About the program

The International Youth Initiative Program, YIP, is a societal entrepreneurship training, offering a holistic educational program that promotes an expanded global and personal awareness aiming to strengthen young people’s capacity to take initiative in the face of current global challenges. 20-40 participants, between 18 and 28 years old, from all over the world, live, learn and work together for 10 months.

Purpose and Intentions

YIP provides a platform for young people to develop their fullest potential, expand their understanding and find their authentic task in society and the world.

Program overview

The YIP program provides courses with a focus on different 'lenses'. In order to create a holistic education, YIP participants are given an opportunity to learn within different topic areas (lenses).

Throughout the year, one week-long courses bring content and contribution within these themes each morning. Afternoon activities are designed to balance intellectual, socio-emotional and practical knowledge. These 'lenses' and activities are listed below.

The morning courses consist of contributor-led content and the afternoons of applied mentor-led practices. These two tracks run throughout the year. They align with the educational principles and aim to practically teach the YIP ethos in an accessible way.

Collaboration and Community Dynamics

Foster a lived understanding of the importance of community. Learn how to harness the power of the collective and work across difference. Develop skills in leadership, facilitation, hosting conversations and visioning.

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Inner Awareness

Engage in a path of inner investigation to become aware of your own story, struggles and strivings to then step consciously into your full potential as a creative and unique individual. Begin a Personal Initiative project that you work with throughout the year.

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Global Realities

Be inspired by internationally acclaimed doers and innovators who offer an overview of some of our current global challenges. Activate your capacity to positively contribute to today's changing world.

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Internship

Experience a network, enterprise or organization that has positive social, political or environmental change at its core. Develop interest and wonder in the diversity of human capacity whilst maintaining a personal intention.

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Self Designed Curriculum Weeks

Enjoy the opportunity to co-design your own curriculum, whether this means inviting contributors of your choice or engaging in group inspired educational action and travel. Work on a Personal Initiative.

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Integration & Transition

Consciously reflect on your journey throughout the year and create clarity for your next steps. Finalize and present your Personal Initiative. Dive into the beautiful North Swedish water, and witness a midnight sun during the Outdoor Experience.

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Afternoon Program

The afternoon activities are generally more hands on and practical. They are intended to balance out the more academic morning courses and be in support of output, rather than input. Each day has its specific theme and title and is split into two time-slots. The activities of the afternoons change each module.

Monday

Check In groups

Check-in groups are established at the beginning of the year and consist typically of 6-10 participants and one member of the organizing team. It offers a smaller and more individual setting to discuss and share anything that you meet, learn and experience.

Movement

Participants work with their bodies, exploring complex and novel ways of moving. They will be introduced to different exercises and games to keep mobility and strength across their whole body.

Tuesday

Singing

A chance for the group to be led in working with voice and rhythm together. Learning simple harmonies from across the world, with a playful approach.

internships

The time is for preparing the internship and other group projects where YIP participants will work as a whole group and in smaller teams

Wednesday

Creative

YIP participants choose the creative and practical activities they wish to engage with. These may include:

  • Metal Work - Work with blacksmithing and create jewellery and other pieces.
  • Art Therapy - Take part in a therapeutic art-based process.
  • Wood Work - Learn how to work with wood, hand tools and design.
  • Basket Weaving- creating woven baskets from natural materials such as willow.

Thursday

Gardening

Harvesting, compost making, bed care, processing, fermenting, seed saving etc. Time and space will be given to learn how to observe and understand the different plants and their needs and the needs of the garden.

Friday

Community Meeting

Both the participants and organizers come together each week for a Community Meeting. A typical meeting is used to look back on the past week, to look ahead to the next week and to announce and discuss any community issues and concerns. In addition it offers a platform for sharing and learning about what it takes to be a community living together for 10 months.

Other activities

Counselling

YIP acknowledges the need in any adult education today to offer tailored developmental support to its participants. It does this in the form of Biographical Counselling offered by Annie Meijer, an accredited counsellor and adult educator. The outer supports and securities in life often no longer hold and withstand the awakening inner realities that shake us. This asks from us that we find a new ground within ourselves to build confidence for our future. Biographical Counselling supports this process by enabling participants to step into dialogue with their own Biography, to release forces trapped in previous experience and to step into the future with courage and capacity knowing the value and worth of their unique journey.


extra curricular

On most evenings there is space for countless self-organised extra-curricular activities such as sports, theatre, music etc.

this years curriculum

No Events

Date/Time Event
24 Aug
Week 34
Opening Ceremony

Opening Ceremony

With: YIP17 and community

Community
25 Aug - 29 Aug
Week 35
Introduction and Landing

Introduction and Landing

With: YIP Organising Team (OTs)

Course
01 Sep - 05 Sep
Week 36
From Local to Global

From Local to Global

with: Nora Bateson

Course
08 Sep - 12 Sep
Week 37
The Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations That Matter Course
15 Sep - 19 Sep
Week 38
Beyond Narratives: War and Conflict

Beyond Narratives: War and Conflict

with: Christianne Aikins and Nikolas Bieleit-Medicus

Course
22 Sep - 26 Sep
Week 39
Garden Week

Garden Week

with: Aleksandra Domańska

Course
29 Sep - 03 Oct
Week 40
Values and Economics

Values and Economics

with: the Art of Hosting Team

Course
06 Oct - 10 Oct
Week 41
Power, Privilege and Oppression

Power, Privilege and Oppression

In this course participants are invited to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts of systemic oppression in the global community. Topics will include privilege, micro-aggressions, unconscious biases, prejudice and intersectionality. We will also explore how these patterns and systems play out on an interpersonal level within our own community. Participants will walk away with tools to help them best understand how they contribute to and therefore can work towards building a society centred on equality for all people.

This course will explore key themes and language related to diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging. Through self-reflection, small group exercises, and shared exploration in the larger group, participants will develop a deeper understanding of how our social identities intersect with and generate power, privilege, and bias, and leave with a toolkit to support building relationships with people from backgrounds and experiences different from their own.

Course
13 Oct - 17 Oct
Week 42
Autumn Break Holiday
20 Oct - 24 Oct
Week 43
Personal Initiative

Personal Initiative

A reflective and purpose-oriented week where participants explore their personal motivation and vision. Through dialogue, solo time in nature, and decision-making tools, learners will clarify the “Why” behind their Personal Initiative.

Course
27 Oct - 31 Oct
Week 44
Moving in Complexity

Moving in Complexity

with: Justas Kučinskas

Open Course
03 Nov - 07 Nov
Week 45
Portrait Painting

Portrait Painting

with: Racheal Ingvad

Open Course
10 Nov - 14 Nov
Week 46
Transition to Outpost Course
17 Nov - 21 Nov
Week 47
Arrival and Landing in Navdanya

Arrival and Landing in Navdanya

This week time will be given to land and adjust to the place and purpose of Navdanya. Content will not be bought, rather the focus will be on acclimatising and getting to know the place and rhythms of the place we will be living.

Community
24 Nov - 19 Dec
Week 48
Navdanya

Navdanya

During these weeks, YIP will be hosted by Navdanya who will explore with participants the importance of real farming. They will look at the education of small scale farmers, the threats imposed by multinational companies and their criminal behaviour for the sake of profit making. Vandana Shiva will share her own experiences as an ecofeminist and environmental activist and will inspire action in the realm of environmental preservation. The participants will learn about the importance of real food, experience Navdanya’s revolutionary seed sovereignty and seed saving projects and gain theoretical and practical insights into health: from the individual to the planetary. 

Course
22 Dec - 02 Jan
Week 52
Winter Break Holiday
05 Jan - 09 Jan
Week 02
Being Human in a Technological Age Course
12 Jan - 16 Jan
Week 03
Biography Work

Biography Work

with: Annie Meijer

Course
19 Jan - 23 Jan
Week 04
Personal Initiative

Personal Initiative

An experiential and somatic week exploring personal leadership patterns, inner voices, and systemic context. Participants embody leadership archetypes, work with power dynamics, and engage in collective sense-making around systems of change.

Course
26 Jan - 30 Jan
Week 05
Anthroposophy

Anthroposophy

This course is an introduction to some core concepts in anthroposophy
Three folded ness and four folded ness of the human being
Life body and Etheric body. Breathing, sleeping and waking and the significance of these processes/ states. Consciousness soul and intellectual soul
Distinction between soul and spirit
Rhythmic system and metabolic system and their functions. Disturbances to these systems and their potential consequences. Food or substances which effect consciousness.

Course
02 Feb - 06 Feb
Week 06
Storytelling Course
09 Feb - 13 Feb
Week 07
Internship Departures Community
15 Feb - 20 Mar
Week 07
Internships Internship
23 Mar - 27 Mar
Week 13
Spring Break/ Return from Internships Holiday
30 Mar - 31 Mar
Week 14
Internship Presentations Presentations
03 Apr - 07 Apr
Week 14
Initiative Forum

Initiative Forum

with: YIP17 and OTs

Forums
13 Apr - 17 Apr
Week 16
Enabling Life: Holistic Thinking

Enabling Life: Holistic Thinking

During this week, participants will be guided to work in such a way that each individual, and the group as a whole, will begin to recognise the paradoxical nature of intention (that to realise oneself one has to open oneself); the paradoxical nature of observation and thinking (that each both conceals and reveals the potential of the other), and the paradoxical nature of humanity’s relationship to the world (that the more truly individual we are, the more universal we are).

Artistic and nature based methodologies will be applied to sensitize to the unfolding nature of life, to begin to notice the formative principles behind things.

Course
20 Apr - 24 Apr
Week 17
Personal Initiative

Personal Initiative

An action-based, hands-on week where participants move from concept to tangible prototype. Through project planning tools, storytelling techniques and feedback processes, learners will test and present a first version of their Personal Initiative.

Course
20 Apr - 24 Apr
Week 17
Self Designed Curriculum

Self Designed Curriculum

The self designed curriculum is a key element in YIP that supports participants to take on, commit to and track their own learning and to work intensively on their personal initiative,- a topic they have chosen to research and develop. The participants group can decide, supported by the organising team, what they would like to do together in these four weeks, what they would like to do in smaller groups, and what they would like to do individually. A budget is given to the participants for them to invite contributors of their choice who they would like to learn form as a collective. Mentor time is also available by the team to support the participants in their personal initiative. The structure of the days and weeks is held by the participants group together with the organising team (service hour, breakfast, morning singing, introduction to the day, announcements, lunch, dinner, community meeting, check in group etc.) Outside of this structure, the participants learn how to meaningfully self direct their own learning. The self designed time will begin with a day workshop to set out the schedule for the following 4 weeks. Using open space technology, all participants gain an overview of what is happening for everyone, what invitations are there for group work and can schedule in their individual working time.

Course
20 Apr - 01 May
Week 17
Gardening

Gardening

With Spring comes time to prepare the land for a new season of growth. The participants will work for two weeks in the afternoons together with the YIP gardener Aleksa to prepare the garden for the summer season. The biodynamic compost created in Autumn will be revisited and worked with. Activities will include planning, bed preparation, seed and seedling planting, weeding etc.

Course
04 May - 22 May
Week 19
Initiative Weeks

Initiative Weeks

The participants are able to dedicate time to work on their own personal projects and initiatives. Throughout the year they will have shaped a guiding question or area of exploration and will have time and space to dive into a field of interest and create practical, artistic or research projects.

Community
25 May - 29 May
Week 22
Personal Initiative Presentations Presentations
01 Jun - 12 Jun
Week 23
Outdoor Experience

Outdoor Experience

with: YIP Organising Team (OTs)

Course
15 Jun - 19 Jun
Week 25
Celebration and Closing

Celebration and Closing

with: YIP17 and OTs

Community

Location

home: Sweden

The program is based in Järna, Sweden, beautifully situated 55km south of Stockholm by the Järna Fjord on the Baltic Sea. With its numerous initiatives, businesses and organizations, it forms an amazing and inspiring landscape of people’s visions being put into practice. Each of the surrounding places, be it the biodynamic farms, the curative homes, the alternative bank, the mill, the cultural center etc. have an exemplary character in and of themselves. Luckily these are all situated in a radius of about 10km.



Participants live together in "Tallevana" one of the houses of the Ytterjärna Campus.



The courses happen inside this building, "The Hive".




outpost: navdanya

The YIP18 2025-2026  outpost will take place in India.  We are grateful for Navdanya Biodiversity Farm inviting us to live and learn in the heart of the Navdanya movement as it embodies so many of the principles that lie at the core of YIP.
Conserving diversity and reclaiming commons; Navdanya is an earth centric, women centric and farmer led movement for the protection of biological and cultural diversity. They live and practise the philosophy of Earth Democracy as one Earth Family (Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam) and have conserved the rich seed heritage of nutritious, climate resilient food in more than 150 community seed banks freely saving, sharing and breeding native varieties of food.
Across 22 states in India they grow real living food from living seed. Their approach is to work with food not as a commodity produced with toxic and artificial chemicals pushing species to extinction, driving climate change and spreading sickness, disease and pandemics. They work with food as life and food as health knowing that when we grow food ecologically, we care for the Earth and the regeneration of soil, water and biodiversity.
Navdanya means “nine seeds” (symbolising the protection of biological and cultural diversity) and also the “new gift” (honouring the fact that seeds are a part of the commons and not a “product” to be patented and claimed by the multinational).
Navdanya works to save and share seeds knowing that in today’s context of biological and ecological destruction, working to defend the integrity and freedom of the seed is vital.

We on the team have tried to discern the right path to take with YIP18 in the current climate of an even greater reduction of freedom of movement for many of those wanting to attend who live outside Europe. We hold the complexity of our commitment to bring a high quality, inspiring and relevant programme that meets the needs of our time as well as our concern for what is ethically appropriate, reckoning with the implications of our choice to fly to a far away context, being awake to the colonial legacy and working with the themes of privilege. This is why it has been really important to be in close communication and collaboration with our host, Navdanya who are engaged in on the ground, grassroots organising in India. We will host a hybrid program of both elements and contributors that YIP will invite as well as working with the inspiring projects and content of Navdanya.

Our time in India will be divided in two periods of approximately 6 weeks punctuated by the winter-break.

We feel this Outpost matches our ethos and aspirations to enable YIP to be an international program and very much look forward to preparing ourselves and the participants to be sensitive and grateful guests.

Internships

Curious to see what societal entrepreneurship looks like on a daily basis? 

The internship offers the possibility to work with an organisation/business/initiative that is seeking to implement the ethics, motives and ways of being and working that we explore during YIP. This experience gives the participants a real-life, on the ground experience of what it can look like to implement an initiative that strives to take on some of today’s challenges in the world.

The YIP participants are the co-designers of their learning journey during the internship in small groups. During this design they focus on their personal intention, group intention, and needs of the place.

In the case that YIP18 includes an outpost, YIP will prioritise offering internships with organisations in the same region of the outpost. This is with the hope of enabling a deeper understanding and engagement in the context and culture of the internship place. We also prioritise more local internships in the effort to minimise our need for flying and the consequent environmental impact this entails.


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Alternative Education

Host Organization: Puvidham School 
Geographic Location: Tamil Nadu, India

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Health, social care, education, sustainability

Host Organization: Muni Seva Ashram
Geographic Location: Gujarat, India

 
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Biodynamic Farming and Social Entrepreneurship

Host Organization: Holy Green Agro Farm
Geographic Location: Tanahun, Nepal

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Sustainable Farming, Seed Saving, Earth Democracy

Host Organization: Navdanya
Geographic Location: India


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forest regeneration, community living, animal welfare

Host Organization: Sadhana Forest
Geographic Location: Pondicherry, India

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arts, community education, activism

Host Organizations: Free Home University
Geographic Location: Lecce, Italy

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Climate Action, Creative Arts, Environmental Activism

Host Organization: Open Source Arts Geographic Location: Leeds, UK


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Social inclusion and empowerment for disabled youth

Host Organization: Satya Special School
Geographic Location: Pondicherry, India

Certification

All eligible participants will receive a Certificate of Completion at the year’s end. In addition all participants will receive an individual portfolio with Certificates of Qualification from each completed course during the program. The YIP Certificates of Qualification comply with the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS.) They do not grant any direct academic degree. In the past participants have been able to use their YIP certificates towards credits for their bachelor and/or master programs. 

Through our partnership with Alanus University, all credits are accepted and credited for the BA in Social Entrepreneurship.

Costs, Terms and conditions

Program costs and finances

The YIP Program Cost is SEK 135.000 per participant for the whole 10 month program period, including travel to and from the internship location.

Specifically, it includes:

  • The Program: courses, course materials and evening activities
  • Food: organic meals (breakfast, lunch & dinner from Monday – Friday, not including holidays)
  • Accommodation (single-sex twin-share bedrooms on campus)
  • Travel: travel to and from internship
  • Transportation (in connection with the curriculum)

If your financial situation is a barrier to your applying for YIP, please click here to find tips on financing your YIP Year, as well as the diversity fund.

Program Terms and conditions


Terms and conditions YIP18