The International Youth Coalition is a network of young people from SOS Children's Villages programmes from 11 countries across the world. The coalition is composed of 22 young people, two from each country. Its role is to represent young people at the General Assembly as well as meetings of the International Senate and Management Council. The members have a term of 2-3 years, as this is the ideal time to have a meaningful impact without overburdening the members. Moreover, rotating members and countries ensures diverse countries are represented and more young people can shape the organization's work.

National Mandate

The members are also entrusted with a national mandate. After assessing and reflecting on youth participation in SOS Children’s Villages in their country, they take charge of planning and implementing activities to strengthen child and youth participation in their country. ​

Youth Power is a programme in which young changemakers lead initiatives that contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Youth Power empowers young people to bring positive change to their communities, increasing their confidence and skills, and offering them funding and networking opportunities. At the same time, community workers learn about youth participation, which helps them support young people in becoming genuine agents of change.

Over the last four years, Youth Power has enabled 1,510 changemakers to offer services to 32,378 people in 77 countries, fostering a new generation of young leaders committed to achieving a more hopeful, sustainable future.

Meaningful youth participation is at the core of YouthCan! - a partnership with and for young people. The YouthCan! Youth Advisory Board was launched in 2021. Ten young people from different regions are selected for a term of two years. 

Young people who have grown up in alternative care and have first-hand experience transitioning from school to the job market know best what challenges this stage of life brings and what kind of support can be most beneficial. They are also the most effective agents of change who can lead by example and engage their peers in YouthCan!. 

The purpose of the Youth Advisory Board is to let young people take action on national and global levels and provide strategic advice to the programme coordinators, while at the same time becoming YouthCan! co-creators themselves. “Our main goal is to represent young people and help YouthCan! understand our needs – this cannot be done without us,” says Vanessa from Rwanda.  “I joined the Youth Advisory Board to be the voice for young people who are afraid to talk about their problems and needs,” added Alexandra, 20, from Romania. Find out more here.

The “Together” project aims to contribute to better embedding children’s rights in the responses to crisis situations across the EU, by empowering children and young people living in vulnerable family situations and in alternative care to participate meaningfully in decisions and solutions at local, regional and national level on all matters affecting them. Find out more about this EU-funded project here. 

 

Joonatan Ikonen is member and peer mentor of the SOS Young Developers group, a group of young experts with care experience in Finland. Joonatan speaks out for children’s and young people's rights, in particular for strengthening child and youth participation in alternative care.

In 2022, Joonatan participated in the UN Universal Periodic Review of human rights in Geneva. The Universal Periodic Review is a process that requires UN member states to report on their human rights situation every five years. In his speech, Joonatan stressed the need for more child and youth participation in decision-making, better access to mental health services and more training for people working in alternative care.

“The process itself was very interesting, and it was great to go to the United Nations Office in Geneva to give a speech and express important issues to a wide audience. This was certainly a rare opportunity.” -Joonatan.