Upshift Vietnam

The UPSHIFT programme prepares young people from vulnerable communities to identify, analyze, and take entrepreneurial action against community challenges they care about—helping participants realize their role as agents of social change, and building their professional readiness and resilience along the way. Read here for more details: UNICEF Stories - Agents of Change in Vietnam The cornerstone of the programme is UPSHIFT: Social Impact Workshop, a three day learning experience that introduces boys and girls to some of the tools and techniques—like human-centered design, agile development, creative ideation, and prototyping and user testing— in a social innovator’s toolkit. Participants work side-by-side with a mentor to move from challenge to solution, while engaging in networking and reflection activities in their down time. At the close of the workshop, teams exhibit and pitch their solutions to a judging panel who selects projects for implementation and ongoing support from the Lab. In the 2015 Pilot in Vietnam there were 10 projects resulting in 4 initiatives with over beneficiaries. The UPSHIFT methodology has been designed to emphasize accessibility; it can be scaffolded for learners of differing levels of academic preparation, and—owing to its modular design—can be delivered through an intensive residential “camp” over as little as three days, or over several days or weeks of non-residential workshops. The UPSHIFT methodology has been designed by UNICEF Kosovo’s Innovations Lab Kosovo. Value to Participating Youth • Young people learn and have the opportunity to apply key transferable livelihood skills in research, analysis, problem solving, teamwork, communication, and management of organizational processes. • Young people learn and have the opportunity to exercise critical and creative thinking skills. • Young people connect with other adolescents and youth interested in solving community challenges, including young people from other communities and confessions. • Young people exit with a model product or service intervention and project proposal. Program Format Mission Statement Empower marginalized young people to realize their role as agents of social change as they identify and analyze challenges in their communities and to take entrepreneurial action to develop and lead solutions. Target Group UPSHIFT targets young people from the most vulnerable communities. The proposed target group includes young people ages 15-24, with a special emphasis on out of school adolescents and youth, refugee adolescents and youth, adolescents and youth living in poverty, adolescent girls and young women with reduced mobility, and other marginalized groups.