UN-HABITAT recognises the role of young people in alleviating poverty and regards young people as a major force for a better world. The HABITAT Agenda commits governments and UN-HABITAT to work in partnership with youth and empower them to participate in decision-making in order to improve urban livelihoods and develop sustainable human settlements. The UN-HABITAT Youth Fund was established at the request of member states at the UN-HABITAT Governing Council in April 2007 and officially launched at the 3rd World Urban Youth Forum in November 2008. The fund is currently supporting youth-led projects in more than 30 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin-America.”
In 1996, Youth Venture was launched with the vision that everyone in society could take initiative and address social needs, rather than looking to the elite few who lead today. With so many more people taking initiative, imagine how many more problems we could solve! Youth Venture inspires and invests in teams of young people to design and launch their own lasting social ventures, enabling them to have this transformative experience of leading positive social change.
FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund is a new initiative that funds and strengthens the participation and leadership of young feminist activists globally. The Fund is a collaborative effort between the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), The Fondo Centroamericano de Mujeres/Central American Women’s Fund (FCAM) and an experienced group of young feminist activists from different regions of the world.
Founded in 1971 by the late Honourable Jacques Hébert (1923-2007), Canada World Youth (CWY) is a world leader in developing international educational programs for young people aged 15 to 35. A non-profit organization, CWY is dedicated to enriching the lives of young people that have a desire to become informed and active global citizens. CWY programs are designed to help youth experience the world for themselves, learn about other cultures and diverse Canadian communities while developing leadership and communication skills.
The LAMP is a non-profit organization creating a grassroots movement to reform and improve media. This is achieved through free media literacy workshops and public events for youth, parents and educators.
TurboVote is a service provided by Democracy Works, Inc., a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization devoted to improving civic engagement through the use of technology.
HYLF is a youth-led funding mechanism that provides small grants and technical assistance to youth-led HIV initiatives focused on young people most affected by HIV. HYLF facilitates the sharing of knowledge gained through its grantees with the broader HIV movement and conducts advocacy for a more effective response. HYLF is an innovative partnership effort between global HIV networks, donors and youth-led organizations.
TakingITGlobal's mission is to empower youth to understand and act on the world's greatest challenges. We use the power of online community to facilitate global education, social entrepreneurship, and civic engagement for millions of youth worldwide. Founded in 1999, our award-winning www.tigweb.org is the leading social network for global citizenship, bringing together over 400,000 members with more than 22,000 non-profit organizations across 13 languages. Our TIGed program serves over 2,400 schools in 129 countries with professional development, engaging lesson plans, and collaborative global projects.
The WSYA selects and promotes best practice in e-Content and technological creativity, demonstrates young people’s potential to create outstanding digital contents and serves as a platform for people from all UN member states to work together in the efforts to reduce poverty and hunger, and to tackle ill-health, gender inequality, lack of education, lack of access to clean water and environmental degradation. WSYA is therefore both, a showcase to the world for young designers, technologists and e-Content creators as well as a contribution on a global scale to addressing poverty, protecting the environment, sharing knowledge and empowering young people.
The WSYA is organised as a follow up activity of the World Summit on Information Society and its action plan towards the year 2015. The Youth Award is being organised by the World Summit Award Network for the sixth time after 2005, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. It is promoted in all UN member states through the networks of the World Summit Award (WSA) the UN Global Alliance for ICT, other participating UN Organisations and Agencies such as UNESCO and UNIDO, governments and NGOs, youth organisations, and all those committed to making a real difference in the achievement of the MDGs.
The WSYA Team is based at the International Centre for New Media(ICNM), an independent non-profit organisation in Salzburg, Austria.
Young People We Care (YPWC) is a registered youth-led, non-profit organization that is headquartered in Ghana. The organization is operated by young people (ages 15 - 30) and adult allies working on youth and development related issues worldwide. At YPWC, we are passionate about sustainable development, the realization of the Millennium Development Goals and the promotion of a culture of peace and universal human rights for all.
What’s Up Youth “WupY”, a World Summit Youth Award 2010 Winner as one of the best e-content working on achieving the MDGs, is one of the thousands non-profit portal offering youth around the world with a variety of free and practical services and relevant information in one click on opportunities for trainings, scholarships, and capacity building. Our youth-led portal, which was created in 20 September 2008 by a group of youth from the Middle East and North Africa, has today approximately 50,000 followers all over the world.
We love teens. They are creative, active, wired…and frustrated that our world is so messed up. DoSomething.org harnesses that awesome energy and unleashes it on causes teens care about.. Almost every week, we launch a new national campaign. The call to action is always something that has a real impact and doesn’t require money, an adult, or a car. With a goal of 5 million active members by 2015, DoSomething.org is one of the largest organizations in the U.S. for teens and social change.