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

Garden

In the Autumn and Spring each Monday afternoon will be spent in the YIP garden.

*Each second week there is a house meeting to organize and discuss the running of the shared house.

check in group

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.

Tuesday

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.
  • Weaving - Make own weaving tools out of wood, work with simple weaving techniques.

Thursday

Initiative forum

Time to plan, prepare and organise the Initiative Forum: an event that the group collectively creates and hosts, practising bringing an idea into manifestation as a larger group.

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.

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

Date/Time Event
25 Aug
Week 34
Opening Ceremony

Opening Ceremony

With: YIP17 and community

Community
26 Aug - 30 Aug
Week 35
Introduction and Landing

Introduction and Landing

With: YIP Organising Team (OTs)

Course
09 Sep - 11 Sep
Week 37
Systems Thinking

Systems Thinking

The course will offer participants an introduction to systems thinking and complexity science through the lens of ‘warm data’. They will explore ways to work in a complex world, through hearing stories and experience from Nora’s life and work as well as gaining an insight into the principles underlying ‘warm data’ which is characterised as ‘information that is alive’. They will explore ways of seeing and embodying the interrelationships that connect elements of a complex system. They will also work with tools to capture the qualitative dynamics of such systems as another dimension to quantitative data. 

Open Course
16 Sep - 20 Sep
Week 38
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.

Course
23 Sep - 27 Sep
Week 39
Garden Week

Garden Week

Through lectures and working in the YIP garden, this course week offers both an intellectual and practical introduction into Biodynamic agriculture.
Together with the YIP participants this course will involve learning over time and through the seasons how to grow vegetables and herbs in a northern climate. Activities will include harvesting, compost making, bed care for the winter, 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.

With Autumn comes harvest time in the garden. The YIP participants will spend the mornings learning from Thomas Lüthi about the foundations of Biodynamic agriculture. The course will focus on the basics of Biodynamic agriculture and will broaden the perception of what ‘communities’ can be, by giving an insight into how ecosystems live and grow together. Thomas will introduce the participants into the Swedish landscape and seasons, specifically in the area of Järna.

Course
30 Sep - 04 Oct
Week 40
The Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations That Matter

The Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations That Matter

How to host and lead oneself and others in times of growing chaos and possibility? In this module, we will offer the Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations That Matter as an approach to organising, leading and learning in a participatory way. 

The Art of Hosting is a highly effective way of harnessing the collective wisdom and self-organising capacity of groups of any size. This approach uses a variety of powerful conversational processes deeply rooted in the needs of the world, guided by shared work and purpose. The Art of Hosting is an experiential training and leadership practicum to deepen one’s capacity to affect transformation in oneself and in a complex world. This work takes into account the whole process – all the preparations necessary to bring people together for shared work, what happens while they are working together, and how the results of their conversation support next steps that are aligned to their purpose and context. 

Course
07 Oct - 11 Oct
Week 41
Beyond Narratives: War and Conflict

Beyond Narratives: War and Conflict

What are the root causes of war and conflict? To reach the roots, we must look beyond surface narratives and understand the violent systems that instigate, enable, and maintain conflict globally. To catalyse change, we must first look within ourselves to understand why we should care – if at all – about conflicts in far away places. Is it empathy or justice? Is there such thing as “far away”?

This course presents a series of frameworks from global to personal that help us uncover the specific drivers of war and conflict, which often feel overwhelmingly complex. We first look at how global systems such as colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism underpin conflict. We then explore the power of narratives and discourse in shaping identity and reifying power structures, focusing on discourses that enable “othering” such as orientalism, islamophobia, and various types of bias.

This course employs a justice lens, rather than compassion narratives, to identify responsibility and complicity, and integrates restorative justice exercises to support action. Case studies of modern conflicts will be used to practice these frameworks, with particular attention paid to displaced peoples, border politics, and refugees.

Course
14 Oct - 18 Oct
Week 42
Autumn Break Holiday
21 Oct - 25 Oct
Week 43
Biography Work

Biography Work

This course will offer participants an introduction into the laws and rhythms of biographical development from the anthroposophical perspective. They will explore the evolution of the consciousness of the human being and ask what it means to be human in today’s world. This will include a re-membering of our childhood environment, an exploration into the impact of relationships in the events of our lives, the value and meaning of crisis and struggle in development and how we can prepare capacities for the future, Participants will learn how to participate and co-host biography groups where they will develop faculties to listen empathically, work with judgement and understand how diverse and complex individual lives can be.

Course
28 Oct - 01 Nov
Week 44
Moving in Complexity

Moving in Complexity

This is a theoretical and practical course aimed at exploring a generalist approach to physicality and physical practices which supports the growth of overall human capacity. We will critically look at the current state of physical culture, present some latest developments and shifts in perspectives, analyze various theoretical and practical movement practice foundations. We will present and allow participants to explore the idea that one of the ways to get in touch with our own human complexity and thus – capacity (in the most general sense) is to become aware of the complex ways we move or could move if we were more aware of the needs and the facticity of our own bodies. By engaging into “complete movement practice” rather than a linear-specialized physical activity the participants will be able to practically test how such approach affects inner human capacity in terms of creativity, communication, sense of meaning, etc.

This is an open course! For more information and to book a place, contact [email protected]

Open Course
04 Nov - 08 Nov
Week 45
Portrait Painting

Portrait Painting

Self-portrait painting; a practice in portrait painting using acrylics. Armed with a photo of themselves to engage with for the entire week participants learn how to navigate self portrait painting using acrylics on canvas. The course includes a lot of personal painting time within the larger group as well as group teaching session to encourage and practice giving clear and constructive feedback, receiving feedback, following instructions and cultivating courage. Participants are taught creative ways of meeting the challenges of art in practice and learn how to support others in this process.

This is an open course! For more information and to book a place, please contact: [email protected]

Open Course
11 Nov - 15 Nov
Week 46
Personal Initiative Days and Transition to Outpost

Personal Initiative Days and Transition to Outpost

During this week participants will explore the role and necessity for initiative in their lives and the world and will participate in a number of exercises to discover a personal initiative that they carry at the moment and throughout the year. Participants are encouraged to give space to their own intrinsic motivation to enable them to discover a theme or topic that is truly of interest to them. This is encouraged through methods such as generative interview, the question game and artistic enquiry. They will explore where initiative and motivation come from, how to work with freedom and responsibility, and dive into the qualities and practices of societal entrepreneurship and initiation.

There will also be time given to reflect and review the experiences and learnings thus far, and to prepare for departure to the outpost.

Course
18 Nov - 29 Nov
Week 47
Introduction to CESCI

Introduction to CESCI

For the first two weeks of outpost, participants will be introduced to CESCI and their work in the locality. We will land in the context, orient and gain an insight into the work that is being done by this organisation. We will learn about Gandhian philosophy in action with the will for social change to the betterment for the marginalized. We will learn from CESCIs work in awareness building, social rights and land justice.

Learn more at: https://www.cesciindia.in/who-we-are/

Community
02 Dec - 06 Dec
Week 49
Storytelling

Storytelling

What makes a story work? Can words shift the world? What is the relationship between wisdom traditions and stories from the past and your life today?
During this course, participants will learn how to tell and work with traditional, personal and spontaneous stories. The course will introduce them to the transformative path of the storyteller, a path of development and transformation guided by humanity’s great shifters and shapers – Stories. Working with folk tales and the experiences of their life and shaping them into stories to be shared.

Course
09 Dec - 13 Dec
Week 50
Holistic Education

Holistic Education

This week we will be joined by Valetin Wember who will offer an introduction to the principles underlying Waldorf education and how those can be understood and applied in many different contexts.

Participants will also look at the three-folded and four-folded approach to the human being as developed by Rudolf Steiner. Basic thoughts can be found in “Theosophy” and in “Study of man” both written by Rudolf Steiner. The course will include an exploration of the physical, soul and spiritual development of the human being, as well as the physical, etheric, astral and I development. Participants will learn about the temperaments and planetary qualities as they relate to human character and will engage in lively discussion about the possible existence of a spiritual world beyond the world of the senses.

Course
16 Dec - 19 Dec
Week 51
Review and Transition Community
23 Dec - 03 Jan
Week 52
Winter Break Holiday
06 Jan - 10 Jan
Week 02
Introduction to Auroville

Introduction to Auroville

Participants will have the opportunity to meet and hear from local initiative takers living and working within Auroville, a universal township seeking to explore the possibility of living in diversity in a co-operative and sustainable way. They will get to know the place, and be inspired by what community building can look like in practice.

Community
13 Jan - 17 Jan
Week 03
Project Skills

Project Skills

Participants learn about different mindsets, strategies, practices and skills needed to become a societal entrepreneur. This will support entrepreneurial initiative on various levels – starting projects, organising events, and starting businesses and initiatives This includes but is not limited to: process design, budgeting, intention setting, group work, media and marketing campaigns, web design, and event design. 

Course
20 Jan - 24 Jan
Week 04
Health: Wellness and Illness

Health: Wellness and Illness

Participants will explore the theme of health, through the lens of Anthroposophical medicine. They will ask questions about the current challenges facing our collective and individual health, and what it means to heal and be well in the face of this. They will be joined by Dr. Lakshmi Prasanna; a pediatrician with 25 years experience who works in India and internationally.

Course
27 Jan - 31 Jan
Week 05
Being Human in a Technological Age

Being Human in a Technological Age

Recent years have thrown humanity into the deep end of the pool we call the virtual world. Without the extremes of a knee-jerk avoidance or an unthinking immersion, we must be able to come to grips with this strong immersion in the digital world, by accurately observing the experience and understanding our own choices, capacities and tasks in the light of this interaction.

Course
03 Feb - 07 Feb
Week 06
Enabling Life: Holistic Thinking

Enabling Life: Holistic Thinking

During this week, we will 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).

Course
10 Feb - 14 Feb
Week 07
Internship Departures Community
17 Feb - 21 Mar
Week 08
Internships

Internships

The Internship is a 5 week opportunity to experience an enterprise or network that has positive social, political or environmental change at its core. Participants will visit and work with organizations, projects, and initiatives which explore YIP’s principles and values of societal entrepreneurship.

During this period participants experience what it is like to run or work within such an organization/business/initiative on a practical day-to-day level. They practice balancing what they wish to learn and sharing the skills they can offer to support the place and world they live in.

Internship
24 Mar - 28 Mar
Week 13
Spring Break Holiday
31 Mar - 01 Apr
Week 14
Internship Presentations

Internship Presentations

Each internship group has the opportunity to share their experience and learnings in a creative and interactive way. These presentations are open to the public.

Presentations
02 Apr - 11 Apr
Week 14
Art of Hosting/ Initiative Forum Prep

Art of Hosting/ Initiative Forum Prep

Building upon the methods learnt and practised earlier in the programme, participants will be supported by a team of facilitators to design, organise and host the Initiative Forum, a five day event with keynote lectures from Dr. Vandana Shiva. They will practise hosting interactive sessions, setting up working structures and the capacity to present publicly with clarity and purpose. The Art of Hosting team will also bring different ‘agile’ ways of working, dividing tasks and visualising progress. Participants will also be coached and introduced to the art of ‘harvesting’: creating visual or creative summaries of what has taken place to be shared with participants of the Initiative Forum.

There will then be time for setting up practicalities, logistics and operating systems in preparation for the Initiative Forum itself.

Course
16 Apr - 21 Apr
Week 16
Initiative Forum

Initiative Forum

The Initiative Forum is an event run and organised by the YIP participants. Dr Vandana Shiva will deliver keynote lectures on the topic of biodiversity, food sovereignty and regeneration.

She 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. She will share her own experiences as an ecofeminist and environmental activist and will inspire and action in the realm of environmental preservation. She will share the work undertaken in Navdanya including her revolutionary seed sovereignty and seed saving projects. She will speak about the role of women in farming and the role of women in Indian farming.

Around this input, the participants will design an event, with scope for workshops, open spaces and cultural programme.

Stay tuned for more information!

Forums
21 Apr - 25 Apr
Week 17
Initiative Forum pack down/ Break

Initiative Forum pack down/ Break

There will be time given to wrap up the Initiative Forum, harvest and celebrate. Then some time off to rest after a busy few weeks.

Community
28 Apr - 02 May
Week 18
Gardening and SDC kick off

Gardening and SDC kick off

During the mornings, participants with work together with Aleksa to reawaken the garden after winter. There will be time spent preparing beds and sowing seeds as well as learning to notice the rhythms of nature and re-familiarise with the landscape and weather in Sweden.

In the afternoons there will be time to begin the format of the self designed curriculum, ahead of the upcoming three weeks of self designed time.

Course
05 May - 23 May
Week 19
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
26 May - 30 May
Week 22
Personal Initiative Presentations

Personal Initiative Presentations

A big highlight at the end of the self-designed curriculum are the personal initiative presentations.
After an intensive period of working on their own projects, the Yippies prepare a 45-minute presentation to share their processes and experiences.

These presentations are public and also available to watch online.

To get the Zoom link, please send an E-Mail to [email protected]

Presentations
02 Jun - 13 Jun
Week 23
Outdoor Experience

Outdoor Experience

During this week, the participants will enter the Swedish nature by water. This week is designed as a digestion week as the penultimate week of the program. Participants are supported to pack and prepare for the outdoors where they will canoe and camp for 5 nights without any phones or digital aids. Participants are instructed on how to live in the Swedish outdoors without disturbing or destroying nature. Meals will be cooked over fires, water will be collected and filtered, fire wood will be sustainably sought and collected, canoes and camp will be cared for. Time will be given for individual and group reflection on the year that has passed and on intention setting for life after the programs end.

Course
16 Jun - 20 Jun
Week 25
Celebration and Closing

Celebration and Closing

Time given to reflect, harvest learnings and celebrate the ending of YIP. There will be a closing ceremony and celebratory dinner on the final day.

Community

Date/Time Event
25 Aug
Week 34
Opening Ceremony

Opening Ceremony

With: YIP17 and community

Community
26 Aug - 30 Aug
Week 35
Introduction and Landing

Introduction and Landing

With: YIP Organising Team (OTs)

Course
09 Sep - 11 Sep
Week 37
Systems Thinking

Systems Thinking

The course will offer participants an introduction to systems thinking and complexity science through the lens of ‘warm data’. They will explore ways to work in a complex world, through hearing stories and experience from Nora’s life and work as well as gaining an insight into the principles underlying ‘warm data’ which is characterised as ‘information that is alive’. They will explore ways of seeing and embodying the interrelationships that connect elements of a complex system. They will also work with tools to capture the qualitative dynamics of such systems as another dimension to quantitative data. 

Open Course
16 Sep - 20 Sep
Week 38
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.

Course
23 Sep - 27 Sep
Week 39
Garden Week

Garden Week

Through lectures and working in the YIP garden, this course week offers both an intellectual and practical introduction into Biodynamic agriculture.
Together with the YIP participants this course will involve learning over time and through the seasons how to grow vegetables and herbs in a northern climate. Activities will include harvesting, compost making, bed care for the winter, 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.

With Autumn comes harvest time in the garden. The YIP participants will spend the mornings learning from Thomas Lüthi about the foundations of Biodynamic agriculture. The course will focus on the basics of Biodynamic agriculture and will broaden the perception of what ‘communities’ can be, by giving an insight into how ecosystems live and grow together. Thomas will introduce the participants into the Swedish landscape and seasons, specifically in the area of Järna.

Course
30 Sep - 04 Oct
Week 40
The Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations That Matter

The Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations That Matter

How to host and lead oneself and others in times of growing chaos and possibility? In this module, we will offer the Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations That Matter as an approach to organising, leading and learning in a participatory way. 

The Art of Hosting is a highly effective way of harnessing the collective wisdom and self-organising capacity of groups of any size. This approach uses a variety of powerful conversational processes deeply rooted in the needs of the world, guided by shared work and purpose. The Art of Hosting is an experiential training and leadership practicum to deepen one’s capacity to affect transformation in oneself and in a complex world. This work takes into account the whole process – all the preparations necessary to bring people together for shared work, what happens while they are working together, and how the results of their conversation support next steps that are aligned to their purpose and context. 

Course
07 Oct - 11 Oct
Week 41
Beyond Narratives: War and Conflict

Beyond Narratives: War and Conflict

What are the root causes of war and conflict? To reach the roots, we must look beyond surface narratives and understand the violent systems that instigate, enable, and maintain conflict globally. To catalyse change, we must first look within ourselves to understand why we should care – if at all – about conflicts in far away places. Is it empathy or justice? Is there such thing as “far away”?

This course presents a series of frameworks from global to personal that help us uncover the specific drivers of war and conflict, which often feel overwhelmingly complex. We first look at how global systems such as colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism underpin conflict. We then explore the power of narratives and discourse in shaping identity and reifying power structures, focusing on discourses that enable “othering” such as orientalism, islamophobia, and various types of bias.

This course employs a justice lens, rather than compassion narratives, to identify responsibility and complicity, and integrates restorative justice exercises to support action. Case studies of modern conflicts will be used to practice these frameworks, with particular attention paid to displaced peoples, border politics, and refugees.

Course
14 Oct - 18 Oct
Week 42
Autumn Break Holiday
21 Oct - 25 Oct
Week 43
Biography Work

Biography Work

This course will offer participants an introduction into the laws and rhythms of biographical development from the anthroposophical perspective. They will explore the evolution of the consciousness of the human being and ask what it means to be human in today’s world. This will include a re-membering of our childhood environment, an exploration into the impact of relationships in the events of our lives, the value and meaning of crisis and struggle in development and how we can prepare capacities for the future, Participants will learn how to participate and co-host biography groups where they will develop faculties to listen empathically, work with judgement and understand how diverse and complex individual lives can be.

Course
28 Oct - 01 Nov
Week 44
Moving in Complexity

Moving in Complexity

This is a theoretical and practical course aimed at exploring a generalist approach to physicality and physical practices which supports the growth of overall human capacity. We will critically look at the current state of physical culture, present some latest developments and shifts in perspectives, analyze various theoretical and practical movement practice foundations. We will present and allow participants to explore the idea that one of the ways to get in touch with our own human complexity and thus – capacity (in the most general sense) is to become aware of the complex ways we move or could move if we were more aware of the needs and the facticity of our own bodies. By engaging into “complete movement practice” rather than a linear-specialized physical activity the participants will be able to practically test how such approach affects inner human capacity in terms of creativity, communication, sense of meaning, etc.

This is an open course! For more information and to book a place, contact [email protected]

Open Course
04 Nov - 08 Nov
Week 45
Portrait Painting

Portrait Painting

Self-portrait painting; a practice in portrait painting using acrylics. Armed with a photo of themselves to engage with for the entire week participants learn how to navigate self portrait painting using acrylics on canvas. The course includes a lot of personal painting time within the larger group as well as group teaching session to encourage and practice giving clear and constructive feedback, receiving feedback, following instructions and cultivating courage. Participants are taught creative ways of meeting the challenges of art in practice and learn how to support others in this process.

This is an open course! For more information and to book a place, please contact: [email protected]

Open Course
11 Nov - 15 Nov
Week 46
Personal Initiative Days and Transition to Outpost

Personal Initiative Days and Transition to Outpost

During this week participants will explore the role and necessity for initiative in their lives and the world and will participate in a number of exercises to discover a personal initiative that they carry at the moment and throughout the year. Participants are encouraged to give space to their own intrinsic motivation to enable them to discover a theme or topic that is truly of interest to them. This is encouraged through methods such as generative interview, the question game and artistic enquiry. They will explore where initiative and motivation come from, how to work with freedom and responsibility, and dive into the qualities and practices of societal entrepreneurship and initiation.

There will also be time given to reflect and review the experiences and learnings thus far, and to prepare for departure to the outpost.

Course
18 Nov - 29 Nov
Week 47
Introduction to CESCI

Introduction to CESCI

For the first two weeks of outpost, participants will be introduced to CESCI and their work in the locality. We will land in the context, orient and gain an insight into the work that is being done by this organisation. We will learn about Gandhian philosophy in action with the will for social change to the betterment for the marginalized. We will learn from CESCIs work in awareness building, social rights and land justice.

Learn more at: https://www.cesciindia.in/who-we-are/

Community
02 Dec - 06 Dec
Week 49
Storytelling

Storytelling

What makes a story work? Can words shift the world? What is the relationship between wisdom traditions and stories from the past and your life today?
During this course, participants will learn how to tell and work with traditional, personal and spontaneous stories. The course will introduce them to the transformative path of the storyteller, a path of development and transformation guided by humanity’s great shifters and shapers – Stories. Working with folk tales and the experiences of their life and shaping them into stories to be shared.

Course
09 Dec - 13 Dec
Week 50
Holistic Education

Holistic Education

This week we will be joined by Valetin Wember who will offer an introduction to the principles underlying Waldorf education and how those can be understood and applied in many different contexts.

Participants will also look at the three-folded and four-folded approach to the human being as developed by Rudolf Steiner. Basic thoughts can be found in “Theosophy” and in “Study of man” both written by Rudolf Steiner. The course will include an exploration of the physical, soul and spiritual development of the human being, as well as the physical, etheric, astral and I development. Participants will learn about the temperaments and planetary qualities as they relate to human character and will engage in lively discussion about the possible existence of a spiritual world beyond the world of the senses.

Course
16 Dec - 19 Dec
Week 51
Review and Transition Community
23 Dec - 03 Jan
Week 52
Winter Break Holiday
06 Jan - 10 Jan
Week 02
Introduction to Auroville

Introduction to Auroville

Participants will have the opportunity to meet and hear from local initiative takers living and working within Auroville, a universal township seeking to explore the possibility of living in diversity in a co-operative and sustainable way. They will get to know the place, and be inspired by what community building can look like in practice.

Community
13 Jan - 17 Jan
Week 03
Project Skills

Project Skills

Participants learn about different mindsets, strategies, practices and skills needed to become a societal entrepreneur. This will support entrepreneurial initiative on various levels – starting projects, organising events, and starting businesses and initiatives This includes but is not limited to: process design, budgeting, intention setting, group work, media and marketing campaigns, web design, and event design. 

Course
20 Jan - 24 Jan
Week 04
Health: Wellness and Illness

Health: Wellness and Illness

Participants will explore the theme of health, through the lens of Anthroposophical medicine. They will ask questions about the current challenges facing our collective and individual health, and what it means to heal and be well in the face of this. They will be joined by Dr. Lakshmi Prasanna; a pediatrician with 25 years experience who works in India and internationally.

Course
27 Jan - 31 Jan
Week 05
Being Human in a Technological Age

Being Human in a Technological Age

Recent years have thrown humanity into the deep end of the pool we call the virtual world. Without the extremes of a knee-jerk avoidance or an unthinking immersion, we must be able to come to grips with this strong immersion in the digital world, by accurately observing the experience and understanding our own choices, capacities and tasks in the light of this interaction.

Course
03 Feb - 07 Feb
Week 06
Enabling Life: Holistic Thinking

Enabling Life: Holistic Thinking

During this week, we will 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).

Course
10 Feb - 14 Feb
Week 07
Internship Departures Community
17 Feb - 21 Mar
Week 08
Internships

Internships

The Internship is a 5 week opportunity to experience an enterprise or network that has positive social, political or environmental change at its core. Participants will visit and work with organizations, projects, and initiatives which explore YIP’s principles and values of societal entrepreneurship.

During this period participants experience what it is like to run or work within such an organization/business/initiative on a practical day-to-day level. They practice balancing what they wish to learn and sharing the skills they can offer to support the place and world they live in.

Internship
24 Mar - 28 Mar
Week 13
Spring Break Holiday
31 Mar - 01 Apr
Week 14
Internship Presentations

Internship Presentations

Each internship group has the opportunity to share their experience and learnings in a creative and interactive way. These presentations are open to the public.

Presentations
02 Apr - 11 Apr
Week 14
Art of Hosting/ Initiative Forum Prep

Art of Hosting/ Initiative Forum Prep

Building upon the methods learnt and practised earlier in the programme, participants will be supported by a team of facilitators to design, organise and host the Initiative Forum, a five day event with keynote lectures from Dr. Vandana Shiva. They will practise hosting interactive sessions, setting up working structures and the capacity to present publicly with clarity and purpose. The Art of Hosting team will also bring different ‘agile’ ways of working, dividing tasks and visualising progress. Participants will also be coached and introduced to the art of ‘harvesting’: creating visual or creative summaries of what has taken place to be shared with participants of the Initiative Forum.

There will then be time for setting up practicalities, logistics and operating systems in preparation for the Initiative Forum itself.

Course
16 Apr - 21 Apr
Week 16
Initiative Forum

Initiative Forum

The Initiative Forum is an event run and organised by the YIP participants. Dr Vandana Shiva will deliver keynote lectures on the topic of biodiversity, food sovereignty and regeneration.

She 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. She will share her own experiences as an ecofeminist and environmental activist and will inspire and action in the realm of environmental preservation. She will share the work undertaken in Navdanya including her revolutionary seed sovereignty and seed saving projects. She will speak about the role of women in farming and the role of women in Indian farming.

Around this input, the participants will design an event, with scope for workshops, open spaces and cultural programme.

Stay tuned for more information!

Forums
21 Apr - 25 Apr
Week 17
Initiative Forum pack down/ Break

Initiative Forum pack down/ Break

There will be time given to wrap up the Initiative Forum, harvest and celebrate. Then some time off to rest after a busy few weeks.

Community
28 Apr - 02 May
Week 18
Gardening and SDC kick off

Gardening and SDC kick off

During the mornings, participants with work together with Aleksa to reawaken the garden after winter. There will be time spent preparing beds and sowing seeds as well as learning to notice the rhythms of nature and re-familiarise with the landscape and weather in Sweden.

In the afternoons there will be time to begin the format of the self designed curriculum, ahead of the upcoming three weeks of self designed time.

Course
05 May - 23 May
Week 19
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
26 May - 30 May
Week 22
Personal Initiative Presentations

Personal Initiative Presentations

A big highlight at the end of the self-designed curriculum are the personal initiative presentations.
After an intensive period of working on their own projects, the Yippies prepare a 45-minute presentation to share their processes and experiences.

These presentations are public and also available to watch online.

To get the Zoom link, please send an E-Mail to [email protected]

Presentations
02 Jun - 13 Jun
Week 23
Outdoor Experience

Outdoor Experience

During this week, the participants will enter the Swedish nature by water. This week is designed as a digestion week as the penultimate week of the program. Participants are supported to pack and prepare for the outdoors where they will canoe and camp for 5 nights without any phones or digital aids. Participants are instructed on how to live in the Swedish outdoors without disturbing or destroying nature. Meals will be cooked over fires, water will be collected and filtered, fire wood will be sustainably sought and collected, canoes and camp will be cared for. Time will be given for individual and group reflection on the year that has passed and on intention setting for life after the programs end.

Course
16 Jun - 20 Jun
Week 25
Celebration and Closing

Celebration and Closing

Time given to reflect, harvest learnings and celebrate the ending of YIP. There will be a closing ceremony and celebratory dinner on the final day.

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: india

After carefully considering, having many meetings and visiting some of the wonderful initiatives that have offered to work with us on outpost, we have decided that this years Outpost will take us to two inspiring movements based in India.

For the first period we will be staying at a campus called CESCI near Madurai.

CESCI is a direct form of solidarity, working with social organisations and activists on rights of the landless, women and marginalised communities. It supports those attempting to enact Gandhian philosophy with the will for social change to the betterment for the marginalized. The space hosts activists working for awareness building, social rights and self help groups. Most of them stem from the same segment of the population they render their service to. Hence, they are familiar with their problems and issues and are able to find suitable solutions.

For the second period we will be staying at Auroville.

Auroville is a universal township in the making for a population of up to 50,000 people from around the world. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity – in diversity. Today Auroville is recognised as the first and only internationally endorsed ongoing experiment in human unity and transformation of consciousness, also concerned with – and practically researching into – sustainable living and the future cultural, environmental, social and spiritual needs of mankind.

We are extremely grateful that both Ekta Parishad and Auroville are willing and keen to welcome us and allow us to learn from their vast experience and multilayered organisations.

We on the team have tried to discern the right path to take with YIP17 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 the host organisations 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 projects and content of the hosting organisations.

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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Curative education and social inclusion

Host Organization: Peaceful Bamboo Family
Geographic Location: Vietnam

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Youth seminars, school and outreach programmes

Host Organization: Youth Society Parzival
Geographic Location: Georgia

 
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Biodynamic Farming and Social Entrepreneurship

Host Organization: Holy Green Agro Farm
Geographic Location:  Nepal

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Sustainable Farming, Seed Saving, Earth Democracy

Host Organization: Navdanya
Geographic Location: India


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Waldorf Inspired Education, Biodynamic Farming and Community Outreach

Host Organization: Kufunda Village
Geographic Location: Zimbabwe

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arts, community education, activism

Host Organizations: Free Home University
Geographic Location: Italy

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Climate Action, Creative Arts, Environmental Activism

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


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Waldorf Inspired Kindergarten and Elementary School

Host Organization: Hebat El Nile
Geographic Location: Egypt

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 125.000 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 YIP16