Founded by an educator, a social worker and a university student, GYEC is a nimble nonprofit that has been connecting youth to each other and to their purpose since 2007.

Our Mission

To connect youth around the world to each other and to their purpose.

At GYEC, we believe that youth have a two-fold purpose. The first part of that purpose is to contribute to their own development as productive human beings in society. As part of that development process, they engage in an educational process. Through that process, we hope, they'll find meaningful and engaging work that allows them to earn a living wage. The second part of pursuing purpose is to contribute to the betterment of their local and global communities. As a result, they become less concerned about how much and how fast they will earn their living and become oriented instead to how can they give of their time, talent and treasure in service to humanity.

What's in a name?

For us, a lot. While "Global Youth for Education and Change" doesn't necessarily roll of the tongue, it speaks to the heart of our work. We serve youth globally—everyone from our next door neighbors to our friends across oceans and on different continents. (Yet that doesn't mean we try to serve everyone at once.)

More importantly, we serve youth using education as our intervention of choice. By education, we don't mean we're setting up schools, colleges or universities. Our definition of education starts at the root of the word, educe. We seek to "draw forth" and "bring out" the potential in all of the youth we serve.

Thus, we believe that all youth have the inherent capacity to fulfill their two-fold purpose. They are endowed with the potential to improve their lives as well as the ability to make the world a better place. And it's our job to help them do this.

As far as change is concerned, again, we have to look at purpose. If youth are to improve their lives and better the world, then the change we wish to see must be focused on both the individual and community spheres. That said, we hold ourselves to account by evaluating how youth are contributing to their own well-being in addition to how they're contributing to the well-being of the communities in which they live and work.