IB youth initiatives: Festival of Hope, Youth Ambassador Programme, Global Youth Action Fund and Generation Global

News

Agency, Access & Action: Youth Flourishing in Complex Times

23 September 2025
This community-led dialogue brought together youth, educators, funders, and policymakers to reimagine education with young people. Rather than keynote speakers, "catalysts" guided the conversation as we created a space that will help to rewire how we design, fund and deliver education centering youth agency, community and capability building.

This community-led dialogue brought together youth, educators, funders, and policymakers to reimagine education with young people. Rather than keynote speakers, "catalysts" guided the conversation as we created a space that will help to rewire how we design, fund and deliver education centering youth agency, community and capability building.

We believe education is a shared system, not a separate sector. Change happens when we work together across roles, generations, and experiences.

This dialogue centered on three key themes:

  • What meaningful youth engagement looks like?
  • Impactful and authentic ways to fund youth initiatives
  • The capabilities young people need to lead, adapt, and thrive in a changing world.

We’d love to stay in touch with you after the session. Please follow the links below to find out more about our work:

Festival of Hope is designed to help young people address complex global challenges by elevating youth voices and inspiring youth action through diverse partnerships. IB serves as the co-funder, co-organizer (with communities), and brand ambassador of Festival of Hope activities. Find out more here: https://ibo.org/festival-of-hope/

Youth Ambassador Programme is the product of a collaboration between the IB and HundrED, a Finland-based organization with a focus on identifying and fostering educational innovations. The goal of the programme is to empower and support young people aged 13–19 to develop skills aligned with the UN’s SDGs. It uses a web-based cohort model that emphasizes youth co-creation and supports young people in incubating and developing their own projects, if they wish to do so. Find out more here: https://hundred.org/en/youth-ambassadors  

Global Youth Action Fund is an award open to any student or student group aged 12–19 who has a project or idea they believe will make an impact in their community. We believe that broadening grant funding direct to young people will shine a light on the impressive work they are already doing all around the globe, in IB World Schools and beyond. Find out more here: https://www.ibo.org/news/news-about-the-ib/global-youth-action-fund/ 

Generation Global is the IB's global citizenship education programme for young people aged 13–17 that enables them to embrace the future, equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to become active and open-minded global citizens. Join a global community of over 90,300 young people and 8,800 educators. Find out more here: https://generation.global/ 

Connect with us:

Jennifer Bahrami - Jennifer.Bahrami@ibo.org 

Ziyaan Virji - Ziyaan.Virji@ibo.org

Robert Kelty - Robert.Kelty@ibo.org 

Lisa Petro - Lisa.Petro@ibo.org

David Weiss - David.Weiss@ibo.org 

James Stranko - James.Stranko@ibo.org 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/festivalofhopeib/ and use #festivalofhope

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ib-festival-of-hope/ 

And sign up here for our mailing list updates: https://mailbuild.ibo.org/h/r/9EF6F4E9AEEC6E1F2540EF23F30FEDED