About us

The Youth Bridge Foundation (YBF) is an independent non-profit organization committed to youth development across the continent of Africa and the Diaspora. We strive to achieve this purpose and mandate through cutting-edge and evidence based youth research, sustained advocacy, training and mentorship. Headquartered in Ghana and accredited with the UN ECOSOC Special Consultative status since 2011, YBF is not a membership-based organization but works with a network of youth across the Continent. The Foundation currently has Country offices in Zambia and the USA.

Vision Statement

To harness the potential of the youth to become responsible and participating citizens for sustainable development.

Mission Statement

A  youth focused NGO working to equitably harness the potentials of the youth by equipping them with appropriate capacity, platforms and resources that shall enhance their socio-economic and mental well being; and to advocate for inclusion and responsiveness to youth development needs and rights by those responsible for upholding such rights.

Youth Bridge Foundation

Our Values

In carrying out its mission Youth Bridge Foundation values:

Leadership

We encourage sterling initiatives and ownership by young people to provide ideas and practical solutions to foster development and growth.

Empathy

We identify with the needs of the society, particularly the youth and resolve to be committed to their course.

Equity

We respect equal opportunities and even resourcefulness for all regardless of gender, race, disability, ethnicity, economic and social class.

Partnership

We acknowledge and appreciate every effort and collective mobilization with a common goal.

Disability Desk

Informed by our Value of ‘Equity’, the Foundation mainstreams gender and disability perspectives in its programs and projects to ensure that both girls’/ boys’ needs and youths with disability needs are taken into consideration.

We recognize that, especially youth with disabilities have peculiar concerns with different needs, different levels of access, opportunities and constraints that require conscious attention in addressing.

The Foundation appreciates this as a fundamental step for inclusion and responsiveness to Youth Development issues. For the purposes of integration and exhibiting our commitment to ‘Equity’, we strengthened our Access To Justice & Disability Program by establishing a Disability Desk.

The Desk has young people with disability as officers with an oversight by a Team of PWD expert. For us inclusion entails recognizing the barriers and constraints to inclusion and finding ways of improving it by giving equal opportunities to all. We thus approach these social problems caused by a lack of access to justice through the culturally resonant method of storytelling to raise awareness, develop capacities on existing laws and where and how to access them, and advocate for enforcement by those responsible for upholding such rights.

Endorsements

We commend the Youth Bridge Foundation for opening and allowing a stage for young people to be seen and heard it.

Dennia Gayle UNFPA Ghana Deputy Rep. 2014

The AYGC initiative by the Youth Bridge Foundation seeks to build a connected African Youth which was a dream the former president of Ghana - Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, other African founding fathers and I shared and worked at achieving. For this reason, I recommend the African Youth and Governance Convergence.

Kenneth Kaunda Founding Father and First President, Zambia
2005
YBF Incorporated
2010
  • Institutional Grooming with CDD  – 2009
  • Leadership-grooming Flagship Program (AYGC) initiated – 2009
  • UNDP as partner
  • AYGC Petition  GoG to ratify the AYC - 2010
  • AYGC in Zambia - 2014
2015
  • UN ECOSOC Special Consultative Accreditation – 2011
  • Recognition & Partnerships with EU, GIZ, USAID - 2012/2015
  • AYGC in South Africa – 2015
  • AYGC in Nigeria - 2017
  • TEN as partner - 2016
  • Tullow as partner – 2017
  • OOPL as partner - 2017
  • OSIWA as partner – 2018
  • First TV Series produced – 2019
  • Inclusion of Lusophone Youth in AYGC with Open Society Foundation   – 2019
2020
  • Partnership with Rule Of Law Collaborative of University of South Carolina  - 2018
  • Restructuring due to COVID-19
  • Petition to President for inclusion of Sign Lang. Interpretation in COVID-19 Updates
  • Formation of Youth Advisory Board
  • First Virtual AYGC
  • Youth First Time Voters’ Campaign with Canada Government funding
  • YBF featured on BBC
  • Partnership with Electoral Commission
  • AYGC featured at Cornell University
2021
  • Petition Supreme Court for SLI in Election Petition
  • Partnership with the Czech Embassy
  • First Major Lusophone Engagement in Angola
  • YBF participates in COP26

Subsidiary Platforms

African Youth And Governance Convergence

AYGC is a 4-tier leadership grooming and an all year round program with an annual Convergence of youth and experts from Africa and the Diaspora in the areas of
  • Leadership grooming
  • Cascade of mentorship
  • Community impact
  • Networking & exchanges
YBF initiated the African Youth and Governance Convergence (AYGC) in 2009

Youth Bridge Multimedia

Youth Bridge Multimedia is a registered subsidiary of YBF and consists of TV and Radio. It is a youth focused channel that seeks to impact the youth for development through information sharing, education and entertainment. It also seeks to create spaces for
the youth to evolve, engage and entertain themselves. Programmes are to be aired in friendly and convenient manner to the Youth for easier access and usage. Programmes are geared towards the capacity building of the youth (and/or youth oriented organizations).

Youth Bridge Education and Mentorship Scheme (YBEMS)

The Youth Bridge Education and Mentorship Scheme (YBEMS) is a subsidiary organization of Youth Bridge Foundation the national scholarship fund, after school support and mentoring/coaching, internships and job placements

Youth Bridge Alliance

The Youth Bridge Alliance is a lose network of all voluntary independent youth-focused organizations to brainstorm and discuss issues relating to youth development in Ghana and Africa.

Youth Bridge Research Institute (YBRI)

The YBRI is a subsidiary organization of the Youth Bridge Foundation (YBF), set up to inter alia, conduct research that characterizes the situation of the youth in Africa and the Diaspora, identifies gaps and opportunities to strengthen youth development through practice and policy. YBRI undertakes evidence based academic research on young people in Africa and the Diaspora to strengthen YBF’s evidence based advocacy and engagements with governments and policy makers across Africa and the Diaspora.

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