Young Peacebuilders

Considering YPCS

Who can start a YPC?

YPC Members who implement YPCs must:

1. Commit to safely equip young people as effective prosocial change agents through student-led peacebuilding projects.

2. Maintain appropriate legal registration or partner with a registered organization providing oversight and accountability.

3. Provide the resources needed for effective implementation.

Don’t meet all the requirements?

• Groups who are not yet registered can recruit a registered organization to serve as the responsible YPC Membership lead. Keeping young people safe is central throughout the YPC process.

• Groups who don’t yet have funding can find a Sponsor to make a donation to cover their YPC Membership. The YPC FREE Training package includes fundraising resources.

YPC tools and support resources have been used by schools, religious organizations, youth organizations, NGOS, and CSOs who wanted to work with young people to create a positive impact in their community. Our training materials provide members with everything needed to start a YPC even if partners have little experience with child or youth peacebuilding.

What training does YP offer to help start and support YPCs?

YPC Memberships include everything needed to help your group start and support YPCs. First, sign up for a YPC Membership tools and support package. There are special tools for each step in the process and for each person involved. Below is a list of some of the tools and services offered with each YPC Membership.

• Downloadable & printable YPC Training Manual

• Student online & printable training & handbook

• Mentor online & printable training & handbook

• Coordinator online & printable training & handbook

• Full access to a growing library of YPC training videos

• YPC Baseline, Cycle-End, & Project Evaluation Surveys online & printable

• Child protection protocols & consent forms

• Ability to e-sign, upload, & organize protocols & consent forms

• Findings, analysis & reports of data collected from online training assessments & surveys 

• Certificates of YPC training completion for Coordinators, Mentors & Students

• YP Certification of qualified YPC Coordinators who can then certify Student Leaders

• Individualized YP coaching & support via email & chat

• Access to live webinars with time for Q&A

• * We're always improving & adding tools & services. These should be available soon:

  •  - YPC case studies & lessons learned*

  •  - Access to compete on YPC Leaderboard*

  •  - Recorded webinars*

  •  - Access to YPC Program Learning Group via web-tools*

The YPC Training Manual offers information on everything from informing members and supporters about a new YPC to identifying an issue on which the club can take action. You can view the YPC Training Manual Table of Contents, sample videos, and more in our FREE Course Materials. 

What is the YPC FREE Training Resources package? 

YP offers many examples of YPC Training Toolkit resources in our FREE Training Resources package. This includes example training videos, parts of the interactive online training, and parts of YPC Manual and handbooks. This FREE package also includes tools to help organizations raise funding for YPCs. It doesn't include all the training materials nor access to supportive tools for evaluation, document signing, training assessments, and more. We share all of the tools after an organization starts a YPC Membership. Below is a growing list of items included in the YPC FREE Training Resources package.

• Access to YPC orientation videos & information

• Sample contents from the YPC Training Manual

• YPC introductory videos

• Samples of YPC training videos

• Samples of other training material

• Guidance on finding donors & a lead organization to help implement YPCs

• Example short & longer YPC grant proposal templates for fundraising

• FAQs

• Child and youth peacebuilding article abstracts & examples

• YPC Multi-year Impact Evaluation*

* We're always improving & adding tools & services. These should be available soon.

When do we receive access to all the YPC Membership tools and support?

YPC Members receive support from a variety of different external tools (Qualtrics, Panda Doc, Thinkific etc..) to ensure members receive sophisticated support for training, collecting data, monitoring, evaluation and collecting policies and consent forms at no extra cost to members. It takes 1 to 2 business days to set up YPC member organizations in these systems and put the unique startup information into one succinct email that YP sends to the new member. This helps ensure everything needed to get started and continue your YPC can be found in one helpful email. YP is working to automate and shorten this startup process to prevent any delay in empowering young people to wage peace.

What is YP’s cancellation policy? 

Organizations are free to cancel YPC Memberships at any time. A significant discount is provided to organizations purchasing an annual membership. We encourage Members to sign up for at least 1 year in order to take full advantage of the evaluation tools provided and to ensure your clubs are consistently supported. Our hope is that Members implement YPCs in an ongoing way. However, a monthly membership may be appropriate for an organization implementing a 1-time, shorter-term, but intensive YPC program, possibly in something like a camp setting or summer program. 

Why pay for YPC Membership Tools and Support for a year or longer?

1. YP continually improves and adds training tools and supporting services provided with YPC Memberships. Organizations who stop their membership lose access to online support tools and services and miss out on exciting updates and new resources. 

2. Students, Mentors, and Coordinators often want to refresh or complete their training later in the process or reference lessons or infographics. 

3. YPC Memberships include training materials and monitoring and evaluation tools for completed training activities and for projects implemented by YPCs. Members must maintain their membership to continue receiving data and reports that evidence their work and progress. 

4. The YPC  platform also helps Members manage signed and uploaded children’s consent forms, Mentor behavior agreements, and other documents.

5. Maintaining your YPC Membership helps YP equip more young people to wage peace effectively in communities around the world.

* If you need help paying to maintain your membership, please consider finding a sponsor for your YPCs. You can review our list of possible donors and use the YPC grant application templates to make donor requests.

How well does YPC training and support operate online and in low- or no-internet contexts?

Initially, Members need an internet connection to access training manuals, protocols, forms, surveys, and more. However, most of these materials can be downloaded so all YPC members will be able to work offline for their training and still complete courses, assessments, forms, and surveys similarly to members who can access the online training and support.

The online YPC training is organized according to the printable YPC Training Manual and Handbooks to help ensure training consistency online and offline. The online and print training can be self-paced or connected at set events organized by the Member. 

An internet connection is required for some services available in the YPC platform. For example, there are scores of videos available online to support and augment the printed training. E-signing of forms is only available online. 

Surveys can be completed online or on paper. Some organizations have had their Coordinator take paper surveys completed by students to a computer with internet and then transcribe the data into an online form. This would be necessary to utilize the data analysis and reporting software available with YPC Memberships. Coordinators have also used a phone to scan and upload consent forms and signed protocols in order to keep everything online and compliant in the YPC platform. 

YP is committed to serving partners in challenging low-internet contexts. We’ll be more than happy to receive recommendations on how to do so more effectively.

How is the project-based learning of YPCs different from more lesson-based child and youth peacebuilding education or clubs? 

Some organizations may ask ”We have peacebuilding or civic-education books, curricula, lessons, or clubs for young people; are YPCs and their supporting tools really that unique? Why is adding the YPC process so critical?” 

Lesson-based child and youth peacebuilding clubs with clear, consecutive lessons can make it fairly simple for program implementers and students to follow along from one lesson to the next. However, for many children and youth, the prescriptive, lesson-based format can feel like more required schoolwork. Therefore, while lesson-based curriculums can be valuable tools, YPCs are distinctly descriptive rather than prescriptive, more action-oriented than lesson-focused, student rather than adult-led, and cyclical rather than linear, and this makes all the difference. For these reasons, the YPC model is a great add-on or next step that works synergistically with existing peacebuilding books, curricula, and lessons, while nurturing a sustainable child/youth-led club. Let us explain.

Young people are more motivated to wage peace when they are inspired to do so. First, the YPC process guides young participants to identify some violence, exploitation, abuse or neglect that they feel strongly about. Then, YPC students are challenged to design and implement a solution. Finally, students are supported in evaluating their project’s impact and applying the knowledge they gained to the next project they prioritize. By following this descriptive, student-led, action-oriented process, young people are motivated to gain the practical peacebuilding skills, life skills, business skills, and knowledge that they need to solve the problems that are really important to them. They learn best by doing and reflecting. And as they do so, they have a serious peacebuilding impact in their communities and world. 

YP recently spoke to a past director of a refugee child foster care program in Michigan, USA. He told us that it was the work of young YPC participants that helped launch their refugee child foster care program a couple of years earlier. YPC students identified a problem and implemented their solutions and it changed the lives of refugee children, YPC participants, and others around the world. In Uganda, YPC students visited parents of HIV/AIDS affected children, advocated for these affected children, provided practical support, including food, school fees, milk goats, and even challenged parents to continue feeding their affected children. Lives were changed. In Sierra Leone, young YPC participants visited incarcerated children in jail and inspired them to become peacebuilders. Lives were changed. 

We are grateful that lesson-based peacebuilding curricula and books are being used. At the same time, we are confident that the YPC process, and its associated materials and supporting tools, offer a unique, life-changing experience for young people and their communities. We’d love to tell you more about the transformative power of YPCs and provide you baseline and cycle-end assessments, and an impact evaluation evidencing our YPC model’s worth. Please contact us today.

Funding YPCs

What is the difference between Subsidized and Unsubsidized YPC Memberships? 

When an organization purchases, or a donor sponsors, a YPC Membership they are free to choose the subsidized or unsubsidized rate. The unsubsidized rate is the approximate cost to Young Peacebuilders for providing partners with the products and services associated with their YPC Membership. Paying the unsubsidized YPC Membership rate helps keep YP centered on our core goal of helping organizations equip more young people as peacebuilders. It helps YP focus on researching and developing new resources for all our YPC Members rather than focusing on fundraising. 

YP offers a subsidized YPC Membership rate to make YPC training and support more accessible to organizations with little funding, particularly child- and youth-led organizations, and those in majority world conflict-affected contexts. Please consider paying, or encouraging your YPC sponsor to donate, the unsubsidized cost of your YPC Membership.

A YPC Membership can be paid monthly or annually to receive a discounted rate. 

What are common costs associated with YPCs? 

After paying the YPC Membership fee, some organizations have YPC implementation costs covered through existing resources. For example, they have volunteers, a free meeting space, and donated writing materials and snacks; or their staff, communications, and materials costs are covered by their existing budget from a related program; or they have a mix of these resources available. 

Other Members may want to find additional resources to implement their YPCs most effectively, for example: YPC Matching Grant funds, transportation, communications, rent, snacks, events, technology, or YPC t-shirts. 

A YPC Budget Template helps Members consider their possible costs. Many of the line items in the template may be irrelevant to your particular organization, while other items may be relevant but with $0 additional costs because the cost is covered by existing assets and/or programs. You will notice that a few line items simply say "other,” as we expect each Member to have different YPC program-related costs that are unique to that organization, or that we have not considered. We encourage YPC Members to raise matching grants to support the projects their YPC students implement.

The YPC Budget Template is set up so that you only need to adjust several cells in yellow, and it will automatically complete a full three year budget for you. This can be helpful when applying for funding, because it shows your donor that you are thinking and planning ahead, and you may even ask the donor for 2-3 years of funding. Video instructions for using the YPC Budget Template, the template, example proposals, a list of possible donors, and more, are all available with the YPC FREE Training Resources package. 

Can Young Peacebuilders help us fund YPC implementation? 

YP works hard to help organizations find the resources they need to equip young people as effective peacebuilders through YPCs. We are not a donor agency. Following is a list of ways we help.

1. Your Donor Platform: We make it easy for your donor to sponsor your YPCs. Simply go to YoungPeacebuilders.com, select your desired YPC Membership package, click purchase, and then copy and paste the page link in an email to your sponsor. Request that they follow the link and place your email and organization name in the form before they donate the cost of your YPC Membership fee. Written and video instructions are provided.

2. YPC Membership Sponsors: The fastest way to get your YPC Membership sponsored is by recruiting a donor who is already familiar with the great work your organization is doing. Additionally, YP recruits donors to sponsor excellent organizations in financial need. Check YoungPeacebuilders.com for details on how to apply for sponsorship.

3. List of Donors: YP provides a regularly updated list of donors whose objectives seem to align with supporting child or youth peacebuilding efforts. The list includes deadlines, links, areas of focus, and common gift size.

4. Budgeting Template: A YPC Budget Template helps you consider your possible costs of implementing YPCs.

5. Short Funding Proposal: We provide an editable YPC funding proposal to make it fast and easy for your organization to pursue funding from individual or institutional donors.

6. Common Grant App Q&A: Our extensive example YPC funding proposal gives more detailed responses to common grant application questions. You can copy and paste content into a donor’s application form or edit YP’s template based on a donor’s guidelines. This helps you efficiently complete grant applications supporting your YPCs.

7. Videos: A growing number of videos are available to help you find the resources you need. This includes videos on: How to complete the YPC Budget Template, How to find a YPC Membership sponsor, How to use the YPC donor list, and more.

* And we offer all this for FREE. If you’ve not already done so, why not sign up today?

Starting & Running a YPC

How do we make YPCs sustainable?

YP works hard to make YPCs increasingly sustainable and less dependent on a large amount of direct support from YP. This also helps reduce costs.

1. The club process is cyclical so club members feel increasingly confident to facilitate the process without much outside support.

2. Student Leaders are encouraged to become Certified Student Leaders and they are coached so that they feel increasingly confident to lead the YPC process with limited support.

3. YPC students learn to identify and find the resources they need to implement their projects.

4. The YPC Membership platform helps Members collect evidence of YPC impact and present this evidence beautifully to donors.

5. YP creates YPC training videos to watch and review at any time and we consistently update our YPC Training Toolkit that supports the different YPC roles. 

6. The training manual links to additional resources in each stage so students can easily dig deeper where they desire to do so.

Do YPCs invest in a group of students or all students at a school or organization?

We encourage having fewer than 20 students in a single Young Peacebuilders Club (YPC) to ensure each student is given a significant role and has good leadership opportunities. However, these students are certainly not the only beneficiaries. The YPC is designed to increase students’ ability to impact their school, community, and world and involve others as they do so. The students may meet weekly, but through their projects, they educate and engage other students and community members. Additionally, as they do so, other students are encouraged to join the club and are welcome to join in at a later date. If a club grows too large it can multiply into a second or third YPC and so on. In this way, the YPC investment is leveraged for greater impact. We invest in a YPC that invests in their school, community, and the world. 

Who are the Coordinators, Adult Mentors, and Student Leaders?

A Coordinator is the representative of an organization that is implementing YPCs. The Coordinator is the liaison between YP and their YPC-implementing organization and Adult Mentors and Student Leaders where appropriate. Coordinators may be full or part-time staff or volunteers from the implementing organization. The time required varies based on the Coordinator and Member organization, however, YP estimates a Coordinator will invest about 2 hours weekly per YPC to provide effective support and coordination. Therefore, a Coordinator could support about 5 clubs serving about 8-10 hours weekly. Coordinators must be great at managing people and processes, well organized and reliable. YP provides an example TOR/ job description  in the YPC FREE Resources package, and in the downloadable resources library for paid members, to assist with recruitment if necessary. 

After completing training and service, and successfully completing written and verbal assessments, Coordinators can be Certified by YP and thereby receive the authority to Certify Student Leaders.

Adult Mentors liaise between Coordinators and YPCs. Adult Mentors are often local volunteers recruited by YPC Coordinators to support students in a YPC. The expected volunteer commitment is around 2 to 4 hours weekly. Adult Mentors are responsible for providing supervision and moral and logistical support of regular club activities. Mentors also complete YPC training, and in conjunction with the Coordinator, they ensure their club is progressing through their YPC cycle, safely, adequately, and that they have all resources in order to do so. Adult Mentors should report back to the Coordinators after every YPC meeting, whether it be weekly or bi-weekly. 

Mentors do not lead the club, but they act as encouragers and advisors for the students who lead the club. A Mentor may need to provide more active frequent input when supporting a YPC with younger and less experienced members. A Mentor of a YPC with older experienced youth may act more as an advocate and coach with infrequent input. Thus, the skill set required of the Mentor will vary based on the members and needs of a particular YPC. If possible Mentors should begin serving before a YPC starts and continue a bit after it’s completion. 

Student Leaders challenge, organize, guide, and support peers in their Young Peacebuilders Club. All YPC students take on different responsibilities and leadership roles, however, some take on an extra level of responsibility and training to ensure the success of their YPC. This includes ensuring that the club keeps the YPC shared Values and Commitments, encouraging engagement and participation from all students throughout the process, helping ensure all students’ voices and ideas are being acknowledged and considered, organizing and facilitating regular club meetings, and more. Leaders can be selected/elected, or rotated on a quarterly basis to give everyone a chance to lead and be heard. 

Students who complete the YPC Student Leaders training and a time of service, and successfully pass written and verbal assessments, are awarded the title Certified Student Leaders.

How many Coordinators, Adult Mentors and students do I need for my club? 

We recommend Members have 1 coordinator, 2 Adult Mentors and up to 20 students per club. An organization with a single YPC may have 1 of the 2 Adult Mentors also serve as their Coordinator and may have as few as 4 students in a YPC. An organization may have a very competent, experienced, and committed Coordinator overseeing as many as 30 YPCs while another organization may choose to have 1 Coordinator oversee 3 YPCs in one region and another oversee 2 YPCs in another region. It’s up to the Member to decide and adjust as needed.

How long does it take to complete the YPC training?

Education is never complete and YP works hard to continually update, improve, and add training resources and events. However, YPC training is likely to take about 2 full days of study. Training may be spread out over a longer period of time and may require more or less study for some individuals. There is more content in the YPC Coordinator training and less in the YPC Student Leader training. There are also linked supplemental resources, like child peacebuilding research, allowing more in depth training for those who choose to take advantage of it.

Do all YPC members receive the same training? 

Each YPC role (Coordinator, Adult Mentor and Student Leader) receives a different training program. However, there are some modules that are included in all programs, for example there are some YPC Foundations lessons which all team members complete. 

Will I get a certificate for completing my training?

Yes! Once you complete your training and pass the online assessments for each course you will be sent your certificate of completion. 

How do we connect our YPCs with other YPCs around the world? 

After starting your YPC Membership let YP know if you are interested in having your YPCs collaborate with YPCs elsewhere. No travel is needed to facilitate this connection. We’ll help make a virtual connection that works well for both groups after receiving permission from each group. YP continues developing new ways to encourage YPC collaboration. For example, we are currently working to develop an online YPC Leaderboard encouraging healthy competition between YPCs globally.

How are YPCs implemented rapidly with more mobile populations like IDPs, refugees, or summer camp students?

The YPC model is made to adapt to each unique context and culture, and is very flexible. The primary focus is on child- and youth-led peacebuilding and project-based learning supported by Adult Mentors. The young participants go through the YPC process of “Exploration, Inspiration, Transformation, and Expansion.” They Explore peacebuilding and violence, design their Inspired project to address a problem that’s important to them, implement their project to transform a conflict or its effects, and then evaluate and Expand as they consider what to do next. 

This cycle could be completed in a period that is as short as one full day, if need be. Or, a week-long YPC camp in a refugee or IDP camp setting could be a fantastic opportunity for flexible, diverse, holistic, and project-based learning for a group of children with various levels of education. Here, the project that the children and youth participants would implement could help improve the often chaotic setting in which they live, and help give them a greater sense of control and empowerment in a context that often leaves them feeling victimized and powerless. Alternately, YPC meetings in such contexts could be set for 2 hrs twice weekly over a 5 week period to give a total of 40 hours of structured group time, and still allow for young YPC participants to work on their project outside of club meetings. Therefore the YPC process stays the same, but the shape adapts to fit each unique context. 

How does YP communicate YPC progress and development?

YPC are encouraged to safely and appropriately post updates on their social media about their progress, accomplishments and activities. YP’s Social Media and Image Use Policy provides good guidance on how to do so safely and respectfully. YP encourages 3-5 updates per club, per cycle and, when appropriate, tagging YP when posting photos, videos and updates. The YP Communication Team can then share your progress. This is significant because it keeps the YP team in the loop on the continuous progress of each YPC, it encourages ownership and pride in the child and youth-led projects, and it celebrates YPC efforts to wage peace on a larger platform. Peacebuilding is meant to be inclusive, and posting updates and/or pictures helps these YPCs feel part of a larger peacebuilding community. We also encourage YPCs to submit blog or vlog posts about their projects so we can share them on our website or YouTube channel. 

You can also share pictures and videos with YP by emailing the team at [email protected]. If YP is permitted to share your images and video, please include the following language in your email: “I have obtained the proper consent to share these images and I grant Young Peacebuilders permission to use the images in any and all media, now known or later developed.”

Who is Dr. Michael McGill?

Dr. McGill is an experienced scholar-practitioner passionate about linking, improving, and increasing support to child and youth peacebuilders and increasing young people’s prosocial civic engagement and democratic participation, particularly in high-risk contexts. Since 2000 he has been designing and implementing research in conflict-affected contexts, training youth researchers, and facilitating productive interagency and international partnerships. He is a strategic problem-solver with a demonstrated commitment to reflective practice and evidence-backed action. Dr. McGill has invested time in 55 countries, including living in Uganda from 2012 to 2015. He has trained groups in Asia, Africa, Middle East, Europe, and North America on cross sector partnership and network development. He co-developed a university graduate methods course on international research with children in especially difficult circumstances, and has practiced as a child psychologist.

Who do I contact with questions or concerns about my YPCs?

1. Online: There is a fantastic community support and conversation feature built into the YPC training platform where any user can present and respond to questions and search through conversations. 

2. Members: When an organization begins their YPC Membership they appoint a Coordinator who is the point of contact for the YPCs they start. All YPC Member organizations also appoint their Child Protection Officer (CPO) responsible for addressing child protection related issues. YPC Mentors and students should forward concerns, questions, or requests to their designated Coordinator. Coordinators may then contact YP if they need further assistance responding to an issue. 

3. Email: If a YPC is not getting a satisfactory response from a Coordinator, or a Coordinator not getting a satisfactory response from YP, then please email [email protected] for additional assistance.

* In short, YPC members contact Mentors, Mentors contact Coordinators, Coordinators contact YP if there is no satisfactory answer on the YPC website or in materials provided.