A global youth-led movement for change

Thinking globally, acting locally

Engaging more than 250 million young people

Unstoppable Together: Celebrating 2 Years of Youth-led Global Action

An estimated 1.2 billion young people have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic response measures. Disruptions to education, employment, health services and social support have changed the future of an entire generation.

To address these challenges, the world’s largest Big Six youth organizations initiated the GYM to harness the surge of youth-led activism and action, creative solutions, passion, and commitment, by investing much needed funds at a grassroots level and advocating for the role of young people in COVID-19 recovery and response efforts.

Read more about our impact!

The challenge

The devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were felt by communities everywhere, and for young
people, the impacts of the pandemic including public health restrictions and successive lockdowns led to enormous challenges in all aspects of their lives. Since its start in December 2020, the Global Youth Mobilization has invested in youth-led solutions to address:

Education disruptions – schools for more than 168 million children that closed globally

83% of young people whose mental health was affected or severely affected as a result of the pandemic

1 in 6 young people have became unemployed since the beginning of the crisis

86% of young people were worried about their future

Our reach

The Global Youth Mobilization has invested $5 million to support 471 youth-led projects in 72 countries and funded 169 national projects, across 125 countries worldwide, through the Big Six youth organizations. Find out where they are and see how young people have taken action to improve their lives and the lives of their communities.

Local solutions
National projects
National projects and local solutions

605,000

YOUNG PEOPLE REACHED

Young people engaged

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3,630,000

COMMUNITY BENEFICIARIES

COMMUNITY BENEFICIARIES

00000000

654

NUMBER OF PROJECTS

Number of projects

0000

News and Impact

The world’s six largest youth organisations, who lead the Global Youth Mobilization, held a high-level roundtable discussion on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly and Summit of the Future this week to showcase the initiative’s model as a high-impact approach to empowering young people to drive sustainable development in their communities.
The European Commission and the world’s largest youth organizations, the “Big Six”, announced a partnership today to launch the EU Youth Empowerment Fund, to be implemented through the Global Youth Mobilization (GYM). It marks the first anniversary of the Youth Action Plan for EU External Action, the EU’s policy framework for a strategic partnership with young people to build a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable future.

Founding partners