Our Mission:
Connect.
Around the world, youth are struggling to get through school, find jobs, and make meaning out of life. We support them in doing all these things by connecting them with their peers and to their purpose.
Our Mission
Around the world, youth are struggling to get through school, find jobs, and make meaning out of life. We support them in doing all these things by connecting them with each other and with their purpose.
Our Impact
When we think about our impact, we're curious about the answers to three questions:
- How much did we spend?
- How much did we do?
- And how much did it matter?
While the first two questions are relatively easy to answer, the third one, as one nonprofit leader has suggested, is a bit more complex. Nevertheless, we create logic models for all of our programs and allocate 5–10 percent of program funds to monitor, assess, and evaluate the impact of our work.
10+
years in operation
Despite our small size, we've been hard at work for more than 10 years.
40+
international interns
As a result, we've had more than 40 youth and young professionals serve as interns at our partner sites.
2K+
lives Impacted
And we've impacted the lives of more than two thousand youth, their families, and members of their community.
Our Programs
As a nimble nonprofit, we advance our mission in three key ways: 1) working alongside grassroots, community- and youth-based initiatives to build their capacities and amplify their impact; 2) translating work with our partners into co-created knowledge that can nurture an increasingly shared, yet evolving understanding of our reality and unified vision for the betterment of the world; and 3) operating an international internship program that engages university students in local and global acts of service that contribute to the transformation of individuals and their communities.
Consultation + Capacity Building
Each day, we have the privilege of working with the dedicated staff and volunteers at our partner organizations in the U.S., Costa Rica, and South Africa. As part of our collaborative work, we harness the power of relationships and networks to build our organizational capacities and those of our partners, and we use a consultative model for making decisions that "opens up worlds of possibilities for deep, rich, meaningful associations, for geometrically increased productivity, for serving, for contributing, for learning, [and] for growing."
Knowledge + Action CoLAB
We're a curious bunch. There are so many things we and our partners are interested in learning. Together, through our equal parts think tank and design studio, we translate our long list of interests into a shortlist of priorities and commit ourselves to studying, acting, reflecting, and consulting on them throughout the year. In the process, we build "critical, contemplative," creative, and coherent communities of practice that collaboratively generate knowledge and humbly offer their collective wisdom to others in the spirit of building a better world.
Intern for Change
Using a project-oriented, team-based approach, we engage a cadre of young people in socially innovative projects that transcend the traditional internship. Rolling up their sleeves and working alongside our partners, these university students break into small groups to apply knowledge gained from the classroom to address real world problems in Costa Rican and South African communities. As a result, they forge long-lasting relationships that help break down geographic boundaries and transform their understanding of what it means to be a citizen of the world.
Get Involved
Although there are many layers to our work, there are a few simple and easy ways you can get involved in what we're doing.
learn more.
We've got a lot going on. Sign up below to learn more about who we are, what we do, and most importantly, why we wake up every morning to advance our mission.
Serve as an intern.
If you're a young person studying at a university and eager to apply your knowledge in service to humanity, consider serving as one of our interns.
Make a gift.
We believe in joyful, hopeful, and generative giving. If our work speaks to you or stirs up these emotions—if it inspires you—consider making a gift.