Youth Venture United States

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.

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.