Inspiration

Fostering an organic growth ethic of providing leadership to feed the needs of youth navigating their communities and seek information, education and activism beyond their front door. TIG’s growth in new projects, new programs and new initiatives have added to the invaluable resource that TIGweb.org has become. Hard work, determined interns and tireless leadership has brought 10 years of accolades, over 350,000 members, millions of users, and amazing relationships with funding organizations and foundations, while resulting in an increasingly underfunded core service and operational budget. 

Information

As new projects and grants are sought, funders seek assurance of continued delivery of the project beyond the funding years. As projects fold themselves within the TIG brand and operate within TIGweb.org, TIG provides translation, upkeep, staffing, and resource management, adding to increasing costs in a climate of increasing competition for funding dollars.

TIGweb.org is the lifeblood of the TIG network. It connects, educates, facilitates, encourages and builds the young individual’s momentum into a global movement of global citizens, united to tackle global issues. In recent TIG history, fundraising efforts to inspire donations from individuals has neglected to have the full attention of a funded staff member, until now!

Involvement

The TIG you know tackles new projects, and our new project is Future Fund. Future Fund is an endowment fund to secure TakingITGlobal’s future operational budgets, growth initiatives and ongoing delivery of TIG’s core service, tigweb.org. To build our Future Fund, as one element in a larger meaningful sustainability strategy, is a formidable challenge.  We hope to raise $1 million by the end of 2011 to be safely stowed in the Future Fund, on our way to a $15 million target by 2015, which would provide ongoing funding to sustain TakingITGlobal's core operational costs into perpetuity.

If you're interested in making a commitment to TakingITGlobal's Future Fund, contact TakingITGlobal's Executive Director Jennifer Corriero at jenergy@takingitglobal.org

Please meet Tahirah.

Tahirah is a passionate advocate for peace. 

 

As 1 of 10 children being raised by a single parent in Toronto, Canada, Tahirah is growing up in a “high priority” neighbourhood characterized  by economically-depressed households and debilitating crime. She has noticed that most young people in her community have something to say but don’t feel empowered to raise their voices. And that’s what Tahirah aims to change. Deeply invested in her community, she committed that nothing will stop her from achieving success. Inspired by her motivation, Toronto’s YMCA saw Tahirah’s potential through the “high priority” stereotype, and sponsored her enrollment in Sprout.

 



 

Sprout offers collaborative e-courses, facilitated through TIG’s international social change network. Over a 6-week time period this past fall, Sprout enabled worldwide access to training in essential skills, equipping Tahirah with team building, project management, and communications competence, and the ability to leverage technology as she finds her voice and crafts her social change initiative, Theatre for Peace.

 

Tahirah designed Theatre for Peace to give disadvantaged youth in her community, who have experienced violence as a perpetrator, victim or witness, the opportunity to share their stories through performance.  The aim is to spread these stories across educational, geographic and wealth divides and foster awareness and non-traditional learning. More importantly, Tahirah hopes to help young children in every neighbourhood make positive, non-violent choices. 

 

As result of her initiative, ingenuity and inspirational message, Tahirah received one of 12 Pearson Fellowships for Social Innovation. Along with financial backing, Pearson Fellowships provide crucial one-on-one mentoring for Tahirah as she implements of Theatre for Peace.

 

Tahirah couldn’t be making this important social impact without the support of YMCA of Toronto. YMCA saw a young leader with talent, strength and developing social impact ideas. YMCA saw a young leader who needing skill development. YMCA acted.

 

YMCA has a mission to promote and support healthy children, teens and young adults. “We love what Sprout is about,” Ezperanza Monsalve, Director of International Programs, gushes. “It complements our programing around global issues awareness and is the perfect opportunity for our young people to build skills and actually do something with them. Sprout offers the king of tools that allow young people to create change. Once you are aware of the issues, you can make it happen.”

 

Will your organization follow YMCA's lead and support youth engagement? Are you searching for a professional development [capacity building] opportunity for the best and brightest of your staff, volunteers or membership? then let Sprout take root in your community.

 

Sprout aims to equip a diverse generation, aged 16-30, with essential project management skills to craft effective social innovation projects and change their corner of the world for the better. At $50 per person, our e-course offers young leaders worldwide access to training in essential skills, including team building, communications, evaluation and leveraging technology as they imagine, plan and develop social change initiatives. 

 

Are you interested in sponsoring youth for a Sprout E-course cycle who are staff, volunteers or part of your community? Contact Sprout, at sprout@takingitglobal.org, to connect you with a young leader who could use your help or to secure a custom registration link for multiple participants from your organization. Find out more at: www.sproutecourse.org 

 

 

When Staples Foundation for Learning® approached TIG to develop an innovative way to wed their mandate for education, community and the environment with successfully making a positive difference in communities around the world, the foundation for an innovative educational program, Tread Lightly, was laid which taps into the needs of teachers, and their students, in fascinating ways. 

Tread Lightly is a free climate change education and engagement program offered by TIG, featuring innovative online educational tools and resources, designed to empower youth to reduce their ecological footprints, and learn about and take action on climate change, locally, nationally, and internationally. Geared towards secondary school students throughout Europe, Tread Lightly’s multi-faceted approach brings climate change into the classroom in balanced, and thought-provokingly innovative ways and allows teachers to facilitate creative-thinking and unimpeded conversation by accessing valuable facts, data and resources.

TIG Most recently, Tread Lightly has focussed on expanding it's reach in Europe and beyond by translating content—from lesson plans to contests—into 9 languages. These strategic language selections have helped Tread Lightly to make headway into 18 countries, impacting hundred of thousands of students worldwide.

But the tale doesn’t stop there! As languages are added and content shared across borders, Tread Lightly has brought individual Language and Engagement Coordinators on board to proffer increasingly dynamic and locally-relevant lesson plans and resources that coincide with local curricula, promote interactivity and compel teachers to benefit from the unique power of virtual classrooms, interdisciplinary curriculum guides, and individual document repositories in which to upload and store classroom activities, student handouts and prescient articles, and house the ongoing web of class discussions.

Deanna is quick to point out what elements are of keen interest to her and which, she foretells, will blossom as teachers understand and utilize the power to network with other teachers, share creative learning techniques, foster resource development, and empower students to understand their voices. Her goal, moving through 2011, is to leverage Tread Lightly’s increased reach and local-engagement experts to drive teachers, and their students, to the program and increase overall use of the components. “The pieces are in place, now we need to get the program used by connecting the dots from schools to educators to youth. Our localization strength will allow us to become the on-ramp to global learning.” Deanna posits. “By targeting schools with on-the-ground contact and free curriculum, supplements and resources,  by engaging teachers with community, awareness and social network campaigns, and by activating students with discourse and involvement within the TIG network, Tread Lightly can not only have reach, but have lasting impact on climate change worldwide.”

The challenge that lies ahead is formidable, Deanna agrees, but exciting. With the support provided by SFFL, TIG members, and TIG donors around the world, the steps needed to add more local content, derive more use and expand to encompass more languages are within reach.  To learn more about Tread Lightly, please visit treadlightly.tigweb.org, and support TakingITGlobal by donating now!

One organizational goal for 2010 was to develop a survey that would explain the impact of TakingITGlobal within the framework of TIG's Theory of Change and provide a higher level of insight into the behaviours of our members and the impact of increased civic engagement.

Our Year. Our Dream. Our Mark. The United Nations proclaimed 2010 as the International Year of Youth starting on 12 August. In accordance with this announcement, TakingITGlobal launched a worldwide art contest entitled ‘Our Year,’ inviting youth aged 13-25 to share their art displaying the ideals of youth entrepreneurship, global citizenship and social responsibility. Between July 12th and Sept 1st, entries were submitted from around the world, successfully harnessing the energy, imagination and initiative of the world’s youth in overcoming the challenges facing humankind. The three winners were chosen in early September and awarded virtual gift cards to Amazon. The first prize was awarded to Alanah’s photograph. In Alanah’s own words, this photograph is intended to capture her feeling that “youth have to emerge and start taking action in all global issues that affect us.” Her moving photograph is, for Alanah, a reflection of her desire to help motivate others to “make a change in the way we live and treat each other.”

The second award was presented to Araf from Toronto whose work is intended to address the issue of racial intolerance. As described by Araf, his painting “depicts a bridge that connects a diverse world together. This denotes the diversity and beauty that exists in our world.” Araf’s work uses the classical symbol of the ‘peace’ sign overlayed with a stylized map of the globe, with branches leading outwards to suggest the opening of our arms and hearts necessary to overcome intolerance. “The World Friendship bridge”, depicted here is, for Araf, “a structure that serves to physically link all the nations of the world.”

The third prize was awarded to Ursala from Solvenia who submitted a pencil drawing focused on addressing the issue of social responsibility. In her own words, Ursala believes that social responsibility requires “taking care of our mother Earth, being proud of what we are and respecting others in the achievement of our goals.” The idea that success cannot come at the expense of high environmental or human impacts is indicative of a culture of stewardship among youth, which is central to both TIG’s mission and the UN Year of Youth initiative.

Our other entries deserve recognition as well, as their hard work, artistic passion, and desire to make a difference in the world is displayed through their artwork. To view all of the entries from the “Our Year” worldwide art contest, visit the 'Our Year' collection in the Global Gallery.

After winning the Global Youth Talent Award in March 2010, TakingITGlobal partnered up with the regional government of Extremadura, Spain to launch the Sprout E-course in Spanish. TIG Co-founder and Executive Director Jennifer Corriero and Gema Gonzalez , of the Regional Ministry of Youth in support of the Government of Extremadura, worked tirelessly this summer to customize the e-course for Spanish speaking youth around the world.

With the introduction of the Sprout E-course in the Spanish language, the program will expand to provide more young leaders worldwide with access to training in essential skills, as they imagine, plan, and develop their own social innovation projects.

Since its launch in 2008, the Sprout E-course has given young people from more than forty countries access to training in team building, project management, communications, and the ability to leverage technology.

The platform was developed with the generous support from the Pearson Foundation with the objective to aspire social innovators and entrepreneurs looking to develop their project ideas into creating a lasting impact in their communities . The e-course is divided into four modules focusing on four essential skills – Design, Plan, Connect, and Assess – that ultimately guide students through a step-by-step process of designing a community service project. The e-course includes online lessons, lectures, and class discussions that take place in virtual classrooms, or “webinars.”

At the end of the course, students create a project portfolio detailing the plans for their social innovation project, which serves as the basis for their application to the Pearson Fellowship for Social Innovation. The Pearson Fellowship program provides grants and mentoring to young people for worldwide social service projects.

The annual report tracks the pulse of TakingITGlobal over the 2009 fiscal year. In addition to recognizing the support and generosity of our supporters, this year’s report includes comments from HRH Crown Price Haakon of Norway, the TIG founders and the Board of Directors on the role of TakingITGlobal as an organization leading the push for social innovation and change.

On the heels of the World Economic Forum 2010 Annual Meeting in Davos, HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway identified TakingITGlobal’s Executive Director Jennifer Corriero as a Young Global Leader. Selected to represent the youth and education cluster of the YGL Global Redesign Initiative, the Crown Prince recognized both Corriero and the contributions of TakingITGlobal team as a whole as playing a significant role in developing program materials and delivering the Task Force website and final report. TakingITGlobal is honoured to be recognized by forward looking world leaders and continues to work in a sustained effort to develop international opportunities to collaborate and effect real change driven by the TakingITGlobal staff and by the network of global volunteers and supporters like yourself.

What is the Theory of Change?

TakingITGlobal has developed a unique perspective on the nature of how change happens among individuals and groups, from shifts in perspective and personal focus to the manifold changes required to build movements and create influence in the political sphere. The 2009 Annual Report includes a preliminary overview of this framework that is currently being used to structure work aimed at more accurately measuring the offline impacts of TIG’s work globally.

Internship Program

As part of TakingITGlobal’s commitment to youth empowerment through technology and education, TIG launched the third cycle of the Internship Program, which provides select youth the opportunity to work and learn with and from TIG staff in the Toronto office. This program is now entering its third cycle and the talent and passion of this round of Interns is increasing TIG’s capacity to deliver projects and programming designed by youth, for youth. We are currently building a mentorship program that creates knowledge sharing opportunities from our supporters, alumni and corporate partners to contribute to the design and implementation of a facilitated training program for TIG Interns. If you think you might have insight to share, a suggestion to make, or an hour to lend to supporting one of the TIG interns directly, just let us know.