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Amidst current crises around the world, young people are on the front lines defending human rights and challenging social norms and power structures at both community and political levels. Spark Fund’s trust and flexibility supported 13 youth groups from the Americas, helping them lead lasting positive change.
The Spark Fund is a youth-led participatory fund that invests in youth-driven and youth-focused groups addressing injustice and inequality. In its first round, the Spark Fund granted over $1.1 million to 56 youth organizations in 13 countries to help young people create transformational change in their communities and territories.
Children and young people are the most affected by today’s political, environmental and social crises. They are also largely the ones leading the way to find and implement solutions to tackle these issues. However, in many cases, the spaces meant for youth leadership and participation are limited or shaped by adult perspectives, with romanticized, idealized and homogenized visions of youth, that do not account for the diversity of young people’s experiences across gender, identity, culture, race, and class.
Young people and adolescents have a fundamental role in creating change through challenging social norms and structural powers at the community level. Recognizing the importance of supporting youth activism, the Spark Fund worked to break down these barriers by centering youth voices, needs and proposals of diverse young people in all stages of the philanthropic support cycle, including the designing of creative and inclusive calls for proposals, to reviewing and selecting projects.
In the Americas, the Spark Fund initiative supported to 13 community-based youth-led organizations from Mexico, Colombia, and Peru, all with different profiles, experiences and agendas. These organizations received financial resources to advance their missions and programs, and also strengthen their capacity and development based on their own needs. The flexibility and support provided by GFC allowed the cohort the freedom to work and use these resources, helping them to expand their programs and build national and international networks.
The flexibility of the granted resources allowed us to adapt to our ongoing projects, even when contextual challenges such as heavy rains or conflicts in our country arose.
Karen Eche, AmpliaMente
Because of their leading role, youth activists are directly affected by the challenges and obstacles of being on the front lines to defend human rights. To support them in their work, the Spark Fund centered care, healing, well-being and safety. By doing that, the youth movements have created new narratives in terms of collectivity and have transformed power to create community centers of resilience and well-being. The Americas’ cohort became a safe space for united and accompanied resistance, allowing young leaders to strengthen their activism through joy and solidarity.
Ale participating in the Spark Fund convening in Medellin, Colombia. // Ale está participando en el encuentro del Spark Fund en Medellín, Colombia.
The visibility we have achieved through the activities developed thanks to GFC has opened the doors to new scenarios of participation and inclusion.
Ale Álvarez, Red Popular Trans
By continuing to support youth activism that promote social and environmental justice, GFC is helping to build bridges between generations, creating dialogues that lead children, youth and adults to collective action and shared responsibility to achieve our shared goals. The Spark Fund reinforces GFC’s commitment to promote inclusion and well-being, while also creating opportunities for youth – particularly those who are often left out of traditional funding spaces – to access funding so they can continue to transform the realities of children, adolescents and young people in their communities and territories.
The Spark Fund Americas Regional Report highlights the achievements and lessons learned from the organizations in the cohort – and from GFC –, confirming the importance and urgency of supporting youth activism.
