Finnish Changemakers

of the Year 2021

Changemaker of the Year is awarded to community improving initiatives lead by young Changemakers in Finland.

The purpose of this recognition is to empower, inspire and support Finnish youth in their journey to launch and lead positive impact in the society. For this inaugural edition, two young Changemakers have been elected: Rens Original and You Tell Me Collective.

The awardees have now been connected with experienced mentors from Ashoka’s network to gain support for developing their solutions further. Both awardees will also be connected to the Finnish and Nordic community of changemakers in events, summits and online fora this year.

The global Ashoka network of Young Changemakers includes more than 40 000 young people across the globe who are creating an Everyone a Changemaker world.

How to apply?

The criteria to apply for the Young Changemaker of the Year award is:

16-25 years old

Has established, alone or together with a team, a social initiative that enhances equality, promotes sustainable development and climate solutions, or otherwise strengthens the social participation of young people

A changemaker who has already rolled up their sleeves and taken action. We are interested in solutions whose implementation has begun and around which there is a team taking the implementation forward.

How to recognize a Changemaker?

Changemakers are united by:

Empathy
Creativity
The ability to lead oneself as well as inspire and lead others
Critical thinking

The ability to identify societal challenges and desire to find a solution to them!

The changemakers actively engage in societal challenges and believe we all have the opportunity and ability to influence on questions that are important.

What do we offer to the Young
Changemakers of the year?

Mentoring-experts in their field will support the changemakers in the spring of 2021 to develop their solution and its effectiveness.

A global network - we connect Finland's Changemakers of the Year to Ashoka's network of 40,000+ young changemakers from Argentina to the Philippines.

Collaboration with Ashoka Fellows - Ashoka has more than 3600 leading social entrepreneurs and changemakers that have succeeded in scaling their impressive solutions internationally.