Karam House: Innovation for Syrian Refugee Youth

The Syrian crisis has taken over half a million lives, displaced over 11 million Syrians, and left two million Syrian refugee children without education. Refugee communities are struggling to survive their traumatic loss of home and belonging while adapting to their host countries with scarce opportunity. Karam Foundation created Karam Houses - innovation workspaces providing refugee teens with  informal education, inspiration, innovation, and technology. They give Syrian youth access to a global community of creative ideas and endless possibility, ensuring they experience mentorship, training, preparation for higher education, and innovative design-learning studios preparing them to compete in a global economic market. If scaled globally, Karam Houses can take a refugee from victim to leader, delivering innovative, transformative programs to thousands of youth. These programs not only prepare refugees to thrive in their new communities, but increase social cohesion by joining local and refugee youth together in collaborative and social interventions.

We work with Syrian refugee youth facing barriers to success. In Turkey, 1.1 million refugees are registered at education-level. However, in 2017, only 34% were enrolled in public school. This is for many reasons: Turkish language barrier, prevalence of child labor (often to help parents who cannot access formal employment), lack of educational infrastructure, financial obstacles, and transportation barriers. 

Having experienced displacement, trauma, and war, Syrian teens report feelings of hopelessness and loss, resulting in a lack of direction, solutions, and guidance. These prevent youth from pursuing opportunities to change their life’s trajectory. Language barriers and lack of clarity on social provision affect Syrian refugees, especially for youth pursuing higher education as there are various steps, tests, and qualifications required to study in Turkey. This keeps Syrian youth from accessing education, and makes it harder for them to participate in activities outside of school. Although Syrians are now mainstreamed into the Turkish school system, they are often relegated to schools whose curricula do not adequately prepare them for scholarship opportunities. This not only limits their immediate access to higher education, but also limits quality of higher education, thereby further preventing inclusion into Turkish society, job opportunities, and future prospects.

The innovative education program delivered at Karam House serves Syrian refugee teens aged 14-18, and the space in general serves the Syrian refugee community through different activities. For example, the space is both used for mentorship workshops on the college application process and career topics, as well as for younger children enrolled in a separate Karam program, Sponsor a Syrian Refugee Family. We recognize that Syrian refugees understand their problems and solutions better than anyone. Therefore, Syrian refugee professionals deliver these programs, as they are best able to understand the needs and context of the community. Further, we have cultivated a dynamic environment in which we are constantly collecting feedback through feedback sessions, suggestion boxes, group discussions, and surveys. If we don't reflect the needs of the students, we make changes so that we do. We are currently assessing the feasibility of a “Student Board” at Karam House as well, that will serve as a more formal mechanism for students to elect representatives to work with program management to better address student concerns and implement ideas to strengthen the program.

We believe that education is the path from the future. Without quality education opportunities, youth will be unable to contribute meaningfully to their society, solve the problems of their communities, or have the tools to advance beyond their situation. The lack of access to quality education that refugees face compound these issues and keep refugee youth from growth and development. Refugee communities will be unable to thrive if they are not given opportunities to compensate for the effects of displacement and crisis. Karam House provides a solution to that. Not only do we provide education and practical tools for university applications and career paths, we provide an innovative technology space that allows students to enhance their skills and explore solutions to the world’s problems. 

Karam House addresses multiple difficulties that Syrian refugee youth face by connecting them directly with resources they lack. We develop our highly innovative education curriculum with our partner, NuVu in Cambridge, MA.. These studios utilize design-based thinking to tackle real-world problems. For example, a recent studio focused on designing prosthetics for real-life medical cases in the students’ communities. Through these studios and interactions, students are given access to high-quality mentorship with members of their community - allowing for constant collaboration and a more meaningful experience. The studios allow students to explore solutions to problems created by the Syrian crisis as well as solutions to community problems in the world beyond the crisis. Additionally, the Karam House program works to prepare students to succeed in their new country: we offer language courses including English and Turkish that help prepare students for the job market as well as social integration in Turkey and in school; we also offer classes to prepare for the Turkish exam (YOS) which is the university entrance exam for foreigners.

Karam House provides access to the internet and advanced technology, connecting youth to an outside world and opportunity for creativity that they may not be able to access at home. It gives the teens a safe, stable place to come to for support and inspiration; a place where they can forget the trauma of their past. 

When thinking about our programs we asked ourselves: what would happen if we gave everything to those that lost everything? What will they be capable of? These questions have guided our programming throughout the years and impacted the space we created.

The curriculum at Karam House is co-developed by NuVu. NuVu’s pedagogy is based on the architectural studio model and geared around multi-disciplinary, collaborative projects, providing an innovation-focused experience for students. Karam has created a customized experience for Syrian refugee youth, complete with language, cultural, and psychosocial considerations in partnership with NuVu. Karam House provides access not only to technology and a full makerspace (with laser cutters, 3D printers, and other materials), but also to a different way of learning and creating - complementing formal education. Youth have the opportunity to explore various skills for future careers such as aviation, video-editing, philosophy, theatre, graphic design, and entrepreneurship: not just basic core subjects, but subjects that align with the growing innovation of today’s job industry. The programming looks beyond the immediate needs of youth and helps place them on pathways to discover potential and passions that they may never have had the opportunity to discover before. 

Finally, our program design is led by the community itself. It is not a traditional development program, but instead one that addresses the nuances of what education in Syria has lacked and builds skills that have not been developed - thereby preparing these youth for a more global market.

Karam House is a technology hub. It harnesses the power of technology to open doors of possibility to Syrian refugee teens. Each Karam House is home to a makerspace, which includes 3D printers, laser cutters, power tools, fabrication materials, and other diverse media (ranging from cardboard and fabric to micro-controllers and electronic components). Studios are taught in ‘smart classrooms’, equipped with laptops, projectors,screens, and a photography station, and there is a multi-media library stocked with multilingual books as well as tablets pre-loaded with digital learning apps and reference resources. The equipment used at Karam House has been customized for learning including the installation of proper software and security, and adapted to the unique needs of each space. In Reyhanli specifically, where DSL is unreliable, we have also installed satellite internet. Projects designed by students employ a diverse selection of technologies, while introducing new innovations. The teens at Karam House have designed and built service drones, innovative play structures, 3D printed prosthetics, and educational games for children with special needs. 

Importantly, each student accesses an online platform to submit and showcase their projects - creating online portfolios of their work, which proves crucial to a young population on the move as they explore future opportunities such as higher education and employment. The platform serves as an online portfolio they can use as a reference anywhere and anytime.

We know that if we invest in Syrian refugee youth with the most innovative and creative models of learning, then we will create a generation of change-makers, thought leaders, innovators, and citizens who will build a better future for their communities and the world. This is our goal with Karam House.

Karam House is a hub - where all of Karam’s programs are headquartered, where we ensure kids attend school through our cash-assistance program, where youth access innovative education, and where students learn about higher education application processes, and access mentorship. It is the physical space that puts kids on pathways to higher education and/or employment. With each step on this pathway, activities support integration of Syrian refugees into Turkish society through education.

Youth at Karam House access innovative education programs - complementing their formal education through the Turkish school system and providing unprecedented tools and resources, such as a makerspace, computer labs, and libraries. In studios, students access a world where critical thinking and design-based learning are primary, where they engage with real-world problems and are equipped with values encouraging inclusion in Turkish society.

The programs interact creating a cycle allowing one student to move through formal, informal, and higher education - preparing them with language, access to Turkish culture and community, and information enabling a smoother transition into Turkish society as young adults. This cycle offers a permanent solution to our leaders: giving them the permanent tools to access a fulfilling life, where other programs may just be short-term solutions.

Combined, Karam House: Reyhanli and Karam House: Istanbul have served over 1,500 students - specifically Syrian refugees who have fled Syria for Turkey. In the next year, we expect growth specifically at Karam House: Istanbul and expect to be serving over 2,000 students.We plan to scale our model over the next 5 years and build more Karam Houses to serve over 4,000 students a year.

Our first goal to further the Karam House program is to develop the final stage of Karam House: delivering trainings or curriculums focusing on specific employment opportunities needed in the market and then being able to link young adults to employment opportunities. We envision a space that not only connects individuals with employment opportunities but provides the necessary space, computers, and other resources for young adults to conduct remote work. 

Longer term, our goal is to scale the Karam House program. We are incredibly proud of the successes of Karam House: Reyhanli and Karam House: Istanbul, and would like to expand it outside of Turkey. Within four years, we are targeting the opening of Karam Houses in both Lebanon and Jordan, where there are large populations of refugees without proper education. This will allow us to reach thousands of more Syrian refugee youth and engage with additional refugee communities in those countries.

In scaling the program, Karam House will serve as a framework that can be implemented across the world among different displaced or disadvantaged populations, transforming futures for countless lives. Generations to come will benefit from the current class of students at Karam House, giving them a lift into higher education and competitive employment.

The main limitation we face to continuing and expanding programming is funding, as the lack of international attention on Syria has left a negative impact on our ability to raise funds. Though the situation in Syria has not improved over the past years, it has disappeared from the media and is no longer viewed as a threat or cause needing immediate attention. Additionally, the programs that we deliver are extremely niche and innovative in nature. They require long-term investment from supporters; while short-term results are immediately evident (i.e. number of children prevented from child labor), our long-term results need time to show. We have determined that it takes an average of seven years for a youth to access higher education and/or employment opportunities which requires substantial trust in our organizational vision and mission. These two factors have created a substantial fundraising barrier.

Technical obstacles exist as well. As we continue to build and develop Karam Houses in Turkey, we are looking to design the program to more adequately address the link between our innovative education curriculum and employment opportunities.This stage requires substantial technical knowledge and partnerships. The next stage of development for Karam House is to identify a curriculum that can help this segment of young adults access skills trainings that enable remote employment opportunities, and to find employment partners that can support the program in job placement opportunities as well. 

To address funding barriers, we are diversifying our funding streams. First, we are developing a recurring giving program to help to attract more individual, monthly donors, providing a more reliable funding stream. We are also creating a more robust major gifts program to increase sustainable engagement with higher-level donors. We are also expanding our communications strategy. We see power in telling our story and the impact of our programs. In the past this has been vital for fundraising to be successful. As a result, we have been  growing our social media presence and focusing on deep-impact stories. We believe these actions will enable us to do and be more.

To overcome the barriers we have encountered in developing the final stage of the Karam House program, we are now looking to knowledge partners to help us develop the skills training curriculum and to connect us with employment partners. We have a diverse set of advisors that will help us with these goals, and we plan to use their skills to develop a program design we can then implement. We plan to employ a dedicated program consultant to guide the execution of the program - beginning as a pilot that involves one cohort of adults at each of the Karam House locations. After making necessary adjustments, we will scale the program to meet the needs of all our cohorts and will include it in future Karam Houses we plan to build. 

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As Karam House is already an operating program in two locations (Istanbul and Reyhanli), we have a large number of staff that support the project. Approximately 25 full-time and two part-time staff are on the Karam House team in Turkey - almost all of these staff members are Syrian refugees themselves. Additionally, we have 7 full-time and four part-time staff in the US who use a portion of their time to remotely support and backstop the project.

As an organization, Karam has assembled a team of highly qualified individuals. How have we done this? By hiring refugees and experts. The team members that run our programs are Syrian refugees themselves, and therefore are best equipped to mentor the teens along the pathway of leadership. In this way, our work is implemented completely with the refugee community. These mentors also have access to the technical expertise of our curriculum partner, NuVu (whose founder is Syrian as well), enabling them to benefit from their knowledge. The team is composed of engineers, architects, designers - people who, in their personal and professional nature, are creative solution seekers eager to learn and innovate as well. Combining their professional expertise with their real-world experience, they have a nuanced understanding of the difficulties students may face - especially considering that they have similar lived experiences.

Further, the Karam Foundation team has been working in this space since the beginning of the Syrian crisis. Founded by a Syrian American, Karam is also run by many Syrian Americans with a personal stake in this issue. We know the communities we are working with, know the challenges they face, and understand the nuances and contexts of these challenges. Successfully opening up two Karam Houses to date has put us in the right position to continue to scale this solution.

Our most substantial partner for Karam House is NuVu Studio in Massachusetts, US. NuVu provides curriculum expertise for our innovative education programming at Karam House as well as training for the mentors, and has been working with us for over two years. NuVu is a full-time innovation school for middle and high school students in the US. Their pedagogy is based on the architectural studio model and geared around multi-disciplinary, collaborative projects. NuVu was founded in 2010 in Cambridge, MA by PhDs and Graduates of MIT. For the last 6 years, NuVu has been providing an innovation-focused experience for students, ages 11-18. NuVu has reached over 3,000 students worldwide, and created and energized a generation of entrepreneurs, designers, makers and inventors. 

Additionally, we are proud to have a range of funding partners, both supporting Karam Foundation generally, and Karam House specifically. Those supporting Karam House include the Steven’s Initiative (Through the Aspen Institute) and Violet Jabara Charitable Trust.

Programs and services delivered at Karam House are targeted towards Syrian refugee youth. The access to a safe space to gain soft skills and critical thinking skills, ability to work within studio-based settings, and chance to solve real-life community problems are provided free of charge. Students are also given the space and mentorship to develop presentation and public speaking skills - benefiting them in future formal education and employment opportunities. They gain a renewed perception of their own capabilities, discovered passions, and opportunities to pursue them in higher education. Our model compensates for limitations placed on them by the war and their subsequent displacement. They leave with a sense of confidence, enabling them to partake in university or within local communities. In return, students often volunteer at Karam House, delivering workshops on the university application process or becoming interns - as “giving back” is integrated into Karam House culture. 

We measure impact through tracking the number of youth completing the entire cycle at Karam House and where they move next (into other Karam programs or directly into university). As Karam House is part of our 10,000 Leaders initiative, we look at those attending as youth who will ultimately give back to their communities - as leaders, and by definition, see value in that. We will track our leaders as they volunteer with Karam Foundation or with other organizations in the communities that they end up in. 

Karam Foundation is proud to be funded by the generosity of tens of thousands of individual donors who make an average donation of $203, as well as a pool of generous donors who invet in Karam at a higher level and for multiple years.

As mentioned previously, we are currently working to diversify our funding streams. We will be developing a recurring giving program to attract more individual, monthly donors, allowing for more sustainable funding we can plan around. Additionally, we are creating a more robust major gifts program  to increase our engagement with higher-level donors, including robust communication plans. Finally, we are also working on developing our communications to better tell our story and the impact of our programs as we know this is vital for fundraising to be successful.

We believe that deeply investing in refugees will unleash endless potential and possibility. We have created a transformative and innovative solution for Syrian refugee youth. Winning Solve will amplify our solution to a wider network of supporters and partners so we can scale our Karam House model and serve thousands more refugee youth across the world.

As mentioned above, our largest barrier to continuing and expanding our programming is funding. This is because there is a decreasing amount of attention on Syria, and because our programs are niche and innovative - not ‘quick fixes’, but instead requiring long-term investment. We know that Solve can help us with this limitation, as we being selected will allow us to reach additional supporters, prospects, partners, and grants, that we have been unable to connect with to-date. 

Additionally, we know that the Solve community will be able to help us in scaling the Karam House program to additional locations and countries. Our programs have been proven to work and are ready to scale. Additional partnerships, supporters, and specialized knowledge will help us to scale.

Finally, as we work to develop the final stage of our Karam House program: an employment skills-training program, we will need the help of mentors and experts. We know that the Solve community will be able to help us develop this option and further our impact.

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As mentioned previously, we are looking to partner with organizations that can help us identify a curriculum that can be delivered to young adults looking for employment after higher education, or youth who choose not to pursue traditional higher education. This partner would ideally support us in the development of the appropriate curriculum based on need in the local market (web-based or local), as well as deliver the program to the students. Additionally, we would like to work with partners that are able to support in job placement opportunities that capitalize on the skills learned in the aforementioned curriculum. With the research we have conducted thus far, we have found that there are employment platforms whose main mission is to support displaced communities - thereby showing value alignment as well.

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The essence of Karam House is to create a space for Syrian refugee youth to gain access to tools, resources, and opportunities that empower them on their journeys to higher education or employment. We aim to empower individuals to overcome obstacles and take them from victim to leader - to reinstill a sense of agency and ownership of their lives and their futures, despite their new and foreign surroundings. By empowering these youth through education (both formal and nonformal), we are giving them the tools to better integrate into their host communities. When giving a Syrian refugee the opportunity to access higher education, they are gaining the means for increased economic power; when we are able to help Syrian refugees learn Turkish, their opportunities for gaining citizenship increases, thereby increasing their ability to take part in the political decision making process. The Karam House space is not only limited to Syrian refugee youth - other refugee communities have also begun to attend our workshops, as well as Turkish youth. This dynamic allows for immediate opportunities for integration and increased social cohesion between the different groups living in Turkey.

The Prize for Innovation in Refugee Inclusion would allow us to advance the Karam House program by scaling it to reach more beneficiaries. Specifically, we would be able to expand our programming at Karam House: Istanbul where we are working to reach even more Syrian refugees in the community, as well as be able to start planning for our third Karam House. 

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