Engaging Teens Globally on the SDGs using digital platforms

The world has a large burgeoning youth population and of those youth some 1.3 billion are teens, making up roughly 16% of the global population, more than ever before (UNICEF Data, 2022). Teens globally are in despair about the state of the world and their own futures.  It is often difficult for teens to find opportunities to be impactful, and often teen voices are not valued.  It is hard for teens globally to find adults with the time, resources, and networks to help them.  For those teens who are motivated to be change-makers, there are often barriers including language, access to internet, networks, support, inequality, poverty, funding constraints and so much more. Generally schools globally don't provide the skills or encouragement for students to be change-makers.  This is true for the wealthiest and poorest communities alike.  

The 2030 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out by the United Nations (UN) are incredibly ambitious.  Coming up on the midpoint of their 15 year plan from 2015-2030, the UN has reported that they are currently not on track to achieve them. The goal with the least amount of progress is Goal 13: Climate Change, which if not addressed could put billions of people at risk. To make a real impact, the world needs the support of as many people as possible including youth (especially Generation Z) that have shown they are both passionate and digitally savvy with ideas and solutions that can inspire action. 

There is an urgent need to engage more youth global change-makers to take action now in order to achieve peace, prosperity and sustainability for our people and the planet.  

The Global Co Lab Network provides a digital network free of charge to all teens globally to express themselves and engage with like-minded teens and mentors across the world every week. They meet on topics they are passionate about, with a focus on the UN SDGS.  We host nine weekly teen-led SDG Hubs addressing climate change, hunger, quality education, plastic pollution, gender equality, racial justice, mental health, wildlife conservation, and a new hub for females in Afghanistan.  We also have a Spanish speaking hub that meets weekly and a Turkish Hub, both involving schools more actively and we hope to re-invigorate our Arts Hub.  The Co Lab is flexible as needs emerge which gives us the ability to design Hubs tailored to different regions, audiences, and target issues. 

The Co Lab utilizes standard digital platforms regularly including Zoom, Whereby, Mozilla hubs, Youtube, Slack, and Google Suite.  Ongoing Hub projects include podcasts (now 5), books published on Amazon, social media projects, and documentaries. Additionally, we host an annual video Changemaker Challenge to spread awareness and encourage teens to take action on the SDGs.

With these low cost technologies the Co Lab connects teens with mentors, skills training, networks, encouragement, speaking platforms, recommendation letters, service hours, leadership positions, funding and other resources to make a difference in their local communities and beyond.  

Overall, our solution offers safe, fun, engaging ways for teens to meet other people across the world who are as passionate as they are to make the world a better place.  Most importantly we work to amplify their voices and give them confidence and as we like to say, all of our mental health goes up the more we engage with each other. 

The Co Lab primarily serves Generation Z, specifically teens of different countries and economic backgrounds.  Generation Z are often not included in many youth programs as these programs often focus on 18 and older.  This generation has historically been very vocal about their views but not listened to by older adults, but this is changing.  For example, Greta Thunberg has been recognized globally for her role in climate change. 

The SDG Hubs serve as a safe space for youth to discuss ideas and move action forward with the support of 1-2 adult mentors.  The Hubs provide project-based education where teens dive in to learn about their SDG and come up with ideas for action.  The Co Lab also hosts monthly All Hands Meetings where Hub members interact with other Hubs and find common areas to collaborate, but also learn a skills training monthly which are often led by teens. These trainings are posted to our website as a resource for everyone. We also provide leadership opportunities for teens to take on roles as Teen Ambassadors, Social Media Liaisons, and Secretary, outlined in a Hub handbook included in the orientation meetings.

Our Change-maker Challenge is another way we engage, educate, empower and impact teens.  Now entering its 10th year, the challenge invites teens globally to submit a short video sharing their dream on how to change the world, with a focus on an SDG. The goal is to inspire them to think about being a change-maker while learning about the SDGs, and hopefully joining one of our SDG Hubs. Each year ten winners are selected and eligible to receive up to $500 to implement their vision if funding is needed. The Co Lab hires an intern to help guide those winners for six months with project implementation and we celebrate their work at our annual fall virtual celebration.  

Here below are just a few examples of hundreds of teens impacted by the Co Lab's programs:  Grace, a challenge winner from California, used her funds to hire an illustrator and publish Perry & Friends, a book for young children on climate change.  She then became the teen Ambassador of our Arts Hub and worked with all our Hubs to publish a book on what teens can do on the SDGs to be change-makers! 

Maria, a challenge winner from Romania, traveled to Washington DC to be honored and became a teen ambassador of the Education Hub and later a mentor.  The Co Lab introduced her to a partner organization that provided additional training and funding for her to launch her own non-profit to improve education in Romania.  

JAYO, a challenge winner from London, created a powerful rap on the SDGs. The Co Lab introduced him to its partners at the Smithsonian who were so impressed they asked him to perform his SDG Rap live in front of 800 policy makers. He later created another rap about climate change for the Co Lab that received attention from the LA music industry.

The Co Lab is well-positioned to deliver this solution because we have a strong leadership team and know our model works.  Our Founding Director has a 30 year successful track record of working for the State Department, White House, and many other organizations linking scientists to address global challenges.  Our Board of Directors is very engaged, along with our part-time Marketing Director and 7 non-paid interns and fellows (social media, fundraising, virtual reality, video contest, legal, documentary intern, and tax advisor).  

The Co Lab is in our 10th year of our global video challenge, 6th year of building SDG Hubs, and 3rd year of working in virtual reality.  Our goal is to take our current structure, expand and refine it to impact as many teens around the world with our solution to global problems.

The Co Lab engages teens from different walks of life and geographic areas, ranging from North America, South America, Asia, and Africa. We appoint Teen Ambassadors of the Hubs who can be from various parts of the world. For example, our Plastics Hub is led by teens in the USA and Turkey who bring different perspectives to the group. When the Hubs meet, they decide on projects as a collective group. They focus on the global SDG goals and also discuss the needs in their local communities. We understand that the needs in Cameroon, Africa are very different from those in Virginia, USA and strive to bring value to everyone involved.

The video challenge submitters are a representative of their local communities. We are able to serve them by mentoring the winners, encouraging them to join our SDG Hubs, and providing critical funding if needed to get their projects off the ground. We gain a deeper understanding of their needs as we regularly connect on their project goals and available resources.  

A major value of the Co Lab’s programming is introducing teens to other cultures.  The global nature of our Hubs provides teens valuable opportunities to learn about other countries and cultures and find commonalities.  Another major value is that everything we do at the Co Lab is designed to be driven by the teens' passions, ideas and goals.  We work hard to ensure our teens lead the meetings, not the mentors.  We meet monthly to get their input and feedback on how our work is progressing.  Our video challenge is designed to empower the teens to showcase their ideas and solutions for change, and to recognize them.  Teens often comment that what stands out about the Co Lab is that they are empowered and feel that their voices matter.

We are applying because we have a proven concept that needs to scale to reach a greater global audience. We currently reach roughly 150 teens, a small number of what we could accomplish.  We have worked hard on building our platforms, designing a strategic plan, pivoting, growing partnerships, leveraging our small budget, building innovative platforms such as now in VR, and reaching out more intentionally to the United Nations.  We have recruited teens using social media, schools and teachers, word of mouth, partner organizations, and getting visibility in various global meetings but are reaching a plateau.

We really need help with growing our network and measuring our impact. Given that the Co Lab is a technology-driven community, we would like to find new and innovative ways to increase involvement. We would also find it very valuable to have more media exposure through social media, events and networking opportunities. With increased exposure, we could add more teens and mentors to our network and give them valuable resources to pursue their projects. We are passionate about making the world a better place, and we believe that by working with MIT it would take our program to new heights. 

MIT’s reputation and commitment to sustainability and the SDGs would help the Co Lab significantly, and we believe this could create an extremely strong partnership. We want to make a larger positive impact on the world, and we believe that becoming a Solver could provide us with resources to make sure we are doing this the best way we can.

The Co Lab is innovative on a number of fronts:  We listen to teens, our end users and follow their passions.  We are action oriented, meeting every week.  We work across cultural and economic divides.  We teach teens through project-based learning and leadership skills they don’t often get in school, while providing unique opportunities to showcase their work.    

Everything we do we try to have led by teens.  Our mentors are there to support them, but not lead them.  Our teens learn how to be leaders and activists through project based learning - they learn as they work.  Our teens don’t meet yearly in an annual conference like so many other youth gatherings.  They meet every single week throughout the year, in virtual gatherings. Our teens learn not only how to lead, but how to delegate, how to collaborate, and how to support one another.  They learn critical thinking, leadership, and project management skills, such as communicating on Slack, giving elevator pitches, speaking on panel presentations, designing social media campaigns, fundraising, lobbying, publishing their own books, creating videos and documentaries, gardening, and so much more.  

Our racial justice hub created a spectacular implicit bias workshop, by teens for teens.  Our plastics hub pitched a proposal to Amazon that impressed them so much they gave us $25,000 to pilot their reusable take out container.  More recently the Co Lab has entered the world of VR as we have two board members who are VR experts; thus we brought on a VR education director as a volunteer who has worked with teens from our network from India, Nigeria, Colorado, South Carolina, VA and more to engage them in the SDG Metaverse Prize, to great acclaim with the UN now watching our work. This has a broader impact on the world because we also provide in-person opportunities as well.  We were able to bring teens to the Smithsonian FolkLife Festival last summer where they spoke and participated in some eleven events and panels.  This July we plan to bring a delegation of teens and adults to the United Nations High Level Political Forum to network and learn more about the SDG framework firsthand. We are also creating a documentary project that the SDG Hubs are producing on the urgency of teen action on the world’s largest issues.

Additionally, this solution is innovative because teens are given the opportunity to engage with people all over the world, something that not many people have regular access to. They are expanding their experiences by learning more about their peers that have grown up with different backgrounds and opportunities. Receiving insight as to how people in other countries are impacted by the SDGs helps them have a more worldly view of these issues and sets them up to address them more effectively. The teens use technology to spread their messages through digital platforms that can be distributed to a greater audience in an easy and effective way.

The Co Lab’s goal is to create a larger yet effective ecosystem for teens globally to work together in creating actions on the SDGs. Over the course of the next 5 years, the Global Co Lab Network will work to engage more young people globally on action-based projects related to the UN’s SDGs.

For the recruitment challenge, a more intentional connection will be made between the video changemaker challenge and the SDG Hubs to create a stronger pipeline of teens for the Hubs. 

A second fundamental strategy will be on increasing recruitment through partnerships with teachers and global organizations, and through school clubs. With greater participants in our Hubs, we will be helping them better educate themselves by working with them to design their own educational packages on each SDG and work with teens and adult mentors to hone specific leadership skills in various areas. The creation of a stronger foundation built on education and skills will allow teens to not only work on collaborative projects but develop the skills and confidence needed to take their change-making work into their lives.

Finally, fundraising will continue to work to hire staff, interns and fellows to help support the Co Lab.

Some 5 years ago, the Co Lab asked the company Social Impact, one of the leading evaluation companies in the world, to help organize and lead an evaluation session with our Board on how to measure our progress and impact.  As with many retreats, it was very helpful but due to no full time staff to help implement the insights developed, we were not in a strong position to put in place what we learned.  With that said, with our limited staffing we do try to measure our impact somewhat.  We see how much we are impacting youth’s knowledge of the SDGs by the number of video submitters we see yearly.  We monitor our progress by testimonials we receive from teens and the impact the Co Lab has had on their lives, based on their stories.  We write many recommendation letters for teens and interns who often get into their schools, jobs and programs due to our unique program.  With this said, this is an area we very much need help.

The Co Lab is extremely sensitive to diversity, inclusion, and works hard to ensure that our programming is fully inclusive.  We have a teen led gender hub and another on racial justice.  We strive to reduce barriers for teens to engage by providing all our services free and in now three languages.  We pay for our Afghan females to access the internet monthly.  When we select video challenge winners we work to ensure that our winners represent different regions, different sex, different racial backgrounds.   We work hard to make sure that we follow the lead of our end users in our programming, teens.

Our business model is to provide a relatively simple technical suite of digital platforms that readily exist and use them more effectively to marshal teen engagement globally, with a focus on cultivating teen changemakers on the UN SDGS.  See our strategic plan here.  

The Co Lab has historically raised roughly $20-30,000 annually since 2016 via individual donors (Founding Director's personal network primarily) and small $10,000 annual contracts with the Smithsonian and Global Ties.  The past three years Amazon has contributed $25,000 and $30,000 to supplement this which has allowed us to hire our first part time staff person, our Marketing Director.  During this time we have applied to a number of foundations for grant funding with no success.  We were able to raise $21,000 from the Henry Luce Foundation (Director's personal network from past USG work) for a documentary for older youth on science diplomacy, on our website.  We are working harder than ever this past year to expand our foundation submissions and have brought on an intern to help us stay focused on grant submissions.  We also have reached out to corporations, for example IKEA, for donations.  We have a guidestar gold seal of transparency.