GlobalGiving.org: Youth Venture United States

First Update of 2010

Catherine Boran — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:49:08 GMT

The first three months of 2010 seemed to have flown by here at YV with many new exciting developments taking place across the country and globe.

We have been fortunate to have received grants from several new partners which have allowed us to expand our operations into new cities and countries. With help from the Peery Foundation, we are continuing to work on expanding our operations in the San Francisco Bay Area. In early March, we held our first community panel there and were able to launch seven new teams of young people enacting social change. To learn more about some of the fantastic teams we’re supporting in SF, you can find video footage and interviews here (http://oaklandlocal.com/article/young-oakland-social-entrepreneurs-win-1000-seed-capital-each).

We’re also working on establishing operations in Japan. YV is still in the preliminary stages of setting up an office there but by the end of this year we plan to have launched several teams within the country. We’re very thankful to have JPMorgan helping us with these efforts and we’re very excited to spread YV’s mission to a new country!

This summer we’re hoping to hold our third annual YV Summit. We’re still in the process of exploring locations and potential funding partners, but we expect to have those details worked out within the next few weeks. In past years, the summit has proven to be hugely successful at fostering fellowship and invigorating our most outstanding venturers.

In April, a group of more than 20 Serbian youth will come to the US to visit various YV offices over the course of two weeks. While they are here they will learn the essentials of starting their own social ventures and upon returning to their country they will be able to hit the ground running with their fresh new ideas and plans. We then hope to pair them up with venturers in the US who will then be able to visit Serbia and collaborate further with this group. We’ve been able to organize this new exciting initiative with the help of the American Councils for International Education.

As always, we value your support and value your insight. With the coming year we hope to continue supporting creative young minds that are determined to transform their communities and society at large. Please feel free to provide us with feedback on how we can better go about achieving this goal at any time.

Year-end Update

Catherine Boran — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:03:32 GMT

In spite of the tough enough economic climate, 2009 has proven to be yet another successful year for Youth Venture both at home and aborad. In June, we hosted our second annual Youth Venture summit in Boston. We teamed up with Boston University, MIT and Harvard; each of which hosted different activities over the four-day gathering of more than 150+ of our most outstanding Venturers from around the globe. Our partners at MTV, Best Buy, Staples and Lemelson also helped us host events to recognize some of our award-winning teams. All of our participants benefitted tremendously from the Summit. Having the opportunity to meet like-minded peers and attend seminars energized our Venturers and left everyone with new ideas on how to improve their Ventures. For several of our participants, the YV Summit even marked the first trip they had taken outside of their home country!

This year, we also inaugurated the Youth Venture Ambassadors Program. Ambassadors are outstanding YVers who represent a variety of backgrounds and possess a broad range of interests and goals that have a strong interest in helping us strengthen the movement of young changemakers. By sharing stories of their own life-changing experience, Ambassadors seek to engage and inspire other youth to launch their own community-benefiting Ventures. Ambassadors are Venturers who are strong public speakers and enjoy sharing their personal and Venture stories. YV Ambassadors are critical to the growth and strength of the Youth Venture network. Ambassadors regularly blog, share ideas and tips and invite young people to join online discussions on variety of issues.

YV India also hosted their second Annual Celebration this year, 21 young people were able to present on their teams progress and be recognized for their outstanding efforts. Nearly 500 people were in attendence including Ashoka Fellows, media, donors, parents and friends!

In August, we received 45% of the points alloted in Best Buy's @15 Change Exchange. We were placed in competition against three other very worthy non-profits for the votes of teens ages 13-18. Through tapping into our vast network of teens across the country, we were able to garner the highest number of votes, and, subsequently, 45% of the $250,000 Best Buy was giving away.

In another competition, thirty Youth Venture teams competed for fifteen $1,000 dollar grants that were being granted as a part of Ralph Lauren's Match Rugby Competition.

Youth Venture continues to rely on the support of individuals like you to continue to build a movement of young changemakers across the globe. With the coming year we hope to continue supporting creative young minds that are determined to transform their communities and society at large. Please feel free to provide us with feedback on how we can better go about achieving this goal at any time. As our sponsors, we value your insight and suggestions.

An exciting first Quarter

Romina Laouri — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:56:02 GMT

Things have been very exciting for Youth Venture and our team is in full planning mode for our summer activities.

For the third consecutive year, Ashoka's Youth Venture® and Staples Foundation for Learning® are proud to sponsor the Staples Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition that was open to all Youth Venture teams from around the world. Our finalists were just recently selected and they are from: Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Mexico, Thailand and U.S.A. Check out the finalists and their projects. Our great team of judges will now select the five winning teams that will be flown to Boston to participate in the National YV Summit and attend the YSE Award Ceremony. At the ceremony, one team will be presented the Excellence Award, along with a prize worth $5,000! The four remaining teams will each receive a $500 cash award. The winning teams will also receive an array of additional prizes.

The Youth Venture team is also planning our second National YV Summit which is taking at the end of June, in Boston. Youth Venture has teamed up with Boston University, MIT and Harvard who are each hosting different activities throughout a four-day educational and fun gathering of more than 150+ young people from all over the US and around the world.

We have an exciting summer ahead of us so stay tuned!

Links:

Staples Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition

Attachments:

YV National Summit Flyer (PDF)

Year-End Update

Cameron Blevins — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:13:35 GMT

2008 has been an exciting year for Youth Venture. Over the summer, we held our inaugural Youth Venture Summit, which brought together over 100 young Venturers to Washington D.C. to meet one another and participate in a weekend-long series of workshops and activities. Youth Venture also partnered with several sponsors, including Best Buy, Staples, MTV, and Nike to hold important competitions for young people to participate in.

Over the course of the year, Youth Venture has launched 200 new teams encompassing close to 1,000 young people. Along with standard seed grants, Youth Venture has provided them with one-on-one counseling, access to an online network of young changemakers through our website, and critical resources to expand their ideas. Additionally, 2008 witnessed a hugely successful series of competitions designed to help young social entrepreneurs. Youth Venture partnered with Staples in October to produce a record turn-out of over 500 entries. Meanwhile, our current Best Buy @15 competition will give fifteen winners $10,000 to transform their dreams into realities.

In an article on youth social entrepreneurism and Youth Venture, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times writes, “Young people have often been engaged in social movements, of course, but today’s activists are younger than ever. More important, these kids aren’t just protesters but rather are “social entrepreneurs,” pioneering clever ways to “give back” just as a business entrepreneur fills a market niche.”

Youth Venture continues to rely on your generous support to build a movement of young changemakers capable of transforming themselves, their communities, and the world. Please provide us with any feedback on how we can better go about achieving this goal.

Links: