STARTER KITS FOR YOUNG CHANGEMAKERS
This page contains 27 starter kits for young changemakers to explore and use for their own professional development.
Use them in your activities as a young changemaker! If you have suggestions on how we can make these resources even more useful for you, or which other starter kits we should create, please let us know.
The kits range from focusing on soft skills applicable to all changemakers to focusing on specific sectors that changemakers work in. These kits are meant to be used as an introduction to each topic. Each kit contains a variety of resource types that will suit any kind of learner.
The starter kits are organized based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are 17 interlinked global goals created by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all." Young changemakers play a vital role in shaping this future. You can learn more about the SDGs here.
Mental Health Starter Kit
This Mental Health starter kit is a great starting point for anyone who wants to learn more about what affects our mental health day-to-day, how to implement good practices into organizations, and how to navigate the particularly trying and uncertain times we are currently experiencing.
Transforming Education Starter Kit
This Transforming Education starter kit is a great starting point for teachers, students and institutions who want to contribute towards making education more inclusive, relevant and equitable for young people around the world. This kit is broken up into YouthLead led webinars, educational toolkits, general resources, regional case studies, and new educational strategies.
Activism Against Gender-based Violence Starter Kit
This Activism Against Gender-based Violence starter kit is useful for anyone who wants to learn about the elements that drive gender-based violence in different communities and how to combat them through policy-making, advocacy, educational institutions and global campaigns like the 16 Days of Activism.
Safe Spaces for Girls Starter Kit
This Safe Spaces for Girls starter kit brings together tools to create safe spaces for young women and girls, promoting UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”. Women and girls suffer and fear different types of discrimination and sexual violence in public and private spaces. Here you will find 16 resources aimed at NGOs, businesses, and individuals to create, improve, and promote spaces where young women and girls can thrive.
Social Entrepreneurship Starter Kit
This Social Entrepreneurship starter kit explains how you can get involved in social entrepreneurship. Many people assume that providing services to advance the cause of “doing good” is restricted to the work of non-governmental organizations, charities and foundations. However, young people around the world are now advancing social causes through providing goods and services, known as “social enterprises.”
Climate Change Starter Kit
This Climate Change starter kit is a great starting point for youth interested in learning more about the climate crisis, and includes ways to take meaningful action, and steps to take for advocacy campaigns. As climate challenges continue, youth action will be especially important in making a difference.
Youth in Advocacy Starter Kit
This Youth in Advocacy starter kit is a great starting point to introducing yourself to the concept of youth advocacy and digital advocacy, and how you can use your voice and your platform for changemaking activities in your community and around the world. This kit consists of webinars, toolkits, as well as articles and research to help you get started.
Sports for Development and Peace Starter Kit
This Sports for Development and Peace starter kit is useful for all young changemakers: from those that have never heard of SDPs and want to learn more, to those who have started their own initiative and want to incorporate new strategies.
Youth in Peace and Security Starter Kit
This Youth in Peace and Security starter kit provides over 15 resources for youth who are or intend to be engaged in peacebuilding activities.
Youth in Civic Engagement Starter Kit
This Youth in Civic Engagement starter kit is a great starting point for youth interested in learning more about becoming engaged citizens and making a difference in their communities. The kit is broken down into sections on how YouthLeaders are active in their communities, resources on the topic of youth and civic engagement, toolkits, and funding opportunities.
Youth and Interfaith Cooperation Starter Kit
This Youth and Interfaith Cooperation starter kit provides some resources to help you engage in the interfaith community. Religion can also be mobilized to unite fractured communities, foster empathy, and reach new levels of understanding between estranged neighbors. Youth can play a central role in creating community-level interfaith initiatives.
Youth in Entrepreneurship Starter Kit
This Youth in Entrepreneurship starter kit is a great starting point for anyone who wants to learn more about the life of an entrepreneur and what starting a business requires. These resources are useful to all young changemakers and groups with a desire to tackle social issues through innovative business.
Networking Starter Kit
This Networking starter kit contains the 15 best resources related to networking on YouthLead. They are a great starting point for anyone who feels overwhelmed by the amount of resources available on the internet about networking.
Fundraising Starter Kit
This Fundraising starter kit contains 22 of the best resources on the YouthLead website related to fundraising. You will find pieces that help you choose the right fundraising strategy for your organization based on your resources and on the type of donor you are approaching, be it an individual, local government, national government, a for-profit company, or an NGO.
Managing Finance Starter Kit
This Managing Finance starter kit is a great starting point for anyone who wants to learn more about budgeting and other forms of financial planning. These resources are useful to people working with or starting their own social enterprises and nonprofits. The kit is broken up by resources that are useful for nonprofits and social enterprises, as well as those for general use.
Leadership Development Starter Kit
This Leadership Development starter kit contains 17 resources related to leadership development that can be found on the YouthLead website. These resources provide guidance to your development no matter the stage, from guidance to determining your leadership style to advice on how to delegate and develop new leaders in your organization.
Youth Engagement and Empowerment Starter Kit
This Youth Engagement and Empowerment starter kit is a great jumping-off point to learn about youth empowerment and engagement. It is full of videos and toolkits on the importance of youth engagement and the impact it can have on communities.
Managing a Project Starter Kit
This Managing a Project starter kit is a great starting point for anyone who feels overwhelmed by the sheer amount of resources available on the internet about managing projects. These resources provide guidance on managing projects to people with all different levels of project management experience, from beginners all the way to seasoned pros.
Youth in Agri-Food Systems: Starter Kit
This Youth in Agri-Food Systems starter kit contains 15 of the most informative resources on the YouthLead website related to youth participation in agri-food systems. Here you will find tools separated by focus: background materials on the current status of food security and hunger, materials on how the COVID-19 pandemic and agri-food systems feed into each other, and resources on increasing youth participation in local agri-food systems.
Supporting LGBTQI+ Rights: Starter Kit
This Supporting LGBTQI+ Rights starter kit contains 15 of the most informative resources on the YouthLead website related to activism against discrimination directed toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex individuals, as well as individuals with other diverse gender and sexual identities (LGBTQI+).
Virtual Engagement: Starter Kit
This Virtual Engagement starter kit is a great starting point for anyone seeking to make a difference from a virtual platform. It consists of articles, toolkits, and webinars that will teach you the basics of virtual engagement and highlight the tools you can use to become a virtual changemaker.
Arts for Community Development: Starter Kit
This Arts for Community Development starter kit is useful for all young people looking to learn more about how the arts can positively impact communities and promote UN Sustainable Development Goal 16 by building “peaceful and inclusive societies” and “effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.”
Theatre in Action: Starter Kit
This Theatre in Action starter kit compiles resources that help young leaders leverage the power of performance art to support community development with educational and political projects. This kit works primarily in support of UN Sustainable Development Goal 4, Quality Education.
Menstrual Health & Hygiene: Starter Kit
This Menstrual Health & Hygiene starter kit is useful for people who menstruate looking to learn about proper menstrual hygiene. This kit primarily works in support of UN Sustainable Development Goal 3, Good Health & Wellbeing.
The Role of Sustainable Consumption and Production: Starter Kit
This Role of Sustainable Consumption and Production starter kit contains resources for those looking to learn about what a circular economy is, why it is important, and overcoming the barriers to sustainable consumption and production.
Digital Inclusion: Starter Kit
This Digital Inclusion starter kit includes resources on how young changemakers can learn about digital safety and digital skills as tools for positive digital development and transformation, both online and offline.
Youth Influencing Local Policy Starter Kit
This Youth Influencing Local Policy starter kit is designed to help young people make an impact on their local governments.