Ye! Community Global Movement

Using systems change to reduce youth unemployment by enhancing global support for youth entrepreneurship.

Youth unemployment is a global issue. It impacts economies around the world and produces a drain on domestic GDP and the potential for increased economic growth at both the national and international level. Today the number of youth who are unemployed stands at an unprecedented 70.1 million. Globally, the rate of youth unemployment is 13%. These numbers elucidate that youth unemployment presents an ongoing challenge for governments and stakeholders around the globe. Youth-led enterprise offers a solution.

Young entrepreneurs, on average, employ 10 other young people. This has the potential to immensely decrease the number of unemployed youth around the world and increase economic growth. Our role as the Child & Youth Finance International (CYFI) is to create, facilitate, and leverage a global movement which incites systematic change, first and foremost in mindset, but also on the legislative and policy level. By building a network of relevant stakeholders, on a national and global level, we create a collaborative movement for large-scale and long-term social change. 

Ye! Community, our online youth entrepreneurship community, has a high impact at a low cost, for example, by connecting young entrepreneurs with technological experts who already use the technology the entrepreneurs are seeking. These experts can provide the technology to the entrepreneurs, along with help using the tools, to enable the entrepreneurs to grow their businesses effectively. The goal of the Ye! Community is to prepare the next generation for jobs that use (or create new) technology to increase the well-being of their community and society at large.

Within the Ye! Community, local Ye! Ambassadors take the lead in working directly with CYFI to build local communities and offer in person support to their fellow peers. CYFI advocates at the national and international level, leveraging the voices of these young entrepreneurs and placing them into the conversation directly.

To celebrate the entrepreneurs and ensure growth of the global community, CYFI organises national and international Ye! Awards ceremonies in which finalists receive training in business management, leadership, ICT, or public speaking and are provided with a platform to pitch their products and ideas to high-level representatives from the public and private sector. Ye! works to help facilitate partnerships between young entrepreneurs and corporate or governmental sponsors through such events. There are special awards for entrepreneurs featuring new or improved technology. Additionally, the website provides access to mentors, training and tech resources, and a platform to converse with other young entrepreneurs, using an online network to ensure global reach and make information more accessible.

This is why the Ye! Community Global Movement deserves your support. Ye! serves over 15,000 people from more than 140 countries. By winning the solve challenge, CYFI will be able to enhance its support for young entrepreneurs by appointing new ambassadors, organizing more awareness-building events, providing more in person and online coaching with experts from around the world, and putting the voice of the youth at the forefront of the discussion in a great number of countries around the world.

Ye! Community uses an online platform to connect young entrepreneurs around the globe to peers, resources, tools, mentors, and information. By having an online platform and complementing this with offline activities, Ye! uses tech as the platform in which to engage these entrepreneurs. Through the online community, access to resources and knowledge is available to people outside of urban centres and cross-cultural communication is facilitated between members of the global community. Ye! is part of a systems change process in which entrepreneurs, governmental agencies, corporations, banks, NGOs, and academics are brought together to help combat youth unemployment around the world. 

Technology is integral to Ye! Community due to its ability to make tools, resources, and information more widely accessible and thus remove barriers for underserved individuals to gain access to information and resources about entrepreneurship. Ye! also hosts coaching webisodes along-side its in-person coaching sessions, to train young entrepreneurs around the world on how to grow their businesses. We are especially focused on teaching entrepreneurs how to use technology, such as excel and Salesforce, and are currently exploring the development of tech solutions with Salesforce that would help the entrepreneurs grow their businesses.

Over the next 12 months, CYFI hopes to grow the Ye! Community to reach 30,000 youth on the website. In addition, we hope to increase the number of local chapters led by Ye Ambassadors to 20. Ye Ambassadors are young, successful entrepreneurs who support other up-and-coming entrepreneurs in their communities and create in-person networks to target the needs of entrepreneurs in that specific community.

Our 2023 goal is to grow our online network to 100,000 young entrepreneurs and have local chapters and ambassadors in over 50 countries. CYFI will continue to work internationally with multilateral and financial institutions to create programs and policy solutions with youth consultation. By partnering with banks to create financial products and tech companies to provide technological products, Ye! will increase young entrepreneurs' ability to scale their businesses. We will provide the toold and support for governments, banks, and networks provide more products and support for youth entrepreneurs.

Ye! Community will reach and retain entrepreneurs by creating more off-line communities in different countries. This is done by hosting Ye! Country Awards that bring together the most accomplished entrepreneurs in the country and trains them to guide entrepreneurs in their local communities experiencing similar structural barriers to starting their businesses. This will help them to get direct support, especially technological expertise, for their start-ups and hopefully encourage collaboration between local entrepreneurs and local corporations or innovation hubs. Annual Awards Ceremonies, continued by local governments, can continue to bring in and network new entrepreneurs.

Ye! Community serves young entrepreneurs between the ages of 16 and 30. We currently have over 15,000 members on Ye! Community from 141 countries. In addition, we have Ye Ambassadors in 13 countries who organize events, raise awareness, and help network for young entrepreneurs in their country. Ye targets overlooked entrepreneurs who are not generally targeted by traditional hubs and networks. This includes doing work in countries where entrepreneurship is not supported through existing policies or lacks corporate support and funding.

Ye! community serves young entrepreneurs who are either at the beginning of their start-up journey or who are struggling to grow their businesses. By providing tools, networks, mentors, and corporate partnerships, Ye! community helps these young people successfully run and grow their businesses, including hiring young employees. We expect to increase our number of Ye! community members to over 30,000 in the next 12 months, however, our aim is not only to grow our Ye! community but also to decrease youth unemployment in the areas in which our entrepreneurs are active by creating more businesses that will employ local youth.

The Ye! team consists of young people from many countries, including the USA, Italy, the Netherlands, and Jordan. Having an international team, focused on global outreach, helps to create a community that is attractive to people all around the world. The Ye! Community also reaches out to partners, donors, and mentors to join the community from a number of countries. Our international approach is visible on the Ye! website as we continue to make it accessible in more languages. The Ye! Community website is now accessible in England and Arabic, encouraging greater participation from entrepreneurs throughout MENA.

CYFI is a non-profit focused on creating systematic change to financially empower children and youth around the world. Our main goal is to create a network of private and public institutions in every country, which can work towards the economic empowerment of children and youth through education and inclusion and support young entrepreneurs in growing their businesses. To do this, we depend on the support of long-term partners, such as the Mastercard Foundation, to develop funding strategies for 3-5 years, ensuring the continuity of our projects. Alongside our already existing list of donors and partners, CYFI continues to form new partnerships with governments and corporations by organizing training and events in new countries, such as the Ye! Awards. By working within our existing network, which includes the UN, the G20's GPFI, PayPal, and Salesforce, CYFI is consistently seeking new ways to engage stakeholders. CYFI is active in building new partnerships by reaching out to more foundations who are active in the field of financial empowerment.

CYFI has a constant influx of new volunteers and interns helping with our projects, bringing in new connections, ideas, and networks. This continues to help us grow on an international level.

Solve can support our efforts to train and connect young entrepreneurs by enabling Ye! to offer more coaching hours with experts in business management, fundraising, ICT, and leadership. The Ye! Community works with experts from corporations, banks, NGOs, foundations, and experienced social entrepreneurs to produce accessible and high-quality training information for our global network. Solve will not only bring more awareness to the difficulties young entrepreneurs face starting businesses, but by funding more coaching for Ye Ambassadors, Solve will have an exponential impact as ambassadors can continue to train members of their local communities.

One of our key barriers for success is that Ye! is a networking organization, bringing mentors, entrepreneurs, sponsors, and policy-makers together to systematically change the playing field for overlooked young entrepreneurs. Due to this, Ye! does not have one simple product to show and receive funding for, but rather facilitates long-term changes through its broad network. The Solve reward not only brings financial support to Ye! but also helps spread awareness for Ye!'s global work to support young entrepreneurs through your vast network. Most importantly, Solve could be an exceptional partner for providing technological mentorship to our young entrepreneurs.