Turkey's Changemakers: Youth makes a difference by receiving grants from YouthBank

Sabanci Foundation Turkey’s Changemakers Program continues to share the unique stories of extraordinary people who contribute to the social development. This week’s Changemaker is “YouthBank Project” which is implemented by Community Volunteers Foundation (TOG) in order to increase the active participation of youth and support them in improving the life quality in their regions.

Supported by the Sabanci Foundation Social Development Grant Program, the YouthBank project encourages young people to develop and implement social responsibility projects. With the grant they receive from YouthBank, young people develop projects to solve the problems in their regions. While young people evaluate the project applications in YouthBank, they also decide on the eligibility of those projects. Implementing the projects, young people communicate with local authorities and institutions and also learn how to work with them.

50 projects are currently implemented in 5 YouthBanks located in Izmir, Samsun, Artvin, Istanbul and Batman. Young people have organized jewelry training in Batman, short movie event on disabilities in Samsun, borrowed umbrella project in Artvin and GO tournament in Izmir. When the project applications are approved, young people implement their projects with small grants.