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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.
• Felting

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

For the YIP19 2026-2027 curriculum, we are pleased to announce that we will be spending the outpost in China.

While we continue to explore the possibility of remaining in Sweden for the entire duration of the program, the International Outpost remains our current solution for ensuring accessibility to participants outside Europe. We continue to hold the complexity of our commitment to bring a high quality, inspiring and relevant program 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 and being awake to the privileges inherent in crossing borders. We are very grateful for the sincere invitation from our collaborators in China.

Having visited both initiatives, we feel a strong alignment in our mutual strivings and are confident this partnership will foster a meaningful, reciprocal exchange.

We intend to spend the time in two locations exploring the Chinese culture and wishing to explore a fruitful dialog of eastern and western cultures and traditions.

For the first period, we will be visiting Wudang Mountain

A place marked by inner development and achievements. The history of the Wudang Mountain is deeply connected to Daoism, imperial Chinese culture, martial arts, and religious architecture. Located in northwestern Hubei Province, the mountain range represents one of the most important sacred centers in China.

Being considered of spiritual significant as early as the Tang dynasty (618–907). Daoist hermits and monks settled in its secluded peaks, forests, and caves, which were seen as ideal places for meditation and cultivating harmony with nature.

Over the ages Wudang developed to be a major center of Daoism. Temples and monasteries were gradually built across the mountains, dedicated especially to the deity Zhenwu (the Perfected Warrior), a powerful protector figure in Daoist belief.

The mountains are famous for “internal” martial arts traditions, especially Tai Chi and Wudang kung fu.

As portrait by the needle grinding lady, the mountain and its traditions invite the enablement of us as humans in order to become attuned instruments for the balancing of Ying and Yang and well as other opposites like heaven and earth, female and male.

We look forwards to the philosophy, culture and rigorous physical practices we hope to engage with in this period.

For the second period, we will relocate to the city of Xi’An.

A place marked by the mingling of ancient tradition and high-tech modern culture and development.

In contrast to the sparsely inhabited mountains, Xi’An counts over 13 million inhabitants and is a bustling centre of human activity. It is one of China’s oldest and most historically important cities. Located in central China, it served as the capital for multiple dynasties and was a major political, cultural, and economic center for more than a thousand years.

During the Han and Tang dynasties, Chang’an became the eastern starting point of the Silk Road. Merchants, diplomats, scholars, and travelers connected China with Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.

The city became one of the world’s largest and most cosmopolitan urban centers. Foreign religions and cultures—including Buddhism, Islam, Nestorian Christianity, and Zoroastrianism—reached China through Xi’an.

The city was carefully planned with broad avenues, markets, palaces, and residential districts. and an impressive city wall. Poetry, art, trade, and scholarship flourished, making Chang’an a global center of culture and learning.

We will be staying on the outskirts of Xi’An and look forwards to continue our learning and understanding. We keep exploring the traditional culture, but also have a closer look at the modern developments and achievements in culture and technology.

In both places we hope to be joined by a group of local Chinese youth who will join the program for these time periods.

Applications for YIP19 have been extended! If you are interested in joining us for this adventure or know of someone who would, we look forward to hearing from you!

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.

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.