Dear fellow adults, teachers and investors,
welcome to an exciting opportunity to enrich learning culture by taking action on the SDGs by teaming up with magnificent changemakers,
some of which you may know from social and news media, from bedtime stories or educational textbooks, and even call them “your hero*ines” like millions of people around the world do.
These changemakers are our friends, and we invite you to join the tribe!
We interact daily with today’s Gandhis and Gryffindores, successful teenage and adult changemakers, who achieve tangible changes – who change lives, laws, industries at record scale – and are recognized with our societies’ highest awards. People like Stephen Ritz, World Teacher Prize finalist who used to be called crazy and inconvenient by his colleagues for his indoor farming program. Now, his Green Bronx Machine curriculum is applied at 2,500 schools. Hail the crazies!
We act, feel, think and speak like them, hence please pardon our language. We refuse to be boring, cultivate a Flair of Adventure, call on everybody to get real about what really matters to them – people and planet – to show up and to #BeMoreAwesome. Guess what – it works! And this being our mission objective #1, we’ll stick to it. Because it’s exactly what caring educators today NEED.
We help you awaken young people’s Inner Hero*ines
and give them space to unfold their changemaker skills, like their virtuous hero*ine peers. We make it easy – with rich win-win benefits for learning culture, life at school and the greater community – because we also think of you, what you seek and what the world needs. It is all connected.
You will be surprised what becomes possible by offering solutions for the aspirations of youth, parents, city, journalists, public servants, organizations, entrepreneurs, changemakers – with youth leadership [your youth crews] at the centre!
So, let’s talk SDGs.
Don’t you feel that a theoretic or minimalistic approach to the SDGs, commemoration of UN Days with a poem and exhibit of children’s drawings is somewhat incoherent with the urgency of affairs at a time that 2/3 of global ecosystems and 2/3 of agrarian surfaces are on the edge of collapse, peace and prosperity erode, democracy is being hacked, and the mob is marching in the streets?
At YL, we are not afraid to #TellTheTruth – because we know solutions! We see them happen every day, hence we do not feel powerless or overwhelmed. This is important for you as a teacher, since to address the SDGs – and everything else that comes up, climate crisis, the Anthropocene, sexual violence, racism, fascism – you need solutions.
22,000 Schools
already practice this kind of learning culture with great success.
- 78% of teachers feel more professionally fulfilled
- 82% discover new leadership skills in their students
- 89% of students feel more self-confident
- 91% take action for favorite causes
The WE School service-learning curriculum addresses global issues through role model stories, showing the #true suffering of kids in forced labor etc, and providing instant opportunity to make a difference – in close collaboration with affected communities, at home and abroad.
“Young people are aware that there exists suffering in the world, and they wish to help. What they need is to know what works, and a little support. The experience of seeing young people that overcame great challenges also strengthens them to face challenges when they appear in their lives.” – Craig Kielburger, WE
We also #TellThe Truth because we LOVE children and LIFE ON EARTH, and want them to get humanity’s finest role models, spirit, solutions and support to lead lives rich in purpose, skills, friends and boundless opportunity, like their hero*ine peers.
Your role as a teacher
in various contexts can be challenging, but – knowing lots(!) of schools, we know that it works everywhere. Knowing your situation, your aspirations, and your opportunities – we have compiled humanity’s finest, universally acknowledged hero*ine role models, packaged with non/formal teaching tips, in perfect alignment with the UN Decade of ESD, Global Citizenship Education and The Purpose Of Schooling:
The Purpose of Schooling
is to enable students to become able, active citizens of a continuously evolving libertarian democratic society, which today also has to be sustainable, in harmony with nature and a harmoniously collaborating global family of nations.
View your Education Law §1 The Purpose Of Schooling.
We help you achieve your job and societal purpose, by involving youth, parents and adult allies.
Let’s talk about what you really want.
About what us teachers all really want.
Doesn’t it feel awkward to present role models, address global crisis, speak of extinction, rise of fascism, finish with “sorry, we have to go back to [subject] now”, silence fired up caring youth (our finest!) to not disrupt school and focus on their C in chemistry, while making bitter fun of the fact that “50% of British teens want to become a celebrity”, and complaining about youth being egocentric and just concerned about brands and gaming?
Dear fellow adult, altogether, this is psychopathic, sabotages positive change, and just isn’t good enough. It is an epic #fail. And – #TellTheTruth – you don’t really want that. You would LOVE to empower the young to create a world of awesome. A world of awesome in every respect, not just on shallow sustainability, bleak peace, okay work, on tranquilizers ranging from pills to shiny little screens “designed by industry to evoke an addiction like cocaine”.
As educators, our aspirations for youth and society do not peak with counting CO2 molecules and retweeting comedians. WE CAN DO 1 MILLION TIMES BETTER.
This is exactly what also youth, parents, and caring citizens from all walks of life want – journalists, city councillors, public servants, entrepreneurs, activists, global experts, farmers – AND NOW THE TIME IS READY AND RIPE TO ACHIEVE IT.
You’ve been lacking tools, tricks and partners
so far … to inspire youth to rise and strongly play their role, to align changemaking with life at school, and enable self-organized activities at and beyond school – as a new SPORT.
You are used to …
- chess student clubs. Now you’ll have a Changemaker Student Club
- partners like music schools, sports club. We are the Changemaker Club!
In fact, we are rather the Changemaker World Sports Federation, and we enthusiastically invite you to be part, learn the basic moves, enjoy teamplay, score easy goals and celebrate! We know that in no time, you will begin to freestyle, surprise us with your own moves, dream up your own campaigns, and call us to get involved. Yes, please!
The SDG CHALLENGE
in particular, and YL’s CHANGE GENERATION RISING program in general are designed to be your new favorite add-on to bring global issues to life, and cultivate bright changemaker crews at school, and reach many high quality achievements that make the school of your dreams – from arts to student radio, musicals, events and fests to participation of parents, local and international partners, even field visits to grand changemakers.
Others are already doing these things, so why wouldn’t you do all of them, too – powered by passionate students?!
to wield their solutions for people and planet, and evoke changes like our hero*ine peers.
Together, we can easily impact the future of entire regions. The solutions exist. All we need to do is combine our talents and resources, and take them to scale!
This program is a world-premiere, spectacular yet simple.
We simply show young people their generation’s finest hero*ines with favorite causes and activities for everybody – and off it goes! It is science : “80% of human behavior is shaped by role models, much of it subconsciously, and it also works via media”.
You have seen it as the Greta effect, but truly this has been used in Youth Leadership (in North American civic education) for 40 years, and is part of learning culture at 22,000 schools! You have so much more to discover, and it is all GOOD NEWS for your hopes for youth and for enriching life at schools!
Young people love doing good
We provide an abundance of 100 hero*ines
Your local Education Landscape
is considered crucial to achieve high quality real-life education, but until today, Education Landscapes fail to kick off – often for lack of alignment of mindsets, schedules and cultures of different adult stakeholders.
Notably, YOUTH are entirely left out as a stakeholder!
They are merely carried like cattle to listen to experts or observe plants at the riverbend. That’s boring.
But youth are the ones with superpowers and TIME to bring the Education Landscape to life with new projects, vibrant spirit, relevant impact for society, worthy to report in local news media. Stakeholders can’t wait to see it happen!
However, also youth so far are #failing, sit idle, lukewarm and wait to be told what to do, or for the government to fix things. They are just like their parents, passive students, and impotent voters – because they know nothing else.
The reason for this #fail is that youth, adults, teachers and "experts" are entirely ignorant about 100s of high impact teenage changemakers and student clubs (especially in North America) as well as amazing adult changemakers - and how to connect them into one's life and education.
Everything changes once Youth experience Youth Leadership
in a vivid Crash Course session, an immersion in
- today’s hero*ines’ stories
- films, messages, music
- and : instant action opportunities!
and get to feel
- their impact and positive feedback
- the kind-hearted community
- the fun in planning, acting
- documentation and media presence
- ‘live’ encounters with famous hero*ines – and conversing at eye-level – for collaboration – making a difference to the world AND to these amazing changemakers!
And then, things get rolling!
With YOUTH LEADERSHIP at the centre
the SDG Challenge offers extraordinary opportunity to activate YOUTH and thereby the EDUCATION LANDSCAPE.
Youth Leaders are the perfect agents
The SDGs are the perfect encompassing mechanism
that all stakeholders know about and identify with. The SDGs as narrative, vision, and SYMBOLS already appear in media, civil society, education, business, cities.
The BIG Stakeholders in Education
have defined quasi “enlightened” curricula but to-date #fail* to achieve relevant implementation, change, action and impact on the ground, for lack of “appointment”, spirit, solutions, support systems, and connection with practitioners who are to live the curricula.
* If 70 years of subject teaching had been successful, we would have millions of able changemakers, or at least nutrition-, health-, economy-, democracy-literate citizens. We don’t.
By taking action on the SDG CHALLENGE, you can help achieve their aspirations, connect and join resources, which include status and access to precious spaces and relations.
UNITED NATIONS University
RCEs, Regional Centres of Expertise
National ESD UNESCO Offices
MINISTRIES of Education
SCHOOL BOARDS
CARING TEACHERS
TOWN COUNCILS
KEY PROFESSIONALS
Please understand that we now have entirely new opportunities to activate people, exciting action and impact! Please forget all your frustrations from the past. You can now bring it to life. We can now bring it to life. Please take your heart into both hands, seize this opportunity and invest yourself fully!