Impacting Youth Trust (I.Trust) was created in August 2013 by five individuals who driven by different reasons decided to start a home grown solution to the youth’s problems. They recognized a big need for a trust that would truly be started and run by people who understood the needs of the youth in the low income and marginalized areas. All three individuals grew up in the Mathare constituency in different generations and have passionately maintained their roots in the area.
Ms. Nyokabi Njuguna who is the youngest among the stakeholders came back to Kenya in July 2012 to work on her Post Graduate thesis on the youth in Mathare Constituency and during this period realised that there was a need to give the youth a voice in the society. Through focus group discussions and questionnaires, she learnt first-hand the many issues that the youth were facing and their perception of how the society viewed them. They did not have a platform to express their needs, their stories and their dreams. The most resonating moment was when high schools kids admitted that their mentors were the criminals in their neighbourhoods because they led a comfortable life.
This observations shaped the idea of starting a trust that would harness the potential within the youth and mould them to be the best that they can be and will lead to more success stories coming from areas where society has seemingly given up on. Knowing this would be a passionate yet hard journey, Nyokabi sought the assistance of four more individuals who would be willing to start an organzation run by the youth and geared towards the youth. Together they generated priority programs that would be able to include the 15-35 age-group and would grow to include additional programs that would lead to feasible growth and development.
The trust is currently at the start up stage and is lobbying as many stakeholders as possible to get involved so as to have a lasting impact on the program's recipients.
VISION STATEMENT
A youth empowered and driven society.MISSION STATEMENT
To advocate and sensitize the youth on their role in society by:
1. Providing opportunities for them to fully immerse themselves in the growth and management of the resources in the society.
2. Giving the youth a platform to share their ideas, views and solutions to their problems and using the information in partnership with the stakeholders to generate practical projects and programs.
PRINCIPLES
P.A.M.O.J.A
- P- Partnership
- A- Accountability
- M- Motivation
- O- Ownership
- J- Justice
- A- Awareness
OBJECTIVES
1. To provide a platform for the youth’s needs and issues to be recognized from the youth’s perspective by the different stakeholders to assist in generating feasible long term solutions to their problems.
2. To help reduce poverty among low income and marginalized societies by empowering the youth with skills that will lead to self-sustenance and sustainable economic growth.
3. To promote a more proactive role by the youth in the leadership and management of resources in the society in support of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
4. To provide support to the society by stimulating a conducive environment for the youth to learn and grow into law abiding citizens as well as preparing the job market in partnership with different stakeholders.
STRATEGIES
The main drive of our work will be:
To use the ideas, opinions, views, vision and talent among the youth as a means of creating partnership and fostering reforms in project planning and funds allocation among stakeholders to ensure maximum impact.
To use information Technology as a tool to disseminate information and provide more opportunities for the youth to fully immerse themselves in the society
GOALS
- CAPACITY BUILDING
To build and strengthen our capabilities and capacity though transparent, efficient and effective delivery of services in our dedication to empower and inspire the youth
- ADVOCACY
To build a strong and organized representation of the youth’s interests and views by establishing an effective platform to partner with stakeholders and foster contribution and interest towards the youth’s sustainable development
- PARTNERSHIP
To engage the youth, society and other stakeholders to acknowledge the opinions and views of the youth to generate a common interest and drive to build a youth driven society
- COMMUNICATION AND YOUTH AWARENESS
To keep open communication lines through transparency and interaction between our organization, the youth and stakeholders to ensure that information is easily available and disseminated within the society.
