Open Society Youth Fellowship Program for the academic year 2015 | Open Society Foundations (OSF)

The Open Society Youth Fellowship supports young activists and organizers as thought leaders and allies in crafting solutions and new youth-focused approaches to open society challenges. Youth Fellows should take advantage of the considerable intellectual and logistical resources of the Open Society Foundations and expect to contribute meaningfully to the Foundations’ thinking in return. While fellows will work outside of Open Society Foundations core offices, they will liaise with the Open Society Youth Exchange to identify opportunities for both in-person and virtual engagement with Open Society staff and partners. The Youth Exchange will work with each individual fellow to identify additional opportunities for the fellow to learn from and collaborate with staff and partners through site visits, speaking engagements, and other fora. Fellows may produce a variety of work products, including publications, such as reports and blog posts; infographics and other visual content; innovative education and training resources and tools; the launch of new campaigns and organizations; and creation of artistic or cultural expression projects. They may also engage in activities such as hosting panel discussions, traveling to conferences, and presenting on their work in other public spaces.

Fellowship applications should relate to at least one of the following areas of work:

• youth mobilization and innovation in traditional human rights movements (i.e., the LGBTQ rights movement, disability rights, women’s rights, drug policy reform, etc.);
• youth participation and civic engagement particularly around elections;
• youth-led movements;
• youth-led work in the field of justice (for example, policing, pretrial detention, incarcerated youth, or alternative sentencing);
• youth tactics in advocacy and awareness raising (for example new media, arts activism, peer-to-peer networks, etc.) around human rights issues;
• youth in closed or transitional societies;

Fellows will receive a stipend of $35,000–50,000 depending on experience and current income. The fellowship will also cover some travel and project costs related to the fellows’ work to be discussed.