Starts with Y

Vivian and her sister May founded Linens N Love when they were only 12 and 14 years old. Their award-winning nonprofit organization collects pillows, bed sheets, towels and blankets from franchise hotels that would have otherwise been thrown out because of the smallest imperfections. With this, Linens N Love's mission is to donate and re purpose 100,000 linens to charities and shelters in need including animal shelters, homeless shelters, teen outreach centers and much more. They hope to create a world that minimizes the amount of waste that goes to landfills, all while promoting the importance of student leadership and community service among youth and providing warmth to individuals around the world.

Emmanuela Shinta is the CEO of the Renu Velum Foundation. She is a Dayak leader, activist, filmmaker and writer whose work is widely known in Asia Pacific. With a reputation of leading and empowering young people, she regularly speaks at workshops, graduations, panel discussions, activist forums and even in churches, around the region. She created Ranu Welum in hopes of empowering indigenous Dayak youth to learn to better self-express whilst gaining a better understanding of who they through incredible teachings from their ancestors and elders.

Jana Amin is an Egyptian-American high school student who founded the initiative “ Bantoota” (Arabic for a girl), focused on amplifying the voices of young Muslim women through storytelling. Jana has a passion for international relations and Middle Eastern studies, with a special interest in gender studies and Islam. This drive within her led her to plan her 17th birthday party initiative known as #17for17, focused on advancing girls' education by leading a conference with 17 incredible advocates and leaders passionate about the topic of women empowerment.

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At 12 years of age Molly Pinta had a dream of bringing a Pride Parade to her hometown. With the help of her parents, her dream came to life as over 2,000 people attended the the first-ever gay pride parade in the northwest suburb. The family was able to raise over $55,000 for the cause and the parade itself was supported by 50 sponsors and 90 local groups, organizations and politicians. Their continuous hard work has also cultivated a great deal of community awareness around teen sexuality and continues to connect thousands of people on their BGPride Facebook page, creating a support network for both teens and their parents to consult at the time of coming out and beyond.

High school students Nakshh and Apoorvi created The Happiness Project in hopes of implementing mental health programming in government and aided schools across India. By conducting surveys, connecting with psychologists and training educators, the organization creates customized workshops for each school based on what is most needed to support the student body. Their goal is to ensure mental health no longer remains a taboo subject throughout the education system in India and hope they are able to support youth on their journey to live happier lives.

Kyle's "why moment" was sparked at 13 years of age, when he attended the 2006 FIFA World Cup with his family. After connecting with Angolan fans during the Angola and Iran game, he learned about the way the country used soccer as a means of instilling peace, hope and unity.  It was for this reason that Kyle founded FundaField, a non-profit organization founded by students dedicated to enrich the lives of less fortunate youth through the game of soccer. Their underlying message is that "if they don't play together, they won't score goals.". To date, the organization has funded and built 11 fields, held over 15 tournaments and are continuously donating sports equipment to these communities.

15-year-old Marie is an incredible anti-bullying advocate and is also the UAE Representative for "GirlUp Arab World". Marie's difficult experiences with bullying led her to partake in the “Think Twice and Type Wise” initiative at her school that is intended to create a safe community and end bullying. Marie bravely decided to use this initiative to upload an honest video of her bullying experience. Her powerful video has become a beacon of light to many who are experiencing similar hardships. Marie continues to promote peace with her community and is working hard to empower youth to speak out and stand up against bullying. 

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The story of the youth-founded organization, Seedlings, began when 16-year-old Esther was educating herself on plastic reduction, the impacts of carbon emissions on our planet and the process of seed sharing. It is for this reason that Esther and Kathy created Seedlings, a non-profit organization focused on bettering the planet we live on through a variety of educational programming. Their “Seed Library Program” allows the public to donate seeds, pick up free seeds to grow learn about the importance of planting your own seeds to better the environment... all through hand-made wooden boxes placed around the city of Toronto!

17-year-old Jonas still remembers his first time volunteering at Skid Row at only 4-years-old and seeing a young person his age waiting in line to receive a warm meal.  It was in this moment that Jonas realized that homelessness was an issue he wanted to learn more about. At 6-years-old he founded "Love in The Mirror”, a non-profit organization focused on supporting disadvantaged youth through clothing and food drives as well as volunteering in communities and homeless shelters. Jonas's hard word has been recognized through various awards, including the Nickelodeon HALO Award Honoree and his organization continues to supports thousands of people, whilst inspiring youth across the globe that you are never too young to make meaningful impact.

Rochelle is co-founder of SPARK Foundation, a non-profit organization that offers educational services focused on mentorship, entrepreneurship and service-learning. This idea came to Rochelle 7 years ago, after realizing the dire need for workshops, camps and educational resources geared towards supporting change-making youth interested in making impacts but needing the resources and support to get their incredible ideas going. Rochelle's dedication to supporting youth within her community has been widely recognized, as she has been named "Top 25 Under 25 by the Surrey Board of Trade", she was nominated for the YWCA Women of Distinction award and was awarded the Governor General Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers.