“My initiative reduces plastic bag waste by turning it into plarn (plastic yarn!) and crocheting the plarn into useful everyday objects such as bags, baskets, and wallets. In partnership with volunteers and local community groups, my project promotes relaxing, fun crocheting circles where the items made are donated to people in need. One thing I will take away from Project Change and OYW is to think big but start small – building your efforts layer by layer can help you to stay focused on a bigger goal, while celebrating small achievements. Promoting change can seem like an impossible task, but no mountain is too high to climb if you take it one step at a time.”

“The refugee employment program is currently running as a pilot in Brazil and provides support and employment to refugees. The partnership between Concentrix and non-governmental organizations globally aims to help integrate refugees into society through employment. The OYW summit was life changing without a doubt. It has provided me with additional resources to help me complete the project successfully. I met several people from many nations who are working to make the world a better place for migrants and refugees.”

“Impact sourcing is a recruitment practice which provides opportunities for disadvantaged or underrepresented communities such as refugees, single parents, long-term unemployed, people with disabilities, and people with no qualifications or experience. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to attend the OYW 2023 summit and to meet my fantastic new colleagues. Listening to so many incredible speeches, I’ve learned so much from this experience and will now focus on developing action plans that will blossom out of these encounters.”

“This program supports and promotes beekeeping amongst staff, including the installation of bee hotels and the production of our own branded honey and biproducts. I was able to discuss this project with many other ambassadors and speakers at the OYW Summit. Their interest, kind words of encouragement, and willingness to support our project further confirmed to me that we can inspire change and have a positive impact on the future. This is no longer a project, but a cause!”

“Women’s Up is an educational program that empowers young women and builds supportive communities to pursue careers and gain financial independence. At OYW, we heard what speakers had to say on social impact movements with the Queen Rania of Jordan inspiring us to collaborate for impact, always act and help others around us, and to stand up and speak in the name of love for humanity. Throughout the summit we got to experience hope – being bold is always the answer and thinking big for others is the key to change.”

“Adopt-a-community is a development of an existing social and environmental program framework partnering with local governments and communities to establish self-sustaining farming projects to positively impact the livelihood of the community and environment. OYW Summit helped to amplify what is happening around the world, how the youth and organizations can be a part of it, and what we can achieve if we put our hands and minds together. Hearing from people’s experiences, stories, hardships, challenges, and successes truly fuels one’s passion and hope for a better world.”

“A global marketplace for small, local, sustainable businesses, giving staff the opportunity to sell or buy greener and lessen their carbon impact. My project helps people make a sustainable lifestyle shift while supporting livelihoods of indigenous communities and the planet. The OYW Summit helped stress the need for sustainable action across the world, and the Sustainability Marketplace is a step in that direction. I’m proud to see the project launch and hear from vendors involved of their passion for advocacy, helping the planet, or supporting women and indigenous group. They are all truly commendable!”

“My Project Change initiative is to develop a solution that captures and repurposes waste heat from our server rooms and reused in our facilities to reduce our carbon footprint. OYW was without exaggeration, life changing. The speakers were all impassioned and informed, and suggested tangible actions we as young leaders can take. The young leaders who spoke about their projects were inspiring. The summit drove home one simple message for me – we must do more.”