Our 2008 pilot project partnered with the International High School of Prospect Heights (IHSPH) in Brooklyn. All youth we selected to participate in GP were recent immigrants or refugees to the US (4 from Haiti, 3 from the DR, 2 from China, and 1 from Gabon.)

Based on the success of the pilot year, in 2009 we are working with a new cohort at the same school and also partnering with the Bushwick Academy of Urban Planning, Global Kids, Family Justice and New Heights in Washington Heights, serving an additional 50 students directly in 2009.

There are 4 phases to our program:

1) We recruit and select based on need and on the strength of their application, interview, and teacher recommendations. Youth participate in an innovative 3 month training curriculum that develops leadership, life skills, global awareness, civic participation, and social entrepreneurship.

2) The youth then travel as a team to live within a rural community in the Dominican Republic. They work for six weeks on community development projects, gaining practical experience with local professionals. In 2008, they lived in Batey 8, a community of Haitian descended Dominicans where 60% of the population earns less than $47 a month and 72% of adults have only an elementary school education. In 2008 GP youth built a classroom in collaboration with local community members, ran town-hall meetings on topics such as comparative experiences of racism and poverty.

3) GP youth can receive up to $1000 in funding for their Ashoka Youth Venture Action plans, and in 2008, the GP team launched “Planeta Jeunes Kuai Le” (Planet Youth Happy - Spanish/Haitian/Chinese), a social venture directed at getting teens off the streets through a cross-cultural after-school program. The group’s weekly meetings are self-managed and designed, and facilitated by GP staff with support from Ashoka Youth Venture.

4) GP alumni remain involved and support new participants. Some will intern with Global Potential as training and summer facilitators.