About Us

The YP Foundation (TYPF) is a youth led organisation that facilitates young people’s feminist and rights-based leadership on issues of health equity, gender justice, sexuality rights, and social justice. TYPF ensures that young people have the information, capacity, and opportunities to inform and lead the development and implementation of programmes and policies that impact their lives and are recognised as skilled and aware leaders of social change.

Vision

A world where all young people’s human rights are realised and they are recognised as equal stakeholders and transformative leaders.

Theory of Change

We empower young people by increasing their access to information, services, and leadership opportunities, thereby enabling them to understand and realise their rights.

Mission

To build and influence young people’s leadership, collectives, and ecosystems to achieve social equity, justice, and rights through their meaningful participation in decision making.

Timeline

Initiated as a voluntary group for youth led social change dialogue and action.

2002

Registered as a trust with programmes on SRHR, Digital Storytelling, Life Skills, Governance and Performing Arts Based Careers for Youth.

2007

Expanded programmes to Delhi and UP and advocacy to 18 states for on ground action and policy engagement by youth.

2012

New strategic plan with focus on Sexual Rights, Violence Prevention, Movement Building and Youth Led Advocacy. Added GBV, masculinities and queer rights to the focus areas and expanded direct interventions to Bihar.

2017

Scaled up implementation and advocacy on gender, sexuality, health and education issues with adolescents and youth nationally and internationally. 

2021

Guiding Principles

  • We do not discriminate on the grounds of sex, religion, caste, ability, age, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, employment, socio-economic status, or HIV status
  • We believe that every person’s human rights should be respected, affirmed, and fulfilled.
  • We use a feminist and intersectional lens to guide our work that considers how individual identity may overlap into multiple disadvantaged groups.
  • We strive to affirm agency and ensure inclusion
  • We demand all voices should be heard and everyone’s right to choose should be actively and substantially affirmed
  • We are accountable to our vision and mission, to each other, and to the young people with whom we work

by Kruttika Susarla

History

The foundations of TYPF were laid with the realisation that young people across all sections of society have a strong capacity to engage with issues that matter to them, but are frequently undermined in their attempts to do so. TYPF came together as a youth-led space for deeper engagement with social reality with the hope that this may inspire social change leadership by young people.

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The YP Foundation was founded in 2002 by Ishita Chaudhry when she was 15 years old. It was co-created by young people originally as The Children’s Parliament in 2002, in the aftermath of the violence in Gujarat and other parts of the country. The name was changed to The Youth Parliament and subsequently registered as just The YP Foundation in 2007. It became a platform to strengthen the understanding of Human Rights and create opportunities to work together and discover leadership skills on social issues they were passionate about through a safe, open and non-judgemental platform.

With leadership and guidance from Arshiya Sethi, the thought partnership of Bunker Roy of The Barefoot College in Tilonia and support from what became one of TYPF’s longtime partners, the India Habitat Center, the Children’s Parliament was formally launched on July 26, 2002. An in-depth youth-led dialogue with 300 urban school students was led by 3 inspiring teenagers, Ram Kiran, Devki and Ram Niwas, who traveled to the Children’s Parliament from the Night Schools of The Barefoot College, discussing what young people felt about growing up in India, models of youth engagement in governance, and how collective action could be taken for young people to work together to understand diversity and develop critical thinking that enabled civic engagement.

What was launched as a monthly discussion forum at the IHC grew quickly in a year into The Youth Parliament, a movement that grew from a team of 30 volunteers into a core team of 150 young people. TYPF’s first 5 years saw young people self-organized into teams to conduct research, resource mobilization, training and undertook community programmes to address social justice issues. At the end of each year, projects would be ‘handed over’ to a new cohort of volunteers, and a core group of 30 young people comprised staff, transitioning leadership cycles every 2-4 years.

In 2007, with the help of UNICEF, The Youth Parliament registered as The YP Foundation, a youth-led trust (whose deed and mandate was collectively drafted by 150 staff and peer educators at the time!), with the vision of enabling young people to be empowered to they could access critical information and services that enabled their rights, with a focus on advancing the rights of young women and girls. As TYPF’s capacities, resources and learning improved, it expanded to working across 18 states in India, in rural areas and more diverse groups of young people including those from marginalized and low income backgrounds.

The organization’s flagship programmes grew to include advocacy and policy, governance , advancing the independent arts, sexual and reproductive health and rights, mental health, life skills and youth leadership and digital media. TYPF also undertook special projects on understanding gender and sexuality, addressing conflict and peacebuilding and relief and rehabilitation.

More than 1500 people have worked as staff and peer educators in the organization since 2002. The organisation has now deepend and diversified its work across issues of gender, sexuality, violence prevention, health and well being and social justice and inclusion through research, advocacy, capacity building and coalition building with young people and other stakeholders. TYPF continues to be committed to its foundational values of human rights, feminist and intersectional leadership and youth leadership across it’s areas of work.

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