United by the mission and strategy of YMCA Vision 2030, YMCAs worldwide make a difference every day. From equipping young people and communities with skills for employment to supporting refugees, improving physical and mental health and developing innovative ways to protect our planet, our Movement is driving change.
We highlighted eight inspiring films showcasing this work at the YMCA Accelerator Summit in Mombasa, Kenya, held 21-25 October 2024.
We’ll share these films with you over the coming weeks. Here, we feature Global Pathways to Meaningful Work; click here to see last week’s feature, Refugee and Skilling Support.
Global Pathways to Meaningful Work
Pillars: Meaningful Work, Just World
YMCAs: In New York, Philadelphia, Colombia and Spain
Project summary: Funded by the American Express Foundation and delivered by the YMCAs of New York, Philadelphia, Colombia and Spain, ‘Global Pathways to Meaningful Work’ (GP2MW) is an education, employment and entrepreneurship programme which has helped nearly 4,000 vulnerable young people, many of them refugees and immigrants, in its first pilot year, 2023-2024
Key project features: During its pilot phase, the GP2MW project achieved the following successes:
- Established an initial group of four YMCAs (Cohort One) representing both international and domestic locations: New York, Philadelphia, Colombia, and Spain.
- Engaged 3,654 participants in Cohort One’s diverse economic empowerment program offerings
- 94.5 per cent of participants were from an underserved background
- 88 per cent of participants experienced improved economic prospects (as defined by the project) through their participation
- 95 per cent of project participants demonstrated improvement in one or more of the Career Readiness capacities measured by Hello Insight — Career Exploration Experiences, Positive Youth Development Experiences; Adaptive Mindset; Applied Social Emotional Learning, Career Knowledge and Skills
- Largest global Meaningful work program reaching young people in four locations
- The program reached almost 4,000 young people from underserved communities in 2023. It positively impacted future career opportunities and socio-emotional learning skills as varied by externally conducted research.
In their words: “Since 2020, I started a business of manufacturing women’s blouses and personalised men’s or women’s T-shirts.
I had always wanted to start my own business, but I had no clear idea what product to make.
\[A teacher\] told us that there was a program that helped young people in the area of entrepreneurship, employment and education.” – Programme participant