Social Impact Analysis

$ 1 : 16

For every $1 of value invested, One Young World Ambassadors deliver $16 of social value, based on a Social Return on Investment analysis of 45 Ambassador-led initiatives addressing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2023

SDG Impact Tracker

    Interested in supporting impactful initiatives led by young leaders? Search this database of over 430 projects from the One Young World Community to find out more.

    El Derecho a No Obedecer

    El Derecho a No Obedecer disseminates campaigns to raise awareness of the plight of refugees. It also creates social campaigns around air quality and citizen security in Colombia.

    El Derecho a No Obedecer - Colombia

    Alejandro Daly
    Ambassador-led Initiative

    17

    SROI

    Colombia has experienced a large influx of Venezuelan refugees in recent years, with 1.7 million Venezuelans now residing in the country, 32% of the total number of Venezuelan migrants on the continent. In a climate of increasing hostility, Alejandro has led an initiative called ‘Your Flag is My Flag’ to promote the social and cultural integration of Venezuelan migrants and refugees across Latin America. They do this through organising conversational spaces, artistic projects, and community mobilisation to combat xenophobia.

    Alejandro and his team also developed the Xenophobia Barometer, a platform that analyses online conversations around migration in Latin America with the goal of providing policy-makers with information on public perception in real-time. Your Flag is My Flag has reached 115,000 refugees, migrants, and people from local communities, organising 5 national campaigns, community-based programmes, and anti-xenophobia training. Along with his other projects, Your Flag is my Flag is a part of El Derecho a No Obedecer, which is an independent initiative existing within the wider organisation, Corporación Otraparte.

    The 2019 One Young World Summit in London opened professional doors for Alejandro. AstraZeneca nominated him to be part of the first cohort in their partnership with UNICEF, where he became the lead point for advocacy and young people in the air pollution space. In this way, the Summit experience helped to scale his work. In 2018, Alejandro co-founded the National Citizen Network for Air Quality in Colombia, and since then they have successfully mobilised 1,500 people around issues related to air pollution. His project has also opened a school called New Airs to further mobilise young people and to monitor air pollution in 9 cities using low-cost equipment. They have so far trained 130 young people, and have expanded into Ecuador and Peru while influencing local development plans in Medellin and Cúcuta.

    “The One Young World Summit opened doors. It gives so many references on how to become a better advocate. I had the opportunity to choose which people I wanted my advocacy to be inspired by."

    Come Mejor Wa'ik/Eat Better Wa'ik

    Eat Better Wa'ik was established in order to combat the triple food crisis affecting Guatemala: malnutrition, obesity, and non-communicable diseases through education and awareness.

    Come Mejor Wa'ik/Eat Better Wa'ik - Guatemala

    Bibi la Luz Gonzalez
    Ambassador-led Initiative

    12

    SROI

    Bibi founded Eat Better Wa'ik as a pilot project shortly before attending the One Young World Summit in 2015, at which she spoke on the social cost of corruption on food. Food insecurity is an issue in Latin America that has only become more pressing and damaging since that time. Guatemala currently experiences the sixth highest level of chronic malnutrition in the world and also a pressing triple burden of malnutrition, with undernourishment, obesity, and non-communicable diseases.

    Bibi started Eat Better Wa'ik with the aim of addressing this challenge by merging food security, climate sustainability, and human rights. The objective is to generate food awareness and provoke action to reduce malnutrition through education, economy, agroforestry transformation, consumption, and technological solutions. This takes the form of various initiatives that support not just people in extreme poverty, but engage with those from low, middle, and high-income backgrounds. This is done through creative education, services, and products, connecting local communities with global policymaking. Direct intervention in the form of over 8,500 "improved food baskets" have been a crucial food response to humanitarian crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The team also delivers educational workshops to provide nutritional knowledge to promote healthy behavioural change. Eat Better Wa'ik runs, and provides content for, awareness-raising online and in-person events.

    The scale of Bibi's work has grown consistently through the years, and in mid-2019 she re-shaped the organisation after stepping away from her other role with the World Food Programme. This has allowed her to scale up the impact of Eat Better Wa'ik. Bibi and the team have spread sustainability education and impactful operations beyond Guatemala, from Thailand to Uruguay, and the USA to the UK. Through international coalitions, the organisation contributes to shaping global policy on food, climate, and human rights.

    “The One Young World Summit was the first opportunity we had to speak about Wa’ik and what we were doing, since it was only 3 months old by that time. It allowed us to connect with One Young World Partners, to collaborate or just be present. It gave me skills, of putting myself out there and participating.”

    Fluence - The Netherlands

    Marek Kubik
    Ambassador-led Initiative

    As a recent graduate engineer, Marek was searching for a career in sustainability when he found himself fired from his first job at the height of the global recession. This gave him a chance to reset, pursuing an industry-based doctorate on the challenges of integrated renewable energy to the electricity system. Ultimately, this early career pivot led to him becoming the Managing Director and founding member of a leading global energy storage technology and services company.


    Fluence is a company that unlocks a key part of the energy transition by solving intermittency issues around renewable energy. Fluctuations in the generation of renewable electricity mean that surplus energy needs to be stored somewhere to maintain a consistent supply. Thus, innovative hardware and software products such as those made by Fluence help renewables to compete with and displace fossil fuel-based power. The company develops energy storage products that work with a range of battery chemistries and that form standardised building blocks but can be personalised in order to suit almost any customer need. Fluence, which began as a joint venture between Siemens and AES in 2018, has emerged as an industry-leading technology and product company that has delivered the world’s largest fleet of battery-based energy storage. The company recently completed an IPO that raised around $1bn on the NASDAQ stock exchange.


    Marek is currently responsible for growing business in the UK, Ireland, the Middle East and Africa where he oversees a team responsible for originating and contracting energy storage products, software and services sales. Fluence continues to grow rapidly, facilitating the clean energy transition with more than 150 projects ongoing in 30 global markets.

    “One Young World gave me a gigantic platform to share my message on the role of technology to improve our lives and wellbeing. Addressing the Environment Plenary Keynote in 2017 to an audience of 1200 delegates was a huge honour and something I will never forget. Ultimately, it led to a number of other opportunities, such as being asked to give my TED Talk “Batteries Not Included” the following year.”

    Reeddi

    Reeddi offers clean, sustainable electricity through its capsules in Nigeria, while its platform, TempOwn, allows people to lease critical infrastructure

    Reeddi - Nigeria

    Olugbenga Olubanjo
    Ambassador-led Initiative

    5

    SROI

    Reeddi is a climate technology company that seeks to bridge the gaps in electricity provision in Nigeria by offering an affordable alternative based on clean energy sources. Despite progress in recent years, 75% of the global population without electricity lives in sub-Saharan Africa. Those who do have access to the power grid experience regular blackouts and supply shortages, with Nigerians on average enjoying only 7 hours of grid electricity per day. Olugbenga had the idea for the Reeddi capsule as early as 2017 but the project finally went live in September 2019.

    What Olugbenga enjoyed most about his experience at the 2019 One Young World Summit was the access he gained to like-minded people from all over the world, some of whom he is still in contact with. Reeddi has grown tremendously since then, with its sustainable energy capsule included as one of Time Magazine’s best inventions of 2021. The capsules are solar-powered and can be rented for a small daily fee. They are designed to be movable and can be used across multiple environments over a day, with one capsule able to power a wide range of electrical devices. Currently, 500 capsules are operational but Olugbenga hopes to scale this significantly in the coming year.

    Through its capsule system, Reeddi provides 1,000 days of clean electricity every month, with a customer base of over 600 businesses and households. Olugbenga has also established a leasing platform, TempOwn, where people can rent critical infrastructure including the Reeddi capsules and other essential equipment. TempOwn is an insurance-covered platform and users can see the value of the emissions they save by renting from it. Since beginning operations, it has had around 800 active users across all fields.

    “The access to like-minded people was probably one of the reasons I enjoyed my One Young World experience. Being within the One Young World Community gives you credibility. When we got the Time Best Inventions award, stuff from One Young World came up when they asked about what I've done.”

    Piipee

    Piipee is a biodegradable chemical additive that sanitises urine by removing the smell and changing the colour, saving toilet water as a result.

    Piipee - Brazil

    Ezequiel Vedana da Rosa
    Ambassador-led Initiative

    58

    SROI

    In terms of quantity, Brazil is by most measures a water-rich country. Yet it has experienced rising utility rates resulting from alarmingly low water levels in key hydroelectric reservoirs, while food prices have also increased due to drought [1]. Despite its vast resources, water has proven to be a persistent problem for the country. The huge increases in water prices in 2014-2015 threatened to turn into a full-blown crisis, and it was in that climate that Ezequiel decided to co-found Piipee.

    In 2018, Ezequiel became one of the UN’s young leaders for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), representing Clean Water and Sanitation. This achievement gave him the opportunity to attend that year’s One Young World Summit at the Hague. The conversations he was a part of while there led him to connect with Unilever in Brazil. One Young World introduced Ezequiel to a huge new community of companies, partners, and peers with expertise he could learn from and stories from which he could draw inspiration. Ezequiel has come to believe that a problem that’s too big becomes nobody’s problem, and that the best way to tackle the water crisis is to offer a monetary incentive for behavioural change.

    Piipee is a prize-winning biodegradable product that removes the smell and colour of urine while sanitising toilets without the need for water. Since production began in 2015, Piipee has amassed a user base of 200,000 individuals. On average people and businesses who use the product have reported a 35% fall in their water bills, and Piipee has the potential to save upwards of 80% of the water used in toilets. Piipee has also established itself in poor communities, providing free services to 30 families with impressive results in cost reduction and behavioural change.

    "When I send my information, it’s my name, the UN affiliation, and my One Young World affiliation. It’s really nice to see how people respect these titles. This represents something, I am representing something. It opens so many doors."

    ChangeMakers

    ChangeMakers seeks to break the male-dominated stereotype of the programming profession by designing curriculums and pursuing interactive teaching methods.

    ChangeMakers - Syria

    Salam Al Nukta
    Ambassador-led Initiative

    2

    SROI

    Salam grew up in a household that encouraged her to pursue the same opportunities as her brothers, but the community outside her home did not mirror this equality. Solving gender inequality would not only overcome an issue exacerbated by years of conflict but could unlock essential economic development for the country.

    Salam turned this challenge into the seeds of a social enterprise, ChangeMakers, which she began at the end of 2016 in Damascus. It has the mission of breaking the masculine stereotype of programming, by encouraging and empowering females to enter the programming profession. ChangeMakers achieves this by creating specially-designed curriculums and pursuing interactive teaching methods used by a number of experts who are distinctively passionate about programming. Both boys and girls are invited to these sessions guaranteeing a 50/50 gender ratio to reduce perceived differences. Educational programmes last for between 6-8 hours on average, including 15 different sessions implementing a variety of educational teaching techniques. Now based in the Netherlands, Salam has recently launched a new enterprise to carry forward the work begun by ChangeMakers, called Warsha. Before this shift in April 2021, ChangeMakers had successfully educated 50+ participants between 15 and 18 years old in Damascus, Syria. Success stories include 3 participants securing full scholarships to study abroad and others at private universities in Syria, some using the education as a foundation to start their own enterprises, and many going on to study computer science in further education. In addition to the core programme, ChangeMakers provided 150 participants with a shorter form of the curriculum via workshops and reached an audience of 1,500 at conferences.

    Today, Salam’s new social enterprise Warsha is focusing on helping companies and organisations in the West develop research-based programmes to fulfil their social goals, mainly in the East. It collates tech and entrepreneurship resources on an online platform to allow Arabic speakers to access the same opportunities that are available in the English language.

    “I admit that One Young World tremendously impacted my life. Indirectly, because I came to the Summit via a scholarship from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Netherlands. I kept that connection, and later I got an internship. Later, I worked towards and received a grant from the Ministry. It would be unfair to say that One Young World did not open a huge door of opportunities."

    Jabez House

    Jabez House exists to support and empower female sex workers, facilitating their transition away from sex work through alternative economic opportunities.

    Jabez House - Barbados

    Shamelle Rice
    Ambassador-led Initiative

    5

    SROI

    Jabez House was founded by Shamelle Rice as the only organisation of its kind in Barbados offering alternative economic opportunities through skills development and empowerment to female sex workers. Shamelle’s initial work focused on HIV and human trafficking, but she quickly realised that a major factor contributing to increased rates of sex work was economic vulnerability and that no one was offering female sex workers an alternative.

    Shamelle remembers the One Young World Summit in Bangkok vividly, and seeing so many other young people from across the world with visions as big as hers inspired her with an even greater desire to press on with Jabez House. The Summit also impacted the nature of her vision for the organisation, she learned more about the social enterprise model and began thinking about how she could implement it in her own work. Over the years, Jabez House has helped women transition out of sex work by offering free training courses where women can immediately learn skills that open new employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for them.

    Through community outreach, Jabez House has provided 550 female sex workers with the commodities they need to work safely. Around 220 women have gone through its training programmes so far, with the vast majority of these women having transitioned out of sex work completely or cut their involvement significantly. As most of these women are mothers, Jabez House has expanded its efforts to provide school supplies and basic needs assistance like food, clothing, and in some cases housing, to affected children. Since COVID-19, they have focused more on digital empowerment and workshops with female entrepreneurs to ensure that the transitioning process can continue.

    "Going to the One Young World Summit and hearing the different sessions, expertise, hearts, it impacted me in a way that caused my worldview, horizon, and everything to be so much bigger than they would have been had I not gone"

    Movement for Cooperation and Development of Youth

    The Movement for Cooperation and Development of Youth aims to develop socially responsible future business leaders in Serbia through skills development and community projects.

    Movement for Cooperation and Development of Youth - Serbia

    Stefan Raicevic
    Ambassador-led Initiative

    5

    SROI

    The Movement for Cooperation and Development of Youth (MCDY) was co-founded by Stefan Raicevic and pitched at the 2015 One Young World Summit to one of One Young World's partner organisations, The Resolution Project, who provided the venture with guides, platforms, and funding. Serbia is a country that experiences high levels of youth unemployment, the figure currently stands at 25% but in 2015 this number was far greater at an unsustainable 42%. The MCDY designed its workshops with young people in mind, bringing in experts who were often themselves young professionals, to discuss topics of interest to their peers.

    The One Young World Summit spurred Stefan’s own professional development. It was at the Summit that he first discovered the “Big 4” auditing companies, where he is now employed. His engagement with One Young World lasted well beyond the event itself, and in 2016 he became the One Young World Coordinating Ambassador for the Europe 3 region, overseeing event organisation and community engagement in that part of the world. The project management skills he picked up during this period proved useful in both his professional and personal endeavours. The MCDY included a youth academy, which involved going to schools and other educational institutions and organising lectures, workshops, as well as practical small-scale community projects. Participants learned about environmental protection, intercultural community-building, as well as college and career guidance.

    The COVID-19 pandemic meant that the next stage in the MCDY’s development was postponed but Stefan has plans to restart the project in 2022. In total, 269 people participated in the smaller community projects, workshops, and lectures while 81 people graduated from the academy. Of these, a significant number received employment opportunities as a direct result of their involvement.

    "At the One Young World Summit I learned that for-profit and non-profit worlds can and should cooperate in order to bring changes. This was a key part of our work at the MCDY - to create socially conscious young business leaders through community development projects.”

    Building Blocks Entrepreneurship Academy

    Building Blocks Entrepreneurship Academy aims to build the skill-set of its students so that they can better succeed in the current economic climate of South Africa.

    Building Blocks Entrepreneurship Academy - South Africa

    Nozipho Mpanza
    Ambassador-led Initiative

    25

    SROI

    South Africa is experiencing an unemployment crisis that is disproportionately impacting young people, with rates reaching as high as 66.5% for people aged between 15-24 years. This issue will have long-term consequences on the economic future of the country. Nozipho has been committed to tackling this challenge since 2015, when she began to help young people prepare their CVs to access the job market. However, she soon realised that intervention was not enough, and in 2018 she went to the roots of the issue by providing better quality education to give young people a platform from which to launch their careers.

    The Academy, co-founded by Nozipho, aims to build the skill-set of its students so that they can better succeed in the current economic climate of South Africa. The organisation ran its first 5 day bootcamp in 2019, involving special guest speakers, interactive content, and ending with a market-day where students could present their designed enterprises to a selection of businesses. Since the pandemic, the organisation moved bootcamps online, shortening the days slightly from 8 hours to 4.5 but maintaining the same quality of content. The Academy also hosts an interactive e-learning platform after noticing interest from parents in a more adult-focused programme. This covers similar ideas, with modules exploring emotional intelligence, conflict management skills, negotiation skills and problem-solving abilities. The project's core team also makes itself readily available for one-on-one sessions for young people interested in entrepreneurship and career development. Between the various different programmes, more than 4,000 people have received this comprehensive education to prepare them for the world of work and an entrepreneurial career.

    The Academy uses business funding to sponsor students from low-income backgrounds, ensuring that there is a diverse demographic of students in the alumni network and guaranteeing the education is accessible. The team continues to support the most engaged students through this alumni network. In addition to its core programmes, Building Blocks has also visited schools in Hong Kong and Rwanda to explore similar programmes and provide training on diversity issues.

    “The One Young World network has assisted Building Blocks in its endeavour to reach communities across the world through bridging connections between Building Blocks and its global partners. On multiple occasions, Building Blocks has collaborated with ambassadors of One Young World to deliver our workshops and training.”

    Moja

    Moja teaches sewing to people in Tanzania in order to tackle period poverty through the production of sustainable sanitary products and underwear.

    Moja - Australia

    Elissa Glorie
    Ambassador-led Initiative

    5

    SROI

    Menstrual health is a taboo topic in much of the world. For example, nearly half of girls in the UK aged between 14-21 are embarrassed about their period. In Tanzania, more than 80% of girls fear being teased about menstruation, especially by boys. That has vast health, social and educational consequences. When menstrual health education is inadequate and access to menstrual products is limited, risk of disease and infection climbs. In addition, the average menstruating student misses three to four classes during each cycle.

    A social entrepreneur, Elissa, co-founded Moja in 2019 to address the issue. It is an underwear company that aims to use business as a force for social good. Moja creates underwear for men and women and uses part of the margin to reduce health inequalities in developing regions. People with a distance to the labour force in Tanzania receive education on sewing and entrepreneurship. They produce underwear and reusable menstrual pads which are distributed in schools alongside health and menstrual health education. Moreover, 5 local entrepreneurs have received the skills and training to supply these products and run their own small enterprises, producing 5,800 sanitary products to date. Children in the region, both boys and girls, have also been taught about relationships, hygiene, and menstrual health, with 2,200 students in local schools educated on menstrual hygiene.

    Moja strives for transparency and sustainability in its underwear production. The underwear sold on its webshop is produced ethically in Portugal, with an OEKO-Tex Standard100 Certification. The Moja team has established a local team in Tanzania, running entrepreneurship programmes in two sewing locations and building a framework for education workshops.

    “I was always passionate about social entrepreneurship, but One Young World opened my eyes to the depth and breadth of impact that was possible. The network continues to challenge and inspire me to be more thoughtful and compassionate in my leadership.”

    United Youth Leaders of Barbados

    The United Youth Leaders of Barbados is a youth empowerment charity focused on developing youth leadership skills and supporting young voices.

    United Youth Leaders of Barbados - Barbados

    Christa Soleyn
    Ambassador-led Initiative

    7

    SROI

    Christa founded the United Youth Leaders of Barbados (UYLB) because young people can change their communities for the better, but often lack the necessary skills to implement their ideas. Barbados has struggled with the issue of youth unemployment, with the current figure standing at 29% in light of the pandemic. Christa started the project 15 years ago but has since established a structure to ensure that young adults continue to run the UYLB, with the older cohort including herself acting in a more supervisory role.

    Attending the 2019 One Young World Summit in London helped Christa step out of her comfort zone. As a solution-driven person, being part of the One Young World Community has allowed Christa to see herself as part of a bigger change, and her work has expanded beyond the immediate circle of the UYLB. She sits on the board of an industrial school for young offenders, helping to implement institutional changes from a young person's perspective, and has collaborated with other One Young World Ambassadors. Many of the UYLB’s webinars focus on mental health, integrating Christa’s psychology background, while the initiative also focuses on providing young people with practical entrepreneurial skills.

    The UYLB organises an annual retreat, with 202 participants attending since 2016. The retreat always includes a project which generates real impact, and many participants go on to start their own organisations and work in the community after leaving the UYLB. Christa’s goal has been to turn young people into engaged citizens and the UYLB has organised workshops on a range of topics related to this, including C.V. writing, volunteering, and civic engagement.

    "After the One Young World Summit I stayed in contact with other Ambassadors from the region. But I also gained knowledge and heard the stories and found new ways of doing things. Before One Young World, I would have stayed in my lane, now I see myself as part of a bigger change"

    Voicing Voices

    Voicing Voices works to implement cultural change through the creation of diverse and inclusive safe spaces. The organisation co-designs solutions to the diversity challenges.

    Voicing Voices - United Kingdom

    Ayan Said
    Ambassador-led Initiative

    9

    SROI

    Ayan worked as a teacher before founding Voicing Voices in the aftermath of the pandemic. The UK’s gender furlough gap, in which 133,000 more women were furloughed than men [1], exacerbated the challenges already faced by women from vulnerable communities across the country. While in Qatar, Ayan became active in mobilising young people for social justice through education and she has maintained this drive ever since.

    Ayan attended the 2019 One Young World Summit in London and was immediately consumed with the atmosphere present throughout the event. She felt that the work she had been trying to do by herself was validated through her membership in a community of like-minded young people. Through One Young World, Ayan received mentorship which proved to be useful both in terms of practical advice and realising her potential. Since then, Voicing Voices has grown to address gender inequalities in marginalised communities with an emphasis on intersectional factors. Ayan has designed and delivered workshops to international audiences in Qatar, collaborating with the Qatar Foundation on multiple campaigns raising awareness for International Women’s Day. This includes supporting masters students at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in designing courses on how parents can support SDG 5, and providing leadership training to young people for THIMUN Qatar. She has also delivered workshops to UN Women UK and Solace Women’s Aid, focusing on the challenges faced by women in both personal and professional settings.

    Ayan is committed to purpose-driven networks and communities like Wading Herons, an organisation of former corporate professionals interested in social entrepreneurship, and maintains an active role in the One Young World Community. She has directly delivered workshops, seminars, and talks to over 464 people and has written for publications such as Doha News, while also partnering with the Qatar Medical Students Association for a period of five years.

    "At the Summit I was engulfed, consumed, with the atmosphere. It felt that all the work I was trying to do on my own had been validated. It made me realise I wasn't alone"

     

    Find Out More

    ASENTI Africa - Kenya

    Calvin Jodisi
    Ambassador-led Initiative

    34

    SROI

    The African Summit on Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ASENTI) was directly inspired by the 2011 One Young World Summit in Zurich. Upon arriving back in Kenya, Calvin immediately set out to influence entrepreneurial spaces in Africa. The continent reportedly has the highest percentage of entrepreneurs among working-age adults in the world, and this presents an opportunity to expand incubation programmes for budding entrepreneurs there. ASENTI has successfully accelerated entrepreneurship throughout Africa by helping young businesses reach the next stage of scalability and providing them with networking opportunities.

    Calvin received similar opportunities at the 2011 One Young World Summit, connecting with young people who were generating impact in their own communities. He has since stayed in touch with most of the people he met through One Young World, and utilised the inspiration he found there to begin his work with ASENTI while maintaining a community upon which he could rely. ASENTI has developed strong partnerships with other organisations interested in African entrepreneurship, including UNFPA, UNIDO, and Oracle. Currently, the organisation has several different initiatives, including an agritech mentorship programme, the main summit in Kenya as well as several smaller, virtual summits regionally where more specific challenges can be addressed. Calvin frequently contributes to start-up discussions in his own country.

    At the ASENTI summit, 10 start-ups are selected out of 100 applicants to pitch their business idea and model to an audience of successful entrepreneurs. So far more than 2,500 people have attended an ASENTI summit, while 2,000 people have undergone incubation and mentorship through ASENTI initiatives from 30 African countries. A further 1,000 have been impacted through ASENTI’s work with partner organisations. ASENTI Africa focuses on sustainable energy, fintech, agribusiness, health innovation, and technology, through which it hopes to empower and influence the continent’s entrepreneurial spaces.

    "I have become more confident as a leader and I derive that from One Young World. The kind of platform it gives you exposes you to people you only see through media or hear about, and that gives you confidence"

    Foundation For Girls

    Foundation For Girls helps vulnerable young women through economic empowerment, financial wellness, digital skills, and care packages.

    Foundation For Girls - United States

    Shreya Mantha
    Ambassador-led Initiative

    20

    SROI

    Shreya co-founded Foundation For Girls (FFG) with her sister in 2014. Encouraged by her parents to find a way to give back to their community, Shreya discovered that Charlotte, North Carolina, suffered from a serious lack of community resources for young women and single mothers despite being the second largest banking hub in the US. The same year FFG was founded, Charlotte was ranked last for economic mobility out of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the country. FFG seeks to address this problem by helping vulnerable young women develop the knowledge and skills they need to begin a process of multi-generational change.

    Shreya found the 2019 One Young World Summit in London to be one of the most impactful experiences of her life, and the One Young World Community has become a useful sounding board for her work irrespective of the direction it takes. FFG has developed a strong network of coaches, consisting of young women executives who are committed to investing in the programme long-term. As a partner-based organisation, FFG does not have a physical site of its own but has grown rapidly through word of mouth and now has a presence in 9 US states.

    Since its founding, FFG has worked directly with 2,500 mothers and 466 children. Its work focuses on holistic economic empowerment, giving these women the knowledge and behavioural patterns they need to make the best decisions possible for themselves and their dependents. FFG’s 4-pillar programming in Financial Well-Being, Career Journey, Digitally Forward, and Circle of Care equips women with the resources they need on their journey to economic mobility. In 2021 alone, FFG invested in 207 women and 99 children via 3,510 coaching hours, 6,903 care hours, and 12,702 care packs. Through knowledge transmission, FFG builds economic resilience in communities across the US.

    "The diversity of thought and leadership and how people approach situations was a huge learning for me at One Young World. It’s always in the back of my mind that One Young World is there as a resource and as a Community, and it's really comforting to know we have support like that."

    SocialBoost - Ukraine

    Viktor Gurskyi
    Ambassador-led Initiative

    44

    SROI

    In 2021, Ukraine ranked as the second most corrupt country in Europe according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. To help turn the tide and develop Ukraine’s technological infrastructure, Viktor co-founded SocialBoost. The NGO produced its own IT products including digital platforms, as well as a start-up incubation programme and an investor school to aid the growth of local businesses.

    Viktor attended the One Young World Summit in 2017 in Bogotá. Despite being older than most other delegates he still found the experience extremely fruitful, both in terms of its motivational value and the networks and connections he developed with delegates while there. Viktor has a vision of a digital society in Ukraine, and he tries to maintain the connections he formed with the One Young World Community as a source of constant inspiration for him. SocialBoost grew by over 200% after the Summit, despite the constraints that come with operating in a difficult political climate.

    SocialBoost’s digital platform is used by up to a million people. It can be used to plan municipal budgets, taking into account the priorities and preferences of local residents. This participatory element has been adopted by over a hundred cities in Ukraine, ensuring transparency at every stage of the budgeting process. SocialBoost has also developed a community of over 50 mentors and 5 key experts to help local start-ups, with 150 companies graduating from the accelerator programme since 2016. The mentors are responsible for the start-up’s development, providing consultations and matchmaking the companies with their own extensive networks.

    [Information accurate as of interview, 11/01/2022]

    “The Summit was a huge motivation boost, and I still have some connections that I maintain from it. One Young World is a huge community all in one place, and looking at these people generating impact even after the Summit is very inspiring”

    How to use to the SDG Tracker

    Search for projects by the following case study categories:

     

    • Ambassador-led Initiatives: qualitative and quantitative analysis of the social impact of projects which are led by young leaders in the Community.
    • Business for Social Good: written case studies for initiatives ran by corporate partner organisations, led by young Ambassadors/employees.
    • Leadership Biographies: short biographies of Ambassadors who are growing into influential leaders for social good in some of the world’s largest companies, organisations, and in government.
    • One Young World Funded Projects: detailed case studies of grant recipients from One Young World's funding opportunities, including Lead2030, Rebuilding Communities, and the COVID Young Leaders Fund.

    Annual Impact Reports (2016-2022)

    Download One Young World's Annual Impact Reports from past years:

    2016

    Impact Report

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    2017

    Impact Report

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    2018

    Impact Report

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    2019

    Impact Report

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    2020

    Impact Report

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    2021

    Impact Report

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    2022

    Impact Report

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