we walk with people, they remember their power. No one gets left behind.
If this story resonated with you, please share it. You never know who might need it today.
