The Youth Serving Organizations Consortium is a network of youth groups, youth focused and youth serving organizations working both nationally and at community level. The consortium seeks to unify the diverse youth voices through strategic collaboration and partnerships with different stakeholders to ensure meaningful and inclusive youth participation in development processes. The Consortium was conceptualized in July 2019 when the youth entities identified a need to come together to harmonize their voice on the National Youth Council Amendment Bill 2019. Several youth entities had consultations with young people with divergent views which was a potential risk of not achieving the intended purpose.
Here are Youth Serving Organizations Consortium Members
Ajenda Kenya is a youth-led organization registered under the Kenyan Laws in 2018 as a Community Based Organization in the Coast of Kenya.The organization was founded as a result of the steady growth in community service throughout the Kenyan Coastal region. The growth in different Coastal Counties necessitated the critical need to address the growing gaps of youth grievances in the communities in a more specialized and focused way to enhance youth participation and voices in addressing the local issues
Amnesty International Kenya (AIK)
Amnesty International Kenya was registered as a non-governmental organisation in 2012 after a decade of human rights protection from either London or Kampala. Over the years, we successfully contributed to strategic policy and legislative changes. We have deepened relationships within the Executive, Cabinet, Parliament, independent agencies and constitutional commissions, civic organisations, trade unions, and community-based human rights organisations to stand for and protect human rights.
Africa Youth Trust (A.Y.T)
At Africa Youth Trust, we are guided by our core pillars, which serve as the foundation of our work and shape our mission to create positive change. These pillars represent the key areas in which we channel our efforts and expertise, driving us to make a meaningful impact in the world. Through our dedicated initiatives and programs, we strive to address critical issues and empower communities for a brighter future. Our pillars include: Youth and Good Governance; Livelihoods Resilience; Gender Equality and Women Empowerment and Climate Smart Agriculture
Africa Youth Leadership Forum (AYLF)
AYLF is a collaborative initiative that brings together University Students, Student Leaders, and alumni from both public and private Universities, for mentorship, training, networking, and capacity building. We seek to advance values and principles that promote transformational and servant leadership.
Badili Africa is a Civil Society Organization based in Nairobi, Kenya. We cultivate and strengthen the leadership capacities of women and girls by encouraging and supporting spaces that enable grassroots women and young women in universities and urban informal settlements to organize as leaders and participate in local development initiatives coupled with pushing for inclusion in decision making processes.
Center for Adolescents and Changemakers (CEFA)
CEFA is a community based youth-led organization whose main objective is to develop young people into leaders who will become agents of positive change in the community
Collaborative Center for Gender and Development (CCGD)
Collaborative Centre for Gender and Development is a Non-Governmental Organization that does policy advocacy for gender equality. The organization was founded in 1996 by a small group of academics, researchers, and development experts to build capacity in gender-responsive planning, advocacy, and programming. The organization has grown into staunch and dependable policy research and advocacy resource center with programs present at the county
DadaPower Initiative is a women-led, affirmative action and voluntary-run community initiative which was founded in 2015 and registered in 2019 as a Community Based Organization in Murang’a County, to promote and enhance women’s rights for women’s socio-economic and political advancement. We strongly believe that every woman is entitled to a dignified life with sufficient access to development opportunities.
Emerging Leaders Foundation (ELF)
The Emerging Leaders Foundation Africa (ELF-Africa) exists to empower, support and accompany young women and men to achieve meaningful, dignified and impactful participation in governance, economy and public affairs at all levels of society. Anchored on our foundational values-based approach to leadership as service. ELF’s vision is pursued through three program pillars namely the Governance & Civic Engagement, Economic Empowerment, Livelihoods & Opportunity, and our signature Leadership Development Program. Through lifeskills training and mentorship, grounding in civic consciousness and responsibility, professional development and practical exposure to the world of work, the three programme pillars collectively provide platforms, tools and linkages to discover, inspire and empower the young women and men to transform their communities even as they thrive individually.
Footprints for Change (F4C)
At Footprints, we are engaging in efforts that are geared towards sensitizing and raising awareness on structural vices among young people and equipping communities to be part of initiatives imparting effective change through leadership.
Footprints for Change is building peaceful and sustainable societies by empowering young generations to take charge of their futures and impact the change they want to see. With a thematic focus on youth civic engagement, peace building and leadership development, our approach rests on three keys pillars: Leadership, Innovation and Peace.
At the onset our approach aims at inspiring the youth to be change agents in their communities through mentorship-like platforms. These platforms appeal to the consciousness of the youth with an attempt to reshape their mindsets and attitude for responsible civic engagement.
In addition F4C works towards nurturing future PanAfrican leadership by strengthening the capacities and leadership skills of the younger generations. Our inherent approach seeks to encourage innovative and constructive youth civic engagement among youth in different spheres as well as inspiring the creation of peace cultures to break the cycles of stagnation and violence.
Gifted Community Center (GCC)
Gifted Community Centre (GCC) is a community-based, youth with disabilities and non-governmental organization founded and registered in Kenya in September 2008 and operationalized in 2018.Based in the Kibera informal settlement, GCC is formed by and for youth with disabilities–embedding ‘nothing for us without us’ in our work. GCC works with all types of disabilities in the 13 villages of Kibera and in other 46 counties through our ambassadors (youth with disabilities, in and out of school).GCC is a leadership hub for youths with disabilities (young adults with disabilities), where they are capacity built, mentored, and coached to ensure each one of them develops into a leader and role model for and by themselves.
Haki Africa (HAKI)
HAKI Africa is a pan-African human rights organization based in Mombasa. The organization works to improve livelihoods and the comprehensive realization of human rights in Africa. The organization, founded in 2012, promotes collaboration between state and non-state actors in order to continuously improve the well-being of individuals and communities while ensuring respect for human rights.
Global Platform Kenya (G.P.K)
At Global Platform Kenya we support movements, youth networks, organisations and individuals who promote the agenda of progressive youth-led change. We have developed an effective methodology for designing, carrying out and evaluating capacity building. All activities are based on our participatory and action-oriented learning principles.
Kenya Institute of Puppet Theatre
KIPT is a dynamic, innovative and creative community based institution that uses puppetry, participatory educational theatre and folk media in life skills promotion, community education and cultural communication that engages people into interactive discourse. It was founded by a team of puppet / theatre practitioners for the purpose of harnessing puppetry and folk media theatre experiences and using them for socio-economic and political change.
Kenya Red Cross Youth
Through the youth department, we have been at the forefront of youth engagement and empowerment, supporting youth to lead positive change in their communities, in line with Goal 3 of the Kenya Red Cross Strategic Plan 2021-2025. We do this in 3 main ways:
By developing the capacity of youth to improve their knowledge, skills and experiences, for personal, social and economic development;
By providing a space for youth to co-create, organize, innovate and implement local actions in their communities; and
By providing an advocacy platform for young people in various thematic areas with relevant skills, knowledge, strategic partnerships and resources.
Kenya Unites Trust
Kenya Unites is a national youth-led movement that promotes peace and reconciliation. It does this by connecting high school students from different ethnic and religious backgrounds in Peace Clubs. It then equips them with skills in peace building, conflict transformation and leadership and life skills. Through this process, the movement inspires cohesion and participatory nation building.
Leaders for Leaders Champion (LLCO)
MasterPeace Kenya is a registered not-for-profit woman and youth empowerment organization. It was founded in 2014 as a youth group and was later registered as a community-Based Organization in 2022.
The organization has since continued to develop and gain experience across a range of areas critical to children, youth and women empowerment, building its competence and refining its vision and mission as to what is the best way to address the many issues facing the target population in Kenya. We empower the young people and women, creating perspective through capacity-building in education, livelihoods and leadership training.
PAWA 254 Initiative (PAWA)
PAWA Initiative is a Non-Profit established in Kenya in 2009. It is Kenya’s unique art and cultural collaborative hub that houses, fosters and catalyzes creative and community-driven projects for social change. The acronym “PAWA” is Swahili corruption for “power” while”254” is Kenya’s international telephone code.
Siasa Place (S.P)
We at Siasa Place believe in the active participation of ordinary citizens, in an inclusive platform for young people willing to voice their concerns and ideas and if needed to lead, and in educating people on the functions and processes of government and the responsibility of the voters in holding that government accountable.
Tribeless Youth (T.Y)
Tribeless Youth is a youth initiative established in 2016 with a view to promote peaceful coexistence among the youth in Kenya. The organization uses art, music and creativity to demystify the ideologies of “my tribe, my people” with a view to galvanize unity among Kenya’s youthful generation. We advocate for a mental shift from tribal-based stereotypes to issue based politics where leaders are elected out of their competence and policies and not because of their tribe.
Tribeless youth is anchored on the article 10 and chapter 55 of the constitution of Kenya 2010. Our mission is to catalyze a generation of change makers; a powerful youthful generation that overcomes stereotypes used by politicians, and tribal lords to perpetuate hatred and chaos. We operate under four main principles of Good Governance, Social Justice, Transparency and Accountability and Inclusion.
Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO)
We work to improve access to, and delivery of, inclusive family planning and sexual and reproductive health services. Focusing on adolescents, people with disabilities and poor rural women, we’re reducing inequalities in access to modern contraceptives, supporting women to plan their pregnancies safely.By addressing socio-cultural barriers and collaborating with both public and private sector actors to improve delivery, we aim to empower 322,000 women to take control of their sexual and reproductive health.
Winam Grassroots is a membership led organization that puts the need of grassroots communities at the center of development, through amplifying of voices of our community, influenced by power, to bring change through organized and peer learning and strategy driven coalition of grassroots women and youth in action. The organization is focused on localizing the global agenda by leading conversations on the Sustainable Development Goals and its attainment for Grassroots Communities ,as such all its programmatic works are linked to the SDGs. In our work we focus on the SDGs on Poverty Reduction, Good Health and Well Being, Gender Equality, Clean Water and Sanitation, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Climate Action, Life below Water, Life on land, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions and Partnerships for the Goals. We work in Kisumu and the Lake Region Counties with a focus on women and youth.
Women Volunteers for Peace (WOVOP)
Women Volunteers for Peace (WOVOP) is a young women-led community based organization in Kisumu County, Kenya. WOVOP supports girls and young women at risk in their role of health promotion, peace and security education within the Lake Region Economic Bloc of Kenya.
Youth Alive! Kenya (Y.A.K)
Youth Alive! Kenya (YAK) is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that advocates for and supports youth and women’s participation in decision making and development processes. Youth Alive! Kenya envisions “A society in which youth take active responsibility for their lives to shape their destiny and communities”. The idea of Youth Alive! Kenya evolved out of informal discussions amongst higher education students who saw the need to address problems faced by communities especially youth in Kenya such as inadequate livelihoods, sexual and reproductive health, exclusion and poor governance among others.
Youth in Action (Y-ACT)
Y-ACT is a platform for meaningful youth engagement that is run by, for, and by young people. Young people have the power to alter the world for the better. Because of this, we are passionate about giving young people a platform to steer and lead the most important conversations. We give young people the tools to contribute to their communities and beyond. Y-ACT provides resources and assistance to help young people learn new skills, connect with peers who share their interests, and get involved in important issues.When making decisions that affect their lives, young people ought to be at the fore. To ensure that young people are involved and actively shaping the future, we prioritize initiatives led and driven by youth.
Youth and Success Association (YASA)
Youth and Success Association (YASA) is a registered National Non-Profit and Non-Political Organization. It is set forth by the youth to empower the youth, women and Person’s with Disability.YASA seeks to empower the youth by providing platforms for Informing, Educating and Communicating to the youth. These it champions using its various programs that target specific segments of the Youth, clustered according to their unique interests. Some of the new interactive media used to dispense learnings are through the YASA magazine, Social Media channels, Trainings, Interactive Youth Portal, Mail serve and Blogs.
Youth for Tax Justice Network (YTJN)
At Youth for Tax Justice Network, we are dedicated to providing a range of impactful services aimed at empowering youth and promoting equitable and sustainable development. Our services encompass informative, interactive, and knowledge-based avenues that equip young individuals with tools and resources. Our Community Outreach and Awareness Campaigns aim to mobilize and engage communities in understanding the importance of tax justice and responsible resource management. Our Policy Engagement and Analysis service focuses on youth involvement in shaping tax and revenue governance policies. Our Resource Governance Workshops provide comprehensive insights into the management and utilization of natural resources in Africa.Our Tax Justice Advocacy Training is designed to equip young individuals with the knowledge and skills needed to become effective advocates for fair and just tax systems.