Youth Leadership Development: Pay-It-Forward Ambassadors

Changemaker: Chaeli Mycroft

Country of Implementation: South Africa

Young people are not given enough opportunities to embrace and develop their change-making, active citizen skills. To address this, and support the inherent innovation of young people, The Chaeli Campaign started the Pay-It-Forward Ambassadors, a youth leadership development programme in 2009. This programme runs through a series of workshops that take place over 12 months. Ambassadors are between the ages of 9 and 17. The Ambassadors workshops provide a platform to share ideas and learn about 5 key pillars of knowledge: Leadership, Communication, Active Citizenship, Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and Personal Development. We have 25 chapters across South Africa with 400 young people involved in the programme each year, and this number continues to grow. Before the 12-month programme ends for each cohort, Ambassadors are expected to ideate, design, and implement a project of their own which aligns with their passion. Ambassadors are encouraged to uncover their passion and design their projects around it as a more sustainable way to create positive social change. In 2022, our Ambassadors have created 20 social projects and 3 previous Ambassadors have been inspired, motivated and supported to start their own non- profit organisations focusing on disability rights advocacy, mental health awareness & support, and environmental/climate action respectively.