Apply now to the Youth Empowerment Fund for Youth-Led Initiatives (500-5000 EUR grants)

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Closing Date: 24 March 2025

Apply now to the Youth Empowerment Fund for Youth-Led Initiatives (500-5000 EUR grants)

Overview

Youth Empowerment Fund (YEF), a partnership between the European Union (EU) and the Global Youth Mobilization (GYM), an initiative of the Big Six Youth Organisations (Big Six), provides direct financial support for youth-led initiatives focusing on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals at the local level.

The Youth Empowerment Fund for Youth-Led Initiatives also aims to reach young people from under-represented backgrounds, including those facing challenges relating to their socio-economic background, gender, disability, marginalization, climate change, and more. Hence, many Youth-Led Solutions support young people and their communities in overcoming these situations of vulnerability.

Why Apply for the Youth Empowerment Fund for Youth-Led Initiatives?

Access to Funding
Supporting Under-Represented Communities
Climate and Sustainability Focused

The Youth Empowerment Fund seeks to break down barriers to funding to youth initiatives and organisations and engage, empower and connect young people to create local solutions to the world’s biggest challenges. An individual person or an informal group of young people can apply to get small scale micro-grants for their projects between 500-1500 EUR, while registered youth-led organization may apply for funding opportunities up to 5000 EUR.

A key priority and a special focus of the Youth Empowerment Fund is to fund youth-led initiatives supporting under-represented and vulnerable communities, such as those affected by climate change, people with disabilities or chronic illness, and people facing gender-based barriers. Another special focus of the Youth Empowerment Fund is to support projects that address climate change, environmental protection or sustainability. In the last Open Call cycle, the 56% of Youth-Led Solutions supported by the Youth Empowerment Fund were focused on advancing SDG 13: Climate Action.

Selection Process

Enabled by the GYM’s Youth-Led Model, the applications are reviewed and recommended by a global, diverse and experienced team of Youth Panellist from across the globe, including the GYM’s Youth Board Representatives. In the last Open Call cycle, 166 Youth Panellists were recruited and they contributed over 3,400 volunteer hours in the intensive review process from August to November 2024 to select the projects.

In addition to funding, Youth Empowerment Fund provide successful project awardees with capacity building opportunities such as workshops, access to community of youth experts and guidance for their project implementation journey.

There is also the chance for outstanding project teams to join an Accelerator Program to scale up their ideas. The Accelerator Program offers additional funding opportunities, access to a global network of youth leadership, intensive training, support from experts, and other opportunities to scale projects further.

Application Criteria

Who can Apply:
Young people aged 14 to 30 from eligible countries.

Application Categories:
– Young individuals
– Informal groups
– Registered youth-led organisations

Eligible Projects:
Projects addressing global challenges aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Special Focus Areas:
– Projects by or for under-represented and vulnerable young people and groups. (For example: communities affected by climate change, people facing gender barriers, and people with disabilities or chronic illness)
– Projects addressing climate change and environmental sustainability

Accessibility

The application platform has been designed to be accessible to all young people. The application forms are simple and easy to complete to ensure the application process is as user-friendly as possible.

It is available in four languages (Arabic, English, French and Spanish) and there is the option to share a URL link to a videos to support an application. (eg. google drive, youtube, dropbox, etc). For those who have internet access issues or disabilities, Youth Empowerment Fund can provide an offline form or other accommodations. Please get in touch at [email protected]