Official Blog
Meet the 2018 Creators for Change Global Ambassadors
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Today, we welcome 47 incredible creators to the YouTube Creators for Change program as the 2018 class of Ambassadors. This global initiative, which we kicked off in
2016
, spotlights inspirational creators who use YouTube’s global reach to change conversations around tough issues and make a truly positive impact on the world. Chosen for their passion and dedication to creating social change, these YouTube creators come from over 16 countries and represent a combined audience of 20 million fans:
The 2018 class features 31 new creators as well as 16 creators from last year’s program (those returning are distinguished with a *):
[Australia]
L-FRESH the LION
*,
Sarah Grimstone
[Brazil]
Nátaly Neri
,
Muro Pequeno
[Canada]
Rossana from Eh Bee Family
,
AsapSCIENCE
[France]
Swann Périssé
*,
HugoDecrypte
,
Lea Camilleri
[Germany]
MaximNoise
,
Datteltäter
*,
ImJette
*,
Diana zur Löwen
[India]
MostlySane
,
Girliyapa
,
Niharika Nim
*
[Indonesia]
Gita Devi
*,
Jovi Hunter
*,
Film Maker Muslim
*,
Cameo Project
*,
Duo Harbatah
[Malaysia]
The MingThing
[MENA]
Fly With Haifa
,
Maha AJ
*,
Shog AL Maskery
*,
Muaz Osman
,
Omar Farooq
,
Raneem Al Muhandis
[Mexico]
Victoria Volkóva
[Philippines]
Janina Vela
[Singapore]
Ministry of Funny
[Thailand]
Picnicly
[Turkey]
İlker Gümüşoluk
*
[United Kingdom]
Humza
*,
Jazza John
,
SuperSamStuff
*,
Riyadh K
,
BENI
*,
Fun for Louis
,
Myles Dyer
*,
MyPaleSkin
[United States]
Jouelzy
,
Yasmany Del Real
,
Beleaf in Fatherhood
,
Subhi Taha
*,
Jubilee Media
,
Hallease
As part of
our $5M investment in this program
, these creators will receive support from YouTube through a combination of project funding, mentorship opportunities, and ongoing production assistance at our YouTube Spaces. They’ll also join us for our second annual Social Impact Camp at YouTube Space London this summer. The Social Impact Camp is an exclusive two-day-long camp featuring inspirational speakers, video production workshops, and mentorship opportunities with experts as well as time for the Ambassadors to connect with one another.
We’re also joining forces with the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
and social change agency
Love Frankie
to support YouTube creators from the Asia-Pacific region who are passionate about creating social impact and tackling tough issues through their videos. First up for this new partnership will be a series of Boot Camps in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand between June - November 2018 where local creators will workshop creating content about local issues alongside experts such as NGOs, academic authorities, and subject matter specialists. Following these Boot Camps, select local creators will participate in a three-month Academy Program that includes mentoring from Creators for Change Ambassadors, local experts, and NGOs to help produce informed, high-quality content that resonates in their countries.
Over the next few months, the 2018 Creators for Change Ambassadors will kick off projects addressing hate speech, xenophobia and/or extremism through different creative forms, such as a series celebrating the Black community within Brazil and a video project that creates awareness about the negative impact that hate speech can have on mental and physical well-being. There are many more incredible ideas in the works -- we can’t wait to share more from these inspiring YouTube role models soon.
To the creators who are joining us as 2018 Ambassadors: thank you. We’re humbled to be working with you on sharing your messages of hope and tolerance.
-- Juniper Downs, Head of YouTube Public Policy
Increasing our investment in Creators for Change
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Since launching YouTube Creators for Change in September 2016, we’ve partnered with 39
inspiring creators
from around the world, helping amplify their voices to counter hate and promote tolerance. Over the last year they’ve released dozens of
thought-provoking videos
that show the power of video to encourage empathy and understanding around the world.
Today, over a hundred YouTube creators are gathered in London for the annual Creators for Change Summit. The summit celebrates last year’s progress and fosters collaboration between leading advocates of social change for the year ahead. These creators include:
L-FRESH the LION
, an Australian rapper of Sikh descent, who created a
two-part track
to challenge racism.
Dina Tokio
, a beauty vlogger from the U.K. who was recently named as one of Vogue’s “New Suffragettes,” uses her interview series
#YourAverageMuslim
to challenge perceptions about Muslim women including meeting with a hip-hop dancer, a powerlifter and a prison community development worker.
Rosianna Rojas
who, in partnership with the UN Refugee Agency, travelled to a remote part of Colombia to help refugees learn about the power of YouTube to
document their stories
and share them with the world.
A look back at 2017
In 2017, global audiences viewed Creators for Change videos tens of millions of times, spending hundreds of thousands of hours watching this content.
Creators for Change collaborated with social impact organizations and experts in
Australia
,
Germany
,
Indonesia
,
Israel
,
Spain
,
Turkey
,
United Kingdom
,
France and Belgium
. One example of this is the Indonesian chapter campaign #1Indonesia where YouTube creators
Cameo Project
teamed up with the Maarif Institute, a local NGO, on a cross-country project to encourage over 2,000 high school students from ten cities to create videos for positive change on topics that affect their communities. Topics included tolerance for ethnic and religious minorities, and digital literacy around online hoaxes.
Through Creators for Change, we’ve educated over 15,000 young people in over 200 locations through local grassroots efforts, including workshops and school programs. In fact, students surveyed in Germany and the United Kingdom reported a significant increase in confidence in their ability to identify and counter hate speech online
as a result of the workshops
. And we’re just getting started …
Increasing our investment in 2018
In 2018, we are continuing to invest in Creators for Change, including providing production and marketing support with a value of over $5M to diverse voices harnessing the power and scale of YouTube in groundbreaking, positive ways.
We will engage more creators in the program, arm the wider YouTube community with new tools and education on how to create change, and empower more young people to use their voices to encourage positive social messages.
In the coming months, we’ll announce the global recipients of the production grants we’re making available through this renewed investment.
Video is a powerful medium to open minds to new perspectives and shared experiences. Creators prove that to us every single day. And we think Creators for Change in 2018 will reach and inspire even bigger audiences.
Juniper Downs, Head of YouTube Public Policy
#MoreThanARefugee
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
At YouTube, our mission is to give everyone a voice and show them the world -- particularly those who are underrepresented and whose voices and experiences are not always heard.
That’s why for World Refugee Day,
YouTube Creators for Change
– a global initiative supporting creators who tackle social issues and promote awareness, tolerance and empathy – has teamed up with the
International Rescue Committee
to create a new video series highlighting refugee voices from around the world. The IRC, which provides vital on-the-ground support to refugees in more than 40 countries and 28 U.S. cities, helped seven YouTube creators meet refugees in five different countries to help shine a light on their stories and to collaborate with them on videos depicting their unique experiences.
Over the past few weeks, Mama Bee from
Eh Bee Family
,
Tyler Oakley
,
Jouelzy
,
Fly with Haifa
, Francis Maxwell of
The Young Turks
,
Suli Breaks
, and Greg and Mitch from
AsapSCIENCE
traveled to Jordan, Serbia, Uganda, Greece and to cities in the U.S. to meet scientists, artists, mothers, and students who also happen to be refugees.
The stories they share go beyond the crisis coverage you see on the news and offer a look at the people behind the label--beautiful, courageous and fascinating people, each of whom is #MoreThanARefugee.
Each creator found they had much in common with the remarkable people they got to spend time with: Don and Suli are both artists; Mama Bee and Amira are both mothers who love their children fiercely; Catherine and Francis have always loved to play football to escape from everyday life; Haifa and Maryam are both dreamers who believe in the beauty of life. Our circumstances may be different, but our shared humanity is much greater than anything that sets us apart.
This humanitarian crisis has displaced tens of millions of people, and we hope these videos can help those of us who are not directly affected empathize with people experiencing life as a refugee. Parents and children, athletes and foodies, students and professors, businesspeople, artists and everything in between, these incredibly brave people have all been forced to flee their homes and endure tremendous challenges in search of safety.
If you want to stand with refugees, we stand with you. You’ll see donation cards for the IRC enabled on these videos, and over the next week, YouTube and Google.org will match your donation up to $500,000. The IRC provides humanitarian aid for people fleeing crisis and disaster, and more than 90 percent of all money donated to the IRC goes to programs and services that directly benefit refugees and displaced people.
Danielle Tiedt, Chief Marketing Officer, YouTube, recently watched
the full series of #MoreThanARefugee stories
.
Introducing our first class of Creators for Change fellows
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Back in
September
, YouTube announced a new program called Creators for Change, putting forward creators with big ideas to help counter xenophobia, extremism and hate with stories promoting positive change. One of our first steps was teaming up with 11
program ambassadors
who are now hard at work developing unique social impact projects which range from a new web series on topics like race, religion, and sexual orientation, to a 10-city workshop series for high school and university students dedicated to creating positive content. Our local chapters in countries like
Indonesia
continue to promote the importance of inclusiveness among young people. And as part of this program, Google.org, our philanthropic arm, has awarded $2M in charitable funds to support nonprofits that promote inclusion and cross-cultural understanding to the:
Active Change Foundation
,
Habibie Center
,
Maslaha
,
Skateistan
,
Southern Poverty Law Center
, TAFNIT and
Witness
.
Mentorship and support for emerging voices is a key part of the Creators for Change program, and we’re now ready to take on our next phase. We’ve collaborated with our program ambassadors to identify new voices we’d like to support and today, we’re excited to introduce the 27 creators from around the world who will join us as the first-ever Creators for Change fellows:
Australia:
L-Fresh the Lion
France:
Swann Périssé
,
Arthur Pires
Germany:
Jette Lübbehüsen
,
Firas Alshater
India:
Nikharika Nm
,
Them Boxer Shorts
,
Sandeep Jha
Indonesia:
Raja Gopalz
,
Gita Devi
,
Jovi Hunter
Oman:
Ashwaq Al Maskery
Turkey:
Özgür Turhan and Deniz Bağdaş
,
İlker Gümüşoluk
United Arab Emirates:
Maha Abdelghaffar
United Kingdom:
Nadir Nahdi
,
Myles Dyer
,
Leena Normington
,
Taha Khan
,
Sam Saffold-Geri
,
Rosianna Rojas
United States:
Subhi Taha
,
Amani Al-Khatahtbeh
,
Taylor Behnke
,
Tasneem Afridi
,
Evelyn Ngugi
Yemen:
Ezaldeen Aref
Together with our ambassadors, we’re eager to support these YouTube role models as they continue to create content that challenges tough topics like hate and extremism, and spread positive messages. For starters, these Creators for Change fellows will each receive equipment and production grants to help them develop new projects and take these productions to the next level.
We’ll also give the creators production support through our YouTube Spaces, and this summer our Spaces in London, New York and Mumbai will host new social impact camps designed exclusively for our program Fellows. These three-day-long camps will include workshops on best practices for producing social change videos, 1:1 channel support from YouTube experts, as well as plenty of time for the Fellows to connect with one another and some of the global program ambassadors.
Through these new resources and programs, we’re committed to helping our new Creators for Change fellows take on new projects that help raise and amplify the issues they care about. Stay tuned for more soon and, for now, you can read about their inspiring stories at the
Creators for Change site
.
Juniper Downs, Head of YouTube Public Policy, recently watched
this inspiring group of creators share their stories
.
New Creators for Change ambassadors and resources are here!
Monday, December 12, 2016
Back in September, we launched
YouTube Creators for Change
, a global initiative dedicated to amplifying (and multiplying) the voices of YouTube creators who tackle division and hate with videos and stories of hope, connection, and understanding. And as 2016 comes to a close, we’re proud to say that YouTube Creators for Change is growing.
We’ve established local Creators for Change initiatives in
Australia
,
France
,
Germany
, and
Turkey
, bringing together creators who have uploaded thousands of videos about countering hate through unity. We’ve opened up sets at YouTube Spaces in New York and Los Angeles where creators will record the first
video-based StoryCorps interviews
. And today, we’re thrilled to introduce our five newest Creators for Change ambassadors:
All India Bakchod
(India),
Cameo Project
(Indonesia),
Dina Torkia
(United Kingdom),
Franchesca Ramsey
(United States) and
John Green
(United States). You can learn more about these inspiring creators at the
Creators For Change website
, which launches today, too!
These new ambassadors will join the six existing ambassadors in engaging their communities on topics like hate speech, xenophobia, and extremism. And to do our part, we’re equipping each one of them with a $25,000 grant to use toward a social impact project of their choice. In fact, this past weekend John Green donated his grant to charity in connection with
Project for Awesome
, a live-streamed annual fundraiser that brings together video creators from all over the world who support charities that, as the vlogbrothers say, “decrease world suck.”
In the coming months, our 11 ambassadors will also help us choose creators who are already making their voices heard on social issues that matter to them. And as part of our original $1M commitment, each of these emerging creators will be given equipment and production grants. They’ll also receive mentorship support from the program ambassadors and an opportunity to participate in educational workshops at our YouTube Spaces.
Finally, to help all those creators who want to use their voices and videos to take on topics they care about, we’ve collaborated with
Upworthy
to create a helpful series of best practices for creating effective social-change videos.
You can find this video, information on all our ambassadors and more on the
YouTube Creators for Change website
. So check it out! And stay tuned for more updates in the coming months.
Juniper Downs, Head of YouTube Public Policy, recently watched "
This Christian community opened its heart to new Muslim neighbors
."
Bringing the StoryCorps experience to video through YouTube Creators for Change
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Diversity is our nation’s strength, yet in America today, we are seeing new levels of fear and misunderstanding. It’s never been more important to sit down and listen to each other -- hear each other’s stories, learn about what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes, and remember what makes us unique and what we all have in common.
That’s why we launched our
YouTube Creators for Change
program back in September, an initiative dedicated to amplifying the voices of YouTube role models who are tackling division and hate by creating videos that share stories of hope, connection and understanding. Today we’re introducing our latest initiative in this program: a new partnership with
StoryCorps
, the national nonprofit organization dedicated to recording and archiving oral stories from all Americans.
Through this new collaboration, we’re teaming up with StoryCorps to help start a national conversation about identity and belonging in America, beginning with a production program at the YouTube Spaces in L.A. and N.Y. in December. At these Spaces, we will create custom-built sets that look and feel like the iconic StoryCorps recording booths where participating creators will help extend StoryCorps recordings to video. These creators will be able to come in with a friend, loved one or person they respect to talk about their experiences in our country as it stands today - both the good and bad.
As part of YouTube Creators for Change, we’re also proud to support the StoryCorps' campaign #WhoWeAre, created in partnership with Upworthy. The #WhoWeAre series features animated stories of everyday Americans selected from the StoryCorps archive that help us remember our best selves.
We hope these conversations will inspire people around the country to reflect and share their own personal stories about who they are and who they want to be. We’re thrilled to be working with StoryCorps on bringing their approach to listening and recognizing our shared humanity to video, and can’t wait to share more on our work together in the coming months.
Juniper Downs, Head of Public Policy for YouTube, recently watched
#WhoWeAre
.
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