YouthCan! expands its reach to more than 30,000 young people in 2025
YouthCan! is SOS Children's Villages' global employability and entrepreneurship initiative, operating in 48 countries and territories. In 2025, it supported more than 30,000 young people through the efforts of 1,590 volunteers and 374 partners across the public, private and civil society sectors.
SOS Children's Villages Canada contributes to this global effort through two major partnerships.
Green Growth: Empowering Youth for a Green Future, launched in 2025 in partnership with the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada, aims to support more than 18,000 young people in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Somalia over five years, while YouthRISE, launched in 2024 in partnership with Scotiabank, aims to support nearly 800 young people in Mexico and Jamaica over three years.
We know that YouthCan! works, and the next step is to expand its impact even further, says Martin Schönefeld, Senior Lead of Employability and Entrepreneurship at SOS Children's Villages International at the United Nations High-Level Political Forum in New York.
"The big challenge for us is all about scaling... how we can really have impact on systems at the local, national, regional and global levels."
Scaling YouthCan! is not only about reaching greater numbers of young people. It also means strengthening collaboration among governments, businesses, civil society organizations and young people to create environments where more young people can access decent work and entrepreneurship opportunities.
The 2025 results show that this growth is already underway. The next step is to build on that progress, expanding both YouthCan!'s reach and its contribution to lasting change.