The Changing Face of Youth Engagement in the Social Impact Sector

Youth engagement and inclusion has been an increasingly important topic across the globe impacting all sectors. As the world continues to face more and more crisis events through increasing conflicts, increasing climate change and unjust biases combined with a great connectivity to each other and ability to upskill, youth have been more compelled to create the change they need to see.

The social impact sector is primed for innovation and new ways of thinking making it the perfect space to grow youth engagement and leadership and demonstrate just how much impact young people can make.

Historically, Youth engagement in the social impact sector has been limited to manual volunteering and administrative roles with 17% of young people in the UK taking part in volunteering or fundraising activities throughout their education journey (Youth Employment UK, 2024). While these roles are critically important to delivering a non-profits impact, youth can often find themselves excluded from the decision-making process and leadership positions.

The reasoning for this exclusion is often cited as concern in the ability to navigate the increasingly complex challenges the world is facing today in a mature and responsible manner as well as a lack of demonstrated leadership and management ability.

Despite these challenges, youth have been able to leverage their digital prowess, increased connection through online platforms and increased global awareness and use them to bridge the leadership gap they previously faced. Youth have recognised that the future is for them, and they have to act now to ensure peace, the environment and inclusion are stabilised.

Credentials are often key in convincing people of the value youth bring. There are a series of notable youth leaders in the social impact space who have demonstrated just how much change young people can create on the world around them, a select few examples include:

Sophia Kiana (Climate Cardinals) – An Iranian-American social entrepreneur and activist who founded of Climate Cardinals translating millions words of climate information into 100+ languages, the world’s largest youth-led climate nonprofit, with 16,000 volunteers in 80+ countries. She is the youngest United Nations advisor in US history and was most recently appointed to serve on the EPA’s National Youth Advisory Council.

Nyombi Morris (Earth Volunteers) – A Ugandan deforestation and climate activist who founded a nonprofit organisation in 2020 to unite young people who are passionate about tree planting and climate conversations with over 47,500 trees planted across the country by the activist since 2019.

Richa Gupta (Labhya) – An Indian educator turned social entrepreneur. She is the Co-Founder & CEO of Labhya Foundation, a globally recognised Indian education-focused nonprofit that impacts over 2.4 Million vulnerable children through co-creating in-school wellbeing programs.

These examples demonstrate that youth can not only tackle the biggest challenges we face today but also deliver solutions on a global scale.

This is not to say older generations don’t have a part to play. They have the opportunity to empower youths in social impact through mentorship programs, advisory roles and connecting them with experienced professionals who will answer their questions, provide guidance and support to them as they navigate leading an impactful organisation.

They can also support by creating room at the table for youth to voice their priorities and concerns and input into decision making forums on a local, national and international level. This supporting advocacy is often the only way these spaces can be created in historical institutions and so it is critical the campaigning also comes from inside.

Organisations are now established to provide the resources, training and network for young leaders in the social impact to leverage in their journeys. These include organisations such as ‘One Young World’ with 18,000+ global youth ambassadors working across all aspects of social impact or ‘Future Leaders Network’ focused on including youth in some of the biggest global forums such as G20, Y7 and COP.

In conclusion, the continual growth on engagement from youth in leading the social impact space has had a resounding impact. Whether it be increased innovation and leveraging of technology or designing more sustainable and long-term solutions, youth are reinventing what impact can look like and impact organisations need to continue leveraging this ambition and engaging them in leadership roles.