Youth Action for Change

YAC also identifies specific and urgent areas where young people are seriously being disadvantaged and receiving little attention and where it’s online courses alone may not be enough to empower those young people to a level where they could bring about significant change in their communities.

YAC’s response has been to create specialised and targeted projects focusing on the needs of these groups of young people, capturing global interest and also training them about the issues and to create community projects. In effect YAC acts as an instigator in these situations as well as providing training support.

Please find below a description of the projects YAC is currently coordinating:

Forgotten Diaries - Forgotten Conflict Zones Worldwide

Click here to visit the Forgotten Diaries web site

Forgotten Diaries (FD) is an online initiative set up by YAC to shed light on young people living in forgotten, under-reported conflict zones around the world. Five young people were selected from each of 10 conflict zones to blog about their daily experiences and present a human face to the crises. The participants were also trained by YAC to begin creating community development projects.

Forgotten Diaries has supported participants to develop innovative grass roots peace building projects in a number of countries and is currently shooting a documentary. FD has won numerous awards including the 2009 World Aware Education Award from the Council of Europe and attracted over 20,000 visitors. YAC established a partnership with Oxfam OIYP over Forgotten Diaries, and offered an activity in cooperation with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

YAC supported participants of Forgotten Diaries to create local peace building and conflict resolution education projects in schools in Ethiopia:

Young Innovations Europe - Europe

Click here to visit the Yong Innovations Europe web site

YIE is a new, cool, youth magazine showcasing the best initiatives and innovations young people are implementing throughout Europe. Be it Politics, Economy, the Arts, Science or the Third Sector, YIE sheds light on the most compelling and original ideas, informing and inspiring the youth to take action. It also cater to an adult readership, presenting the latest information and news on young people's contribute to building a better Europe. YIE is the first magazine of this kind in Europe.

YIE aims at informing young people across Europe about youth-led groundbreaking initiatives through a fresh approach and appealing stories.
Not only does it shed light on young people and ideas making waves in different fields, it also encourages the young readers to get active through a ‘Resource Box’: each article – skillfully written and with a captivating graphic – is complemented by a host of contacts and details about the featured organization, information about similar initiatives, related events and resources. It also offers tips to help the readers replicate and adapt the idea to their countries or communities.

YIE launched in November 2009 and its first issue was downloaded by more than 5,000 people!

Children's Scholarship Fund - India

With the money received from the Council of Europe's  'World Aware Education Award', YAC established a permanent scholarships fund for destitute children living in Varanasi (Benares) India. This academic year, the fund will support twenty children studying at Aghoreshwar Gurukul, located near Varanasi. More information about the school can be found here.


United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UN-CSD)

YAC is the 2008-2009 Organising Partner for the Major Group on Children and Youth (Youth Caucus) at the UN-CSD. YAC coordinates the participation and inclusion of young people and supervises the whole process. In 2008, YAC also provided translations of information and materials in the six official languages of the UN, had a new website created for the Youth Caucus and organised several actions on the ground.


Online Interactive Guide for Young Activists

Along with Moblize America's Youth and the Empty Belly Foundation, YAC has been given a small grant by the International Youth Foundation to create an online interactive guide for young activists. YAC is taking care of the international version of the website, supervising translations and adaptations in Spanish.


'Robin Hoodies' Blog for VITA Europe

YAC concluded a partnership with VITA Europe in 2007, and has provided content, contacts and feedback for their 'Youth Activism' section since then. As of June, YAC runs their 'Robin Hoodies' blog, talking about youth-led social enterprises in Europe.