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20 Years of Leadership. 20 Years of Innovation. 20 Years of Partnership. 20 Years of Youth Development. 20 Years of Positive Change.
Where will the next 20 years take us?
Since 1989, YCI has sent more than 3,000 volunteers overseas to work alongside youth on environment, health, leadership development, education and economic development projects in 15 countries worldwide.
Celebrate YCI’s 20th anniversary of building communities and leaders by donating just $20. Help us reach our goal of $20,000 to support our local and global youth development programs.
Why donate to Youth Challenge International?
Youth Challenge International is a leading global youth development organization that promotes youth innovation to drive positive change. Building on 20 years of experience, YCI’s programs are designed to meet the needs of youth affected by poverty through five integrated sectors: economic development, education, leadership development, environment and health.
In the last 20 years, YCI has:
- Provided more than 3000 volunteers with the opportunity to develop leadership skills and effect positive change in their local and global communities.
- Worked in 15 countries alongside more than 16 local partner organizations.
- Reached thousands of beneficiary youth through HIV/AIDS, sexual reproductive health, education, employability and leadership programs.
- Engaged hundreds of young people on team-based action projects that encourage global citizenship through the Volunteer Action Network.
- Participated in countless community development and conservation programs, including the construction of schools, water and sanitation, and ecotourism projects.
- Facilitated 37 International Youth Internships, which provide young people with their first substantive overseas work experience.
Your tax-deductible donation of $20 will go towards supporting YCI’s local and global youth development organizations.
We engage youth in creating solutions to the challenges they face. YCI incorporates youth development, volunteerism, partnership, equity and advocacy into all that we do.
Here are a few ways you can donate:
• By mail – send in a cheque or credit card information to Youth Challenge International, 20 Maud St., Suite 305, Toronto, ON, M5V 2M5
Please address cheque donations to Youth Challenge International, with a memo of 20 year donation.
• By phone – call us toll-free 1.877.504.3370
• In person – visiting our office
• Online – visit our website at www.yci.org/20years
To read more about YCI’s programs and how YCI uses your donations, please visit www.yci.org
Okay, so Google headquarters we are not. But in honour of Blog Action Day, here are all the little ways that we are fighting climate change here in the YCI office:
- Printing everything double-sided. And those accidental print jobs or scrap pieces of paper? We turn them into one-sided notebooks for our daily to-do lists.
- Brewing our own coffee. It’s fair-trade, inexpensive and best of all, there’s no paper cups involved in the process.
- Walking/cycling/TTCing to work.
- Since school started up again this fall, we’ve been using Autoshare or public transit to get to career fairs and outreach events.
- Communicating online with volunteers to reduce our environmental impact.
- Consume less. Do we reuse our paper folders until the names have been written over ten times? You bet we do!
- Work potlucks! Okay, to be honest, I’m not sure they have anything to do with climate change, but they sure are delicious and probably one of my favourite parts of working at YCI. So they must be good for the environment.
- Sharing. (Most recently, in fact, all the women in the office passed around all the books in the Twilight saga. Somewhat embarrassing, but true. Gabriela’s currently working on the last book. We’re all waiting for her to catch up so that we can determine whether we’re all Team Jacob or Team Edward.)
- Each YCI staff member is allocated time off that they can commit to another non-profit organization. Global citizenship will always place a key role in climate change.
- Finally, although it’s not specifically in our office, let’s not forget all the YCI volunteers who work on eco-tourism projects in Central America, host environmental education workshops in the South Pacific, and work with environmental sustainability clubs in Tanzania.
But it’s still undeniable that we could be doing a lot more. While our composting experiment failed miserably, there’s always room for other improvement. For example, while we were at the Centre for Social Innovation for last month’s VAC retreat, we noticed there was fabric grocery shopping bags and Tupperware available by the door for take-out lunches. At the YCI office, we definitely bring back our fair share of Styrofoam containers. So, while we certainly aren’t in a position to buy solar panels or goats, investing in takeout containers is certainly not beyond our reach.
-Jessica Lockhart, Program Coordinator
“I am a citizen of the world.” – Greek Cynic philosopher Diogenes of Sinope
I am Canadian. I was born in Toronto. My mother was born in Regina and my father was born in Toronto. If pressed, I will say that my father’s father was born in England, but came to Canada before he was a year old. If pressed further, I will share that my mother’s mother spent a number of her childhood years living in the US being raised by relatives. Still, I’m a 2rd generation Canadian, at least. 4th or 5th or 6th generation if I go back farther.
I have a mess of last names that make up my family tree: Lee and Lindsay. McAninch and McGinnis. Since my last name is Lee, I often get second-looks when I introduce myself, as most people expect an Asian woman to answer to my name and instead meet a Caucasian woman.
In my neighbourhood in downtown Toronto, the majority of my neighbors (over 55% according to the last census) are visible minorities and about the same percentage were born elsewhere in the world. Taking the elevator in my building means listening to families wearing the dress of another country conversing in different languages. Walking down the hall exposes me to the wonderful smells of various cuisines and the glorious sounds of various music. My daughter is forever running up to children her age and size at the playground and introducing herself, only to find out that her new ‘friend’ doesn’t speak the same language.
I strive to be a citizen of the world. This doesn’t mean pushing aside my Canadian-ism; I can sing along with a Stompin’ Tom song with the best of them. Nor does it require travelling the world. What is does mean is choosing to revel in being a minority among my neighbours.
Just around the corner and up the street I can listen to the latest Polish pop song blasting from the speakers of restaurants. When it comes to roti, I have my choice of restaurants and styles: Guyanese, Indian or Thai. In the weeks before the Olympics in Bejing local businesses showed their support for our Tibetan neighbours by displaying ‘Free Tibet‘ posters. My daughter is learning basic Spanish and Portuguese vocabulary from her preschool teachers.
I am thrilled to have the opportunity to live among people with so many different backgrounds and countries of birth and religions and languages. In fact, sometimes the best way to travel is to explore a new area of your own neighbourhood. Try a new food. Attend a cultural event. Listen to new music. Start a conversation with a neighbour. You can be a citizen of the world without ever needing a passport.
-Rebecca Lee, Volunteer Programs Manager
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