Human Projects

Empowering young leaders to solve human rights issues in their own communities using innovative applications of existing technology 

The Human Projects is a global nonprofit using human rights educational programs to empower and support young people in developing projects that solve human rights issues in their community. 

Education shapes the way we see the world. The Human Projects provides programs ranging from class lessons to multi-month service learning programs. Our innovative educational programs empower and support young changemakers in developing and implementing projects that solve human rights issues and provide students with job related skills.

Technology plays a key role in the Human Projects. Mapping and analytics software, python, VoIP, and automation allow us to track impact of our programs, maintain communication with our educators and volunteers, develop programs, and build a virtual museum. We are in the process of developing a WebApp for young changemakers.

Powered by a global network of volunteers and educators, over 1 million students from 118 countries have participated in Human Projects programs. Participants have created projects including creating a radio show to educate their community about human rights, developing an awareness campaign about violence against children, and addressing food insecurity. By developing educational programs that empower young people, we pave the way for a more caring and connected world.  

Human rights are widely seen as one of the key paths to creating a better world, yet they are not taught to a significant portion of students. Even when human rights are included in curriculums, they are often presented as a document instead of as a tool that can be used to help the world. The Human Projects programs not only educate students about human rights but show students how they can use human rights to help their community.

Young people make up over 40% of the world’s population and yet are rarely given an opportunity to participate in or lead positive change surrounding local and global issues that will define our future. Young people have an incredible potential to create positive change, but may not see themselves as changemakers and often do not receive the support they need to implement change. The Human Projects develops action-oriented educational programs for schools, classrooms, and nonprofits that empower young people to see themselves as changemakers and provides support to young people addressing human rights issues in their communities. 

Young people entering the workforce need to display an increasing number of key skills such as professional communication, financial literacy, teamwork, organization, conflict resolution, and leadership. The educational programs developed by the Human Projects provide participants with skills needed to thrive in a constantly evolving workforce.

The Human Projects is primarily focused on serving young people (aged 25 or younger) around the world. Our educational programs use human rights and changemaking education to empower young people to explore the ways that they can improve their community and help them to see themselves as changemakers. 

Through our single lesson educational programs participants learn about human rights, discuss the impact of human rights issues in their communities, and think critically about the role they can play in solving these issues. Through multi-month programs, participants work together as a group to create projects that address a human rights issue in their community. 

Through programs such as Young Human Rights Changemakers and Teaching Human Rights Fellowship, the Human Projects provides knowledge necessary to develop a community project and provide young individuals with marketable skills such as leadership, organization, critical thinking, collaboration, and finance. We also use a modified engineering design review process to encourage ethical changemaking through meaningful community stakeholder engagement throughout the process of creating change. This process of developing a community project helps students learn how to think critically through a complex problem and work collaboratively to solve it. Students take on significant responsibilities and leadership roles in these projects. After completing the program, students have developed and applied new skills to a community impact project they can list on their resume. 

The Human Projects is led by young changemakers from a variety of cultures, political ideologies, and backgrounds. As an organization working with young people around the world, we are dedicated to having a leadership team representative of this diversity. Our leadership team includes individuals based in 16 countries. 

At the core of the Human Projects model is a commitment to engaging directly with the program participants and implementing suggestions. Through the Human Projects Education Network, we work closely with educators and program participants to adapt and improve our educational programs to meet the needs of the student participants and educators. All educators and program participants are encouraged to reach out with feedback. 

After receiving feedback from educators, programs were re-designed to be easily accessible to educators who have limited access to printers or the internet in their classroom. When several educators noticed that their students were excited to learn about changemakers their age and requested more examples of young changemakers in their country, we used this feedback as the catalyst for developing a global public archive of young changemakers.  A project that began as a tool to assist educators has turned into the Young Changemakers Archive, a virtual museum sharing information on the impact and stories of young changemakers around the world. https://www.youngchangemakersarchive.com/ We are thankful to have a network of engaged educators and young changemakers whose feedback improves current programs and helps to determine the direction of future programs. 

The Human Projects was started in 2017 and has now grown to over 1.6 million program participants in 118 countries. We offer a wide variety of classroom and multi-month changemaking focused human rights programs free of charge. The Human Projects has had a unique growth pattern due to our ability to recruit volunteers and educators around the world. This decentralized model focused on a remote international team and thousands of on-the-ground volunteers and educators allowed us to grow extremely quickly, however our financial resources have not grown with our impact. 

We have found ourselves in a place where we are too large to receive local funding but do not have the network to compete for larger international grants. In order for the Human Projects to continue to grow, we must find a way to bridge this gap. We are currently applying for larger pitch competitions, working on increasing individual donors by speaking and increasing publicity, and searching for more corporate sponsorships to help us to grow this organization.

Technology plays a key role in the distribution, expansion, and monitoring of the Human Project’s work. Mapping and analytic software, MATLAB, python, and survey software are integrated to determine the growth and impact of our programs. Team management software, VoIP, and automation allow us to organize and maintain contact with volunteers and educators running programs in remote communities. Adobe creative cloud and web design software allow us to develop professional educational materials and websites. Our Educators Portal and Clubs Portal allow us to quickly share updated programs and training materials. Automation streamlines the process of onboarding and maintaining contact with thousands of educators and volunteers. 

We developed the Young Changemakers Archive, a virtual museum dedicated to collecting and publicly sharing information on the impact and experiences of young changemakers around the world. 

We are also in the process of developing a web app for young changemakers that will allow young people to learn about creating change, work through guided lessons to develop key materials such as a business plan or pitch deck, watch videos on human rights, submit essays and ideas for feedback from the Human Projects, have collaborative discussions, and brainstorm ideas to solve human rights issues with others from around the world.

The Human Projects currently serves 1,602,053 individuals in 118 countries. Over the next year, we anticipate we will serve 3,000,000 young people. 

The Human Projects has achieved this impact through a variety of programs. Through our classroom-focused educational programs such as Learning Her Story, we provide a variety of human rights educational programs to educators, nonprofits, community groups, and individuals free of charge. The Young Human Rights Changemakers program is focused on Partnering with educators to bring human rights centered service learning to classrooms. Through the program, participants work together to understand the human rights issues their community is facing and create a class project to help address the issue. The Teaching Human Rights Fellowship is focused on leaders in human rights education in their communities. Fellows work closely with the Human Projects team to bring together groups of community members to learn about and discuss human rights. The Young Changemakers archive is a virtual museum dedicated to collecting and sharing information on the impact and experiences of young changemakers. The Stories of Changemakers Podcast is a journey through the stories of changemakers to  discover the spark that ignited their passion, their greatest triumphs, and most meaningful lessons.

Over the next year, we plan to serve 3,000,000 young people. We will maximize the impact of current programs while developing new programs particularly focused on the power of technology.

To achieve our impact goals, we plan to launch several new programs. Through our program STEM for Human Rights, we are developing lessons to explore the impact of STEM on human rights and how young changemakers can incorporate new discoveries to create positive change in their communities. We are also creating an open source textbook on human rights and young changemakers working to achieve them. The textbook is currently being edited. Through the Conversations with Young Changemakers program, we will empower the next generation of young leaders by bringing changemakers to classrooms as guest speakers. We are also in the process of developing a web app for young changemakers to provide multiple resources including interactive lessons on change and brainstorming with other young changemakers. 

As an organization, we are dedicated not just to creating change for the young people we work with, but also to having a positive impact on their communities and laying the groundwork for a better world. Our commitment to meaningful stakeholder engagement extends to the projects created by our program participants. Human Projects developed a modified engineering design process used by program participants to ensure that community members and stakeholders are integrally involved in the development and implementation of projects designed to create positive change in their communities.

The Human Projects collects data on the number of participants in our programs, the impact of these programs on the participant’s views, the impact of projects developed by participants, and feedback from program participants, educators, and volunteers. We collect data on the location, number of participants, age of participants, and several other key demographics when educators or volunteers register their students for a program. After programs, educators are asked to provide feedback on the program through a survey. Several of our longer programs attempt to administer pre and post surveys to students to determine how the program shifts their views and ideas about their ability to create change, knowledge of human rights, and workforce skills they gained. Given the varied settings in which our programs are implemented, collecting data, particularly pre and post program data can be extremely challenging. 

Outside of formal data collection such as surveys, we meet with educators, volunteers, and participants to understand their experiences with the programs and suggestions. Educators, participants, and volunteers are encouraged to reach out with comments, suggestions, or information about their experiences with the program and to send pictures if possible. 

A survey of 1,057 participants in Young Human Rights Changemakers showed that after completing the program, 93% viewed themselves as changemakers, 90.9% felt confident in their ability to lead and complete a community project, and 92.5% were confident in their ability to identify human rights issues in their community. 

The largest barrier that we face to achieving our goals next year is access to funding. The reach and impact of Human Projects programs are limited by the availability of funds. Although we have been able to continue to expand our impact despite limited funding, as we continue to expand our programs and our reach, financial constraints have become more challenging to overcome. 

The Human Projects did not follow a typical growth trajectory for an international organization. Typically, global organizations either scale up from local projects or are started by individuals with connections to and experience with large funding sources. The Human Projects model of an International Leadership Team and thousands of volunteers and educators delivering programs allowed us to scale rapidly from 5 countries to over 100. This unique growth presents significant funding challenges. We are not centralized enough to apply for moderately sized funding (grants, pitch competitions, business support) locally or statewide. We also do not have the ability to compete for the majority of the funding opportunities typically given to global organizations. We must find a way to bridge the gap between a “startup” nonprofit and a stable nonprofit with consistent funding.

The Human Projects team is unique because it consists of two parts: the International Team and the Global Network. The Human Projects International Team is a group of passionate volunteers who work together to run the Human Projects at a global level. The International Team is responsible for building Human Projects Programs and providing training and support to the Global Network and educators running Human Projects Programs. The majority of the Human Projects International team are young changemakers who have had significant involvement in or launched their own youth-led social good projects. As a nonprofit focused on creating globally relevant educational programs, our team represents a wide range of countries, cultural backgrounds, and political ideologies. Team members come to the Human Projects from a variety of unique backgrounds. For example, Michael, our Director of the Teaching Human Rights Fellowship, is a medical doctor from Nigeria whose expertise provides a unique perspective when developing programs and guiding participants. The variety of backgrounds, experiences, and expertise uniquely positions the Human Projects team to provide impactful human rights educational programs that encourage young people to become changemakers. 

The Global Network is a group of volunteers and educators working with members of their own communities to run Human Projects Programs. This unique structure allows them to identify programs suited to the unique needs and challenges of the community. 

Despite financial constraints, the Human Projects has been able to have a significant global impact. This is in large part due to a network of volunteers committed to spending their time and effort delivering Human Projects Programs in their communities. From the International Team, to volunteers and educators on the ground, the Human Projects’ global impact is due to the commitment and dedication of thousands of volunteers and educators. 

The Human Projects works with an extensive network of school, nonprofit, and community partners to deliver innovative educational programs to individuals around the world. Through the Education Network, consisting of 127 nonprofits, 53 schools, 23 classrooms, and 24 community groups, we receive feedback on Human Projects programs. We work closely with our partners to obtain feedback on the educational programs that we develop in order to make modifications to improve the effectiveness of programs to ensure that these programs are providing needed information in the most effective format. We also partnered with Girls Place Inc. to develop Standing Tall. https://www.thehumanprojects.c... We have worked with several thousand educators and volunteers to provide over 213,000 human rights lessons through Human Projects Programs. Partnerships play a vital role in the growth and reach of the Human Projects.

The Human Projects is uniquely qualified for the Pozen Social Innovation Prize. Our programs are designed to address unmet human rights needs and to empower young people to learn about human rights and create positive change in communities. We are passionate about inspiring women and girls to learn about and protect their own rights and empowering them to change the world. Several of our most impactful programs have focused on addressing the human rights issues women and girls face. 

Learning Her Story is an educational program in recognition of the International Day of the Girl. Students explore the history of girl’s rights, gain a greater understanding of gender inequality, participate in an empathy building activity, and work collaboratively to develop ways they can impact girls’ rights in their community. 

Women Changing the World is an action oriented educational program on human rights and women making a positive difference in their communities and the world. Through interactive lesson plans, students learned the stories of female changemakers and were encouraged to think critically about ways in which they can improve human rights in their communities. 

Standing Tall, in partnership with Girls Place Inc., focused on empowering minority and low income female changemakers. Students met weekly with their mentors to receive academic guidance and assistance in creating a human rights project that positively impacted the community. Students received micro-grants up to $200 to complete their projects. Projects focused on a range of girls and women’s rights issues including distributing menstrual products to homeless women, raising awareness of modern slavery, and developing an art exhibit on human rights. https://www.thehumanprojects.com/standing-tall-class-of-2019

Our first special exhibit in the Young Changemakers Archive, a virtual museum of the impact and experiences of young changemakers, is Women Changing the World. Women Changing the World features stories of young female changemakers around the globe. The purpose of this exhibit is to inspire young female changemakers and highlight the strength and power of girls and women who are changing the world. https://www.youngchangemakersarchive.com/special-exhibits. 

Receiving funding and recognition from the The Pozen Social Innovation Prize would allow us to scale our programs and significantly increase our global impact. We are currently limited by our financial constraints. Our work at the intersection of human rights education, empathy building, and community projects positions us to create change that benefits women and girls. Not only do program participants address human rights issues, they also develop increased empathy and awareness of the impact that participants' actions have on others. Through change oriented human rights educational programs, we can build a better world for women and girls. 

Selected comments from program participants are included below. 

 ”It helps my girls believe in themselves and know their rights” - Educator from The Gambia

  “Learning Her Story has shaped my vision when it comes to helping others, helping them change their lives and believe in their dreams. I am more committed to making access to education for all and trying to help people in my community, especially young girls. I am more motivated thanks to this program who has given me a positive look up to what we can do as youth.” - Student participant from Tunisia