Youth-led changemaking
Young people do not need to get ready to create change. They need to be trusted.
This is the certification home of youth-led changemaking: training for facilitators, and a certified path for institutions. By YES Founders Foundation (Berlin), with the model's creator Ali Raza Khan (YES Network Pakistan).
The concept
What is youth-led changemaking?
Youth-led changemaking means young people identify a real problem or opportunity, build a real solution, and deliver it to real people themselves, during their studies. Every student takes part, not only the five-star performers.
The approach was developed by Ali Raza Khan, founder of YES Network Pakistan, over more than two decades of practice since 2002. Its core inversion: trust first, evaluation later. Teams of 3 to 5 receive a small trust-based investment (about $25 per team) on day one, with no applications and no pitching, and four weeks to create social, economic and environmental value.
The deal is simple: if a team loses the money, they owe nothing. If they profit, they return the investment and contribute half of the first four weeks' profit to fund the next cohort. Everything beyond that belongs to the team. That is why the approach generates resources at the grassroots instead of consuming budgets. So a trust-based investment is not a loan. It is a risk-free catalyst for unleashing young people's changemaking potential.
The record
young people engaged in this methodology; 92% created social and economic impact within four weeks (YES Network Pakistan programme data).
of participants lived in extreme poverty, and became donors to the next cohort after their challenge (YES Network Pakistan programme data).
of 155 youth teams in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe turned a profit; 95% repaid their trust-based investment.
Documented transfers in Zimbabwe and Berlin; smaller pilot challenges have also run in Kenya and Mexico.
Read the case studies ↗Two certifications
Carry it forward, as a person or as an institution.
For individuals
Certified Changemaking Facilitator
Learn to run youth-led challenges in your school, university or community, and get mentored through your first real cycles until you can run them alone.
- Training in the model with Ali Raza Khan and the YFF team
- Mentorship through your first cohorts
- Certification once you have run real challenges and are grounded in the practice
For institutions
Certified Changemaker Hub
Go from a single four-week pilot to an institution where every student is trusted to act, one cohort at a time.
- Start with one pilot cohort, no institutional redesign required
- Grow to a certified Hub once challenges run reliably
- Report real numbers: teams, profitability, people served
- Become a lighthouse for youth-led changemaking, with the visibility and recognition that brings
Many people are both: they lead an institution and want to train as facilitators themselves. The application form has an option for exactly that.
Somewhere near you, a young person is waiting for permission.
They do not need another course, another form, or another year of getting ready. They need someone with the authority to say yes. If that is you, start here.
