Swades Ki Khoj 2008

We have just commenced promotion for Swades Ki Khoj 2008. Our initiative to provide young graduates between the ages of 21 and 28 with the opportunity to spend a year living and working in a rural area and to possibly discover themselves.

The first cohort had 14 young people who have been spending the past year with an organisation located in one of these states - Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, UP, MP and Uttarakhand.

We would be delighted if you could pass this on to young people whom you think might be interested. If you know of an organisation that might be willing to host these young people for a year and would we willing to invest time in them, then please let us know.

V K Madhavan
madhavan@chirag.org

Inviting applications from young social changemakers

Change Looms is a program that recognizes, encourages and supports the exceptional achievements of young people who are actively promoting social change in society. Applications are currently invited for Change Looms as well as other Pravah programs for youth. As many of you are working on issues related to social entrepreneurship in India, we would appreciate it if you could use your networks to spread the word about this opportunity to potential candidates.

Selection criteria: Candidates should be...

• between the ages of 17-27
• the founder and leader of an initiative addressing an issue of social justice
• running an initiative which is youth-led, independent from existing organizations, on-going and in operation for at least 6 months, with long term plans for social change
• implementing work directly on the ground
• have working knowledge of English and/or Hindi

The last date for receiving applications for the 2008 batch is 31st March 2008. Application forms and relevant background information is attached.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

CHANGE LOOMS is a support programme for young people who have started their own initiative for social change. Change Looms is a joint venture between Pravah (www.pravah.org & www.younginfluencers.com) and Ashoka: Innovators for the Public (www.ashoka.org), supported by the Youth and Civil Society Initiative of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust ( www.srtt.org) and Global Fund for Children (www.globalfundforchildren.org). More information about these organizations can be found on their websites.

The focus of Change Looms is to facilitate your learning and development as young people leading social change.

The key components of the Change Looms program are:

Development and Assessment Center (DAC):

Selected candidates will be invited to the DAC in July 2008. The DAC is a one-week residential workshop where you meet other youth from across the country to build your skills, refine your ideas and programme designs, reflect on yourself as a leader of social change, and receive feedback from peers and experiences social sector leaders. In the DAC, you develop a learning plan which you submit to Change Looms as your proposal for participating in the Learning Phase.

The Learning Phase:

Based on the learning plans submitted after the DAC, selected candidates will be invited for a six month Learning Phase. You are encouraged to work with a mentor, participate in collective learning events, go for exposure visits, invite resource people to engage with you, and participate in peer learning with other Change loomers. You will receive guidance and financial support to enable you to implement your learning plan.

Public Recognition:

Selected candidates are invited for a Public Recognition Event in Delhi.

Networking and further opportunities:

After completing the learning plan, you can apply for Organizational Development support from Change Looms, which includes a financial component of Rs. 40,000. As Change Looms alumni, you will also get access to other opportunities through different programs and partners.

NOTE: Change Looms is not a funding agency, and any financial assistance is purely linked to accelerating learning and development of youth leaders and their organizations.

Selection Criteria

Candidates should be...

• between the ages of 17-27
• the founder and leader of an initiative addressing an issue of social justice
• running an initiative which is youth-led, independent from existing organizations, on-going and in operation for at least 6 months, with long term plans for social change
• implementing work directly on the ground
• have working knowledge of English and/or Hindi

Individuals or teams can apply. If applying as a team, you must designate an anchor to be the lead person in the Change Looms process. The anchor is expected to bring the learnings back to his/her team. As of now, Change Looms does not entertain applications from for-profit enterprises, one-off or event based initiatives, online initiatives, and support organizations

Lillian Strand

Change Looms Coordinator

Pravah
C-24B, 2nd FLoor, Kalkaji
New Delhi 110019
91 11 2644 0619, 2621 3918, 2629 1354
www.younginfluencers.com
lillian.strand@pravah.org

Youth Social Enterprise Initiative (YSEI) announces a call for proposals to the YSEI Fellowship 2008

Youth Social Enterprise Initiative (YSEI) is a high-engagement social venture program for emerging young social entrepreneurs in developing countries. Through its Fellowship Programme, YSEI provides young social entrepreneurs with support in four key areas:

Financing: Up to USD15,000
Knowledge: Essential development knowledge & tools on social entrepreneurship
Mentorship: Technical consulting through mentorship
Networks: Access to diverse networks

The Fellowship Programme consists in a competitive selection process to provide support to young social entrepreneurs.

20 workshop finalists would be identified to attend the upcoming YSEI Capacity Building workshop scheduled for May 2008. The deadline for submission is the 28th of Mar 2008.

To apply, please visit the following link (http://ysei.org/?q=node/69) and proceed to register and complete your online application.

The purpose of the Capacity Building Workshop is to both identify the batch of YSEI Fellows 2008 and provide capacity building support to all the finalists participating. This would entail refining the workshop finalists business plans, conducting further due diligence and nurturing a network of young social entrepreneurs and mentors.

YSEI aims to invest in young visionaries who have big ideas and who need crucial startup support to turn their ideas into action. The following are characteristics of ventures we aim to invest in:

* Ventures are led by youth from developing countries aged between 20 to 35 years
* Innovative social ventures with blended values (creation economic, social and/or environmental value components)
* Information & communication technologies (ICTs) are recognized as an integral part of the venture/ solution-provided
* Ventures that are specifically designed to solve social or environmental problems
* Ventures that have at least 6 months implementation

This round would only cover the Asia-region (East and South) as YSEI is in the midst of exploring replication of the program with other partners in the other regions. The replication of the program is expected to happen in the near future.

Although we encourage you to complete the application online, if you encounter problems, please download the application form and submit it to apply@ysei.org
The deadline for submissions is 28th Mar 2008.

The workshop finalists results are expected to be announced by the 10th April 2008.

The applications will be judged based on the YSEI Program criteria.

Yours sincerely,
YSEI Secretariat
Peerapond Chutisuntarakul

Coordinator | TRN Institute (trnlab.org)
T: +662.938.2636 F: +662.938.1877
Mobile: +6686.973.2906
peerapond@ysei.org

http://trnlab.org/
http://www.ysei.org/