The Global Youth Mobilization
Global Youth Mobilization is a movement of young people taking action to improve their lives and communities in a post-COVID-19 world.
Supported by the world’s largest global youth organisations, of which the Award is one, as well as the World Health Organization, and United Nations Foundation, GYM aims to address the negative impact of the pandemic on young people and support them to build back better.
There are an estimated 1.2 billion young people impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic response measures. Disruptions to education, employment, services and social support have changed the future of an entire generation.
It is more important than ever that governments, policy makers, academics, business leaders and civil society come together to find innovative ways of supporting communities and providing hope to younger generations.
With support from the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, GYM supports and scales-up youth-led solutions and youth engagement programs across the world.
Young people are an essential part of the solution to pandemic recovery. Investing in programs, policies and initiatives led by and for young people will bring about sustainable change in the livelihoods and health of young people now and in the future.
WHO is honoured to join this truly exciting and powerful global movement to mobilize and empower youth to be a driving force of the recovery to COVID-19. Joining forces with the Big 6 and the United Nations Foundation provides WHO and the world a unique opportunity to learn from hundreds of millions of young people and be guided by their energy and ideas to help communities build back better.”NATIONAL PROJECTS AND LOCAL SOLUTIONS
The two key ways of distributing money to directly fund people and their communities came through ‘National Projects’ and ‘Local Solutions’.
The National Projects fund national organisations and networks’ projects, whilst Local Solutions funding helps individual young people, informal groups and youth-led grassroots organisations to come up with ideas address the challenges that effect young people globally.
National Projects funded by the Award through The Global Youth Mobilization
In 2022, Global Youth Mobilization (GYM) invited national organisations to apply for project funding designed to support young people in the recovery from Covid-19.
There was an overwhelming interest from organisations within all ‘Big 6’ members, including The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation.
We were delighted that 13 projects within our Award family were selected to receive GYM National Projects funding.
The projects are in many different parts of the world (from Czechia to Cameroon, Hong Kong to India) and are wide-ranging in their focus – but all have the same goal; equipping young people with the skills, resources and knowledge to make change in their local communities and develop innovative solutions for the impact of COVID-19.
Empowering the Visually Impaired to be World Ready: The International Award for Young People, India
This project will empower visually impaired young people to be World Ready by building new skills, confidence and resilience through undertaking the Award. This will open up the opportunity to engage in non-formal education and skills development outside the classroom to young people who ordinarily don’t have access to this.
Find out more here.
Boost Camps: MEPI – Program Mednarodno priznanje za mlade – Slovenia
Boost Camps are designed for young students to awaken their goal-oriented and creative minds, and focus on showing the importance of giving back to society and maintaining good physical and mental health.
The project is run in conjunction with World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and World Scouts.
To read about more of these Award National Solutions projects in detail click here.
Local Solutions to the pandemic recovery
The Local Solutions project initiative was a call to all young people, regardless of background or location, to submit their solutions to the health and societal COVID-19 challenges facing young people and their communities today, and to receive funding to turn these ideas into reality. To date the GYM has received more than 1,600 Local Solutions applications from 70 countries.
Youth-led solutions to the pandemic recovery are at the heart of the GYM. As part of this, we invested more than $2million in young people: in their ideas, their innovations, and their futures.
All funding applications were judged and decided on by other young people and experts on juries appointed by the GYM.
You can learn more about the projects and young people who have been making positive change helping their peers and communities during COVID-19, by visiting globalyouthmobilization.force.com
Unstoppable Together
Celebrating two years of youth-led global action
On 11 and 15 of February 2023 The Big Six Youth Organizations, supported by the World Health Organization and United Nations Foundation held a virtual event and accompanying side events showcasing the impact of youth-led solutions and celebrating the achievements of the Global Youth Mobilization (GYM) over the last 2 years.
During these key moments we reflected on the impact of young people leading youth-led solutions to the health and societal negative effects created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
You can watch all the action back here:
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