Introduction to Youth Ki Awaaz (YKA)
The Youth Ki Awaaz (YKA) Action Network is a program to encourage young changemakers working on key Sustainable Development Goals to improve the impact of their existing campaigns and projects. It is a user-generated Indian youth media platform on social justice issues, based on the online journalism format and new media, it is one of the very few websites in the world dedicated to spreading awareness and generating a sense of activism and volunteerism among the youth.
Youth Ki Awaaz is a mixed Hindi-English phrase meaning “Voice Of Youth”. As the world is facing some of the fiercest challenges we’ve ever seen from inequality to climate changes – young people are moving forward creating a more just and a better world.
What are they trying to achieve?
YKA’s mission is to develop India’s largest online platform for young people to express themselves and their feelings on issues of importance. From conducting powerful journalism, path-breaking national movements, to creating social enterprises, the actual power to positively influence and change the world lies with young people. If you are enthusiastic to act on these climate crises and want to learn key public narrative, campaigning, policy action, and building skills, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for you to be a part of an amazing network and spread your impact.
The volunteers have to stay in a 3-day residential Bootcamp, where they learn how to organize and invite more young people to join this movement, build a public narrative around these issues, a media and, engaging campaigns, as well as create a decision-making engagement that leads to policy impact and action.
Community and its work
Youth Ki Awaaz has a growing community of almost around 75000 writers, users, and creators – and its content is read by more than 4 million people every month. It’s users constitute some of the country’s most passionate creators and writers addressing and driving impact on some of the most critical issues affecting our world – from politics and culture to education and gender. The platform contains many sections where people can talk about their stories such as:
- Gender
- Campus
- Politics
- Startup
- Education
- Careers
- Animal rights
and many moreā¦..
What can you do with them?
On Youth Ki Awaaz, you can read, write, learn, watch, take action, and attend. In collaboration with passionate people like you, they run some of the most important programs that use your power of writing and creation to shift an entire generation from a culture of silence to a culture of speaking up for what you believe and engagement.
- Read: Read about some of the most unique perspectives on critical issues by people from all over India and the world.
- Write: Youth Ki Awaaz opens a publishing platform that enables you to share your perspective or publish a story on any issue that you’re passionate about. As soon as you hit publish, you can begin sharing your story on your networks.
- Learn: Youth Ki Awaaz runs one of the most sought and coveted after Writers Training Program in the country, which has trained over 5000 young people on the skill of writing impact-driven content.
- Take action: Youth Ki Awaaz campaigns allow you to take action on issues you’re most passionate about. We work with some of the most high-impacted organizations from all across the world and use the power of your writing and, turning it into real, on-ground action.
- Attend: The YKA flagship annual Youth Ki Awaaz Summit events allows you to come together with the YKA community and meet fellow changemakers, writers and passionate young people, and get together with them to listen to some of the most powerful and honest debates and discussions on issues impacting our world.
What can you gain working with Youth ki Awaaz?
- Designing a campaign: From preparing an effective campaign to launching it, you can learn the ropes of how campaigns with a tangible call to action align with community impact and potential policy change.
- Content creation and Amplification: Leveraging various digital media platforms and creating content that can communicate most powerfully – that can move people from information to action.
- Understanding the policy instrument: Understanding how existing and other potential policies impact your work and building a solid knowledge base to draw out linkages between global moments, political commitments, and local policies.
- Decision-maker engagement: Identifying various relevant policy stakeholders and power mapping to build influence in decision making.
- Influencing the public narrative: Working and managing the local media to alter popular public perceptions on issues and highlight aspects that need people’s attention.
- Get Support: After the successful completion of the workshop, you will be offered an opportunity to be among the top 10 best projects to receive a seed grant to launch your campaigns and projects to help improve your work.
What are they looking for and who should apply?
- Applicants should be under 35 years of age, who are either running their own organizations/campaigns/projects, or have worked extensively on the issue with some other organization. You may also be a journalist covering the issue, or someone with a bold idea.
- Should be committed to carrying out the project for at least 6 to 8 months with a minimum of 10 to 12 hours per week.
- Should have an active social media account or presence on at least one of these platforms with a general understanding of how platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter work.
- Should possess a working knowledge of both English and Hindi as sessions can turn out to be bilingual.
Present work
At present their ongoing action networks include – Climate Action and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Interested candidates may apply as a Climate Action fellow or a Menstrual Health fellow.
Contact:
Interested candidates can find more about them at various platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The links of the platforms are mentioned below:
Facebook:
Twitter:
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/youth-ki-awaaz
For more information about their work have a visit at their site: http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/And feel free to contact them at their email: info@youthkiawaaz.com
Also Read – What is Ashoka Young Changemaker? How can you apply for it? from the author.