Hands On Tokyo Youth Impact Project

Thank you for your continuous support of the Youth Impact in 2017. Without your donations, we would not be able to achieve our goal of creating socially conscious young adults. Your generosity allows us the flexibility to invest resources and time to causes our students care deeply about. Since the beginning of 2018, the students have come together to decide on possible projects that we would like to engage in and that we hope to put into action before the close of the year.

With the rapid increase of Youth Impact volunteers, it has become a major challenge to meet the demand for volunteer opportunities. Therefore the Youth Impact team will create a new model that we are excited to share with you.

Part of what makes Hands On Tokyo volunteers unique is that they have a strong understanding of how to work with variety of different demographics, whether that be visually impaired young adults, special needs individuals, or vulnerable children. This experience and knowledge allows them to work in different sectors, and we have been speaking with several NPOs who seek to integrate Youth Impact volunteers into their programs. What this means is we will outsource our volunteers to other NPOs. We believe that there are two benefits to this model: 1. The students will have more opportunities to volunteer and expand their knowledge 2. NPOs will get the assistance they need. The ultimate goal is to create a network of NPOs that all seek to empower and educate youth. The core idea is that NPOs are stronger together, versus when we are all competing for donations and volunteers. Our students have also responded well to this model and are eagerly waiting for this system to be finalized.

Some example of collaborations with other NPOS are: support for homeless and poverty ridden communities, digital literacy programs and English lessons at children`s homes, beach cleaning in Fujisawa, creating a food truck that is run by special needs people and supported by high school and college students. Besides these collective projects we will offer, youth will continue to volunteer at the 27 community projects posted on the Hands On Tokyo website.

We wanted to make you aware of our most important collaboration with the LIVES, which we are working hard to fully fund and implement as early as fall 2018.

In 2017, Hands On Tokyo launched the LIVES Project, a one day event that focused on opening up dialogues about how to empower people with disabilities and how to create inclusive working and living environments for all people in Japan. The program was held in Tokyo Midtown Roppongi and thousands of people attending, spreading the word about tolerance and creating accessibility in Japan.

In 2018, Hands On Tokyo wants to carry this mission one step further by creating a food truck that will circulate between campuses. The food and beverages sold on this truck will be created by special needs people, and high school and college student will support the workers. We hope that through exposure and collaboration, our young volunteers will learn how to empower and assist special needs individuals. Change is achievable when the next generation has knowledge about how to shape an inclusive working and living environment. To learn more go to the global giving page for the LIVES food truck: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/lives-food-truck/

Finally, in an effort to increase awareness and volunteer participation, the Youth Impact team has been speaking primarily with Japanese campuses and trying to incorporate them into this program. Our current Youth Impact volunteers are mostly bilingual, global students; many of them have lived abroad or attended international schools. We feel fortunate to have people of this type of background, but we also want to make sure the Youth Impact program is accessible to native Japanese speakers as well. Therefore, we will be organizing several bonding experiences for our current members and potential new Japanese members. We will be sure to tell you how it all unfolds in the next report!

Thank you again for your interest and investment in the Youth Impact program. We hope that we can continue to peak your interest and hope that you will consider making another contribution to this program. We look forward to updating you again soon about all of these developments. Should you have any questions, feedback, or require more information, please reach out to us at youthimpactjp@handsontokyo.org.