Our Story

VIOLENCE. POVERTY. DISEASE. FAMINE.

WE DEMAND SOMETHING BETTER.

"Across the Globe, young people are increasingly sick of reading about poverty, war, discrimination, disease and destruction. We represent a generation that's going to do something about it..." Courtney Klein, co-founder, New Global Citizens.

On February 7, 2008 two pioneering youth groups joined forces to create New Global Citizens.

This coming together was motivated not just by a desire to take on the world's greatest challenges.

It was motivated by a determination to solve them.

ROLE PLAYING IS NOT ENOUGH

Youth Philanthropy Worldwide (YPW) – When a group of parents at the Global Fund for Women in San Francisco participated in a "Take your Daughters to Work Day", they had no idea what they were letting themselves in for. They young women were so fired up by mock grant making activity that they started to demand more.

'Playing' at being part of the solution was not enough. They wanted to do it for real.

In response to these demands, a handful of people in the global grant-making community decided to create Youth Philanthropy Worldwide. The result was a student-led movement to engage in grassroots solutions around the globe.

YPW began by engaging individual high school students through conferences, trainings and a fellowship program. This developed into high school clubs in the fall of 2006. The first YPW clubs were launched in schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, but quickly spread to Los Angeles, Minnesota and New York.

Convinced that the viral spread of these clubs across the nation was evidence of pent up demand for change, YPW spotted an opportunity and a national program was launched.

This program brought opportunities for global action to high schools across America.

INACTION IS NOT AN OPTION

Youth Re:Action Corps (YRC) – At the age of eighteen, Courtney Klein, the founder of YRC traveled with a group of eleven college students to volunteer in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico side-by-side with community members who sought to create sustainable change in the rural area of Akil. From this experience, the realization surfaced that with the breadth of problems facing communities around the world, we, as a society, could not afford to raise a generation that was either unaware of what was happening in the world or felt incapable of changing issues they felt passionately about.

Inaction is not an option.

The impetus was to launch an organization that would engage an entire generation of young people in a movement; a national movement that would educate young people about issues afflicting communities around the world, empower them to create change, and provide them with the tools and resources necessary to take action.

The Arizona State University undergraduate returned home and drafted a business plan for Youth Re:Action Corps. In January 2005, with the support of three college peers, the business plan for Youth Re:Action Corps received $1,000 in startup support  from Arizona State University’s Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative. 
In January of 2006, Youth Re:Action Corps launched its pilot program for 85 students across four high school campuses in the largest school district in Arizona.  In May of 2006, upon receiving significant investments from local corporations and national foundations, YRC expanded to San Jose, California.

New Global Citizens

In April of 2007, both Youth Philanthropy Worldwide and Youth Re:Action Corps were profiled in the Almaden Times newspaper in San Jose for the work of their high school teams at Leland High School. Upon reading the article and realizing a common vision to build a national movement of young people to help solve the greatest challenges faced by communities around the world, the two organizations met to discuss potential collaboration opportunities and on February 7, 2008, the two organizations merged!