All Grow

Updated: 28/06/2018

Challenge owner, Solution provider

Romania
Our mission is to contribute to building an inclusive society, in which ALL members have the tools, resources, and opportunities to GROW.

AllGrow is dedicated to helping organizations and individuals promote inclusive growth and advancement by fostering innovation, knowledge sharing and critical thinking. We started operations in Romania with a youth empowerment program called Change Architects. 

According to the European Commission over 46% of  Romanian youths are at risk of poverty and social exclusion, a percentage higher than the national average (37%). The educational system was not able to attract, prepare and maintain high performance educators and couldn’t provide the students with access to practical, life context and authentic skills.  This is why we need complementary initiatives to support the development of students and teachers.  The students need access to information, tools, and inspiration to help them develop a new set of skills and competencies necessary in their daily life and in their future careers. Some of the critical skills are:  teamwork, empathy, leadership, critical thinking,  innovation și creativity. The youth identify problems around them and they build projects to solve these problems. They are not spectators of their lives but there are the architects of their future.

Change Architects is an educational program using a methodology developed by DESIGN FOR CHANGE, an organization working in over 65 countries and founded by Ashoka fellow Kiran Bir Sethi, selected among top 10 teachers in the world. The initiative uses design thinking to creates a space where youth with ages 8 to 18 become changemakers. Students learn about social entrepreneurship and community development. The youth develop projects to solve problems important for them going through 4 simple steps FEEL, IMAGINE, DO and SHARE. Teachers' role is to facilitate and create a space for youth to develop.

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