About Us
EMpower’s Youth Fellowships are anchored in our firm belief that young people are experts in their own lives. Through these fellowships, young people collaborate with our regional teams to bring fresh perspectives to key issues that impact them. Fellows, selected for their commitment to change, actively shape strategies, implement projects, and amplify the voices of their peers. These young leaders are agents of transformation, driving leadership in varying capacities to make EMpower’s work more relevant and robust.
Our Youth Fellows are recruited across multiple regions, with each programme tailored to the unique challenges and opportunities in their local context. Below are insights into our Fellowship programmes in Indonesia, India, Mexico, and South Africa.
In Indonesia, five Youth Fellows, selected by their peers from a pool of 14 Youth Consultants, are co-designing and implementing a fully youth-led programme to promote safe and healthy lives for young people aged 18-24 in Greater Jakarta. Through collaboration, they are developing solutions that resonate with their communities, enabling them to become advocates for positive change in both local and organisational settings.
In Mexico, our Youth Fellows focus on two key areas: supporting EMpower in creating strategies to integrate more young people into our work and gathering input from their peers to help shape our grantmaking. By incorporating young people’s perspectives, they help to ensure that EMpower’s strategies are responsive to the needs of young people across Mexico.
In South Africa, the Youth Fellowship focuses on mental health. The Fellows are working closely with the EMpower team to lead initiatives to improve mental health outcomes for young people, especially those facing significant challenges and trauma.
In India, the Girls Advisory Council, an initiative where nine girl leaders weigh in on our programmatic strategy and grantmaking decisions. They represent EMpower in India at important fora to advance meaningful youth engagement and are part of key strategic touchpoints with the programmatic team and our India Advisory Council, including monitoring visits to our grantee partners.