Community Centers:Youth Learning to Make a Meaningful Living

Solution Summary

Around the world, poverty, violence, and climate chaos disrupt education for millions. To ensure that all people have the opportunity to learn, Open Learning Exchange (OLE) developed Planet Learning, a repository of free resources. In OLE’s approach, local communities organize and maintain Community Learning Centers.

At these centers, disadvantaged youth use a dashboard to personalize their learning experience and download a wealth of multimedia materials like books, courses, and team activities. Learners rate and comment on their materials, and course leaders track their progress. Periodically, leaders connect to the internet to receive new resources and upload learners’ activity data.

Market Opportunity

• Globally, 250 million children can’t read, write, or count despite four years of schooling.

Highlights

• Worked with over 50,000 students in schools in Nepal, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, with Syrian refugees, Somali refugees, and Ugandan village health workers
• Recipient of Atlassian Foundation “10 in 10” Partnership Prize

Organization Goals

• Scale to impact as many learners as possible through an approach that is nation-led, community-centered, and person-driven

Existing Partnerships

OLE currently partners with:

• Ministry of Madagascar
• UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency
• USAID
• International Relief and Development
• Mbarara University
• Mogadishu University
• Ionoma Mexico
• Uaiki Global Initiative Peru
• Nokia Foundation
• Yahoo Employees Foundation
• Global Giving
• Oxfam
• Blakely Foundation
• Hewlett Foundation

Partnership Goals

OLE seeks partners for:

• Investment by individuals, foundations, governments, and corporations