Rise Up: Global Impact, Local Youth-led Solutions

Dear Donor, 

Throughout this year, you have received different updates on what we have been up to at Global Changemakers and key results from our different programs. Today, as we set foot on the last quarter of the year, we want to show appreciation for your continuous support and update you on recent plans that will keep adding value to the changemakers we serve. 

In a recent report, we explained how our strategy has always centered around providing youth with the right tools and resources so they can create more fair, inclusive, and sustainable communities. The mission in itself has a broad room, but years of experience working for and by youth has shown us an impressive amount of opportunities where others might perceive gaps. 

In the last couple of years, working to support youth in that mission has quickly evolved and adapted to the realities we face. We went from providing on-site to off-site training, delivering countless networking and connection spaces, mentoring, and even financially supporting projects, resulting in ripple effects. The reality is: societal problems keep evolving, and so does the unstoppable desire of younger generations to act and do something about them.

With such context in mind, we are about to wrap up the year with important announcements:

After launching our Changemakers School in 2020 with courses on Facilitation, Project Management, and Menstruation, Sexual and Reproductive Health, we have supported 33 youth-led initiatives created by our students, adding up to the over 400 youth-led projects that Global Changemakers has supported since its inception in 2007, which have collectively reached out to over 15 million people worldwide. 

However, we have decided to keep expanding our portfolio with a new course focused on Ecology, motivated by changemakers' interest in the topic and the alarming trends presented by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2021. Our future depends on the choices that humanity makes today, and in our experience, young people are on the front line of making the positive changes we need.

We are currently on a countdown to officially launch this comprehensive and intersectional course, which aims to teach at least one thousand young changemakers about applying an ecological perspective to their individual lifestyle and activism. What’s more impressive is that the course's curriculum was designed by 20 Global Changemakers alumni from diverse backgrounds with relevant experience leading ecological projects. Yes, this is why I keep bragging about our impact being unique. We give them the knowledge, they triple it and do awesome things. 

We believe that to think and do activism ecologically is to be grounded in the connections that sustain life. It is to be attentive to the reality that our well-being is interdependent with the well-being of the living planet around us.

As I finish this update report, I am thinking about the enormous privilege of having faithful supporters like you, who opened up their hearts and decided to give back to a very important cause. Please rest assured that your donation has and continues to impact people’s lives worldwide. 

We will keep you posted as we officially launch this free course on November 2nd with the hopes that you could share it with your extended networks.

Links:

• Ecology for Changemakers - Coming Soon!

• GG_Progress_Report__Oct_2022.pdf (PDF)
  

It is that time of the year again when we reflect on what the first half of 2022 looked like. Against all odds, our organization has been a true catalyst for youth empowerment and change. Over the last couple of months, we have been able to witness how young people not only ask for sustainable development but are at the forefront of building it. With strong energy, passion, creativity, and the ability to innovate, they are all advocating for a fair, sustainable, and equitable world. 

Take a look at how we have been able to maximize our reach and get to new communities of changemakers in the last six months:

1. Virtual Youth Summit

Throughout the years, Global Changemakers has organized 11 in-person Global Youth summits, 4 regional, and many other pieces of training worldwide. However, as the pandemic evolved, we quickly adapted this model and transitioned that programming to a virtual space, which allowed us to get to communities we did not do before.

After 3 successful online Youth Summits, the organization started to work on localizing content to the Latin American community, a region where the demand for local resources to help social entrepreneurs thrive is strongly needed.

After some consultations with changemakers from our community, the team put up together the first Virtual Youth Summit for Latin America this April 2022. With the theme, “Connecting to transform,” the conference centered around the potential of Latin American youth to build an inclusive and sustainable region. It was a space where young people had the chance to network and heard from high-level speakers and young changemakers working towards social impact projects.

 2. Changemakers School 

We used the Latin American Summit as a space to launch our Changemakers School in Spanish and Portuguese. The courses offered, such as Project Management and Facilitation for Changemakers, have been co-created with the Global Changemakers community, a massive network of people from all over the world that came together, and combined efforts, work, and knowledge to teach other young people how to become changemakers and elevate the impact of their projects.

What's Next 

As we look forward to the following months, we are highly focused on increasing our fundraising efforts to make our programs sustainable and accessible to a broader network of young people worldwide.

We sincerely thank you for being part of our community of supporters. We look forward to sharing our plans and impact as we evolve and bringing onboard donors like you who are as passionate as we are to empowering a generation that is hungry for change.

Links:

• Changemakers School

• Progress Report GG. (PDF)