ADVANCING SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, RIGHTS, AND JUSTICE
Rise Up’s Youth Champions Initiative invests in powerful young leaders ages 18-29 who are leading the sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice movement in Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Rwanda, and the United States. Our externally validated model enables young leaders to create large-scale change through leadership development, technology, innovation, and advocacy.
Youth Champions Initiative improves the lives of young people by advancing innovation and quality in the field of sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice globally. Recent successes include:
- Leveraging WhatsApp in India to deliver youth-friendly mobile instant messaging on SRH;
- Developing an animated television series in Ethiopia about girl super heroines fighting for girls’ health and rights;
- Creating comic books in Pakistan to deliver healthy menstrual hygiene information to girls and their families;
- Teaching youth in the United States to use art, dance, and spoken word poetry to advocate for comprehensive sexuality education.
Click here to learn more about our leaders and grantees, and click here to view a one-page overview of the Youth Champions Initiative.
INNOVATION
Rise Up partnered with the Packard Foundation to launch the Youth Champions Initiative – an exciting initiative to advance innovation and quality in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights globally. The Youth Champions Initiative (YCI) invests in visionary young champions who will lead the sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice (SRHRJ) movement for the next generation.
YCI is already creating important impacts in Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, and the U.S. South. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation demonstrates that the Youth Champions have significantly strengthened their leadership, and that their innovative projects are already improving SRHRJ in their communities.
View a summary of the funded projects for our 2015-2016 YCI cohort.
View a summary of the funded projects for our 2017-2018 YCI cohort.
