Our Mission and Vision

To build youth-centric spaces and vibrant ecosystems, called the 5th Space, to transform young people into changemakers

Mission

Vision

To create a society based on equality and justice, without discrimination based on caste, gender, class, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and age

About us

Organisation Primary & Secondary Classification As per the International Classification of Nonprofit Organisations (ICNPO). Philanthropic Intermediaries and Voluntarism Promotion Other philanthropic intermediaries and voluntarism promotion Organisation Activities Civic & Advocacy organisations Grassroots Community Development Organisations Other Philanthropic Intermediaries and Voluntarism Promotion Beneficiary Groups Adolescents Adults NGOs Rural Poor Students Volunteers Women Youth Geographic Focus Urban & Rural Location All India Goals At ComMutiny, our ultimate goal is to create spaces for young people (15-29 yrs of age) where they are safe to explore who they are and what is their relationship to this very pluralistic society and finally take social actions as JAGRIKS (an aware and awakened citizen). We aim to change the narrative and shift the norm to youth centric spaces where young people are not at the end of receiving decisions but also making them. The more spaces we can nurture and the more young people we can help become jagriks, will be the biggest indicator of our success. Our primary stakeholders are young people and those who work with them (i.e. youth workers). Those who form the spaces where our young people spend most of their time also constitute our stakeholders- parents, government, corporates, academic institutions etc. As our work of youth centric development is based on the transformation of self & society, measuring & showcasing its impact is relatively more challenging when compared to the classic streams of working with young people like livelihood, education, health etc. So broadly, We believe in Scoul i.e. soul is as important as scale and for 330 Mil. youth to become jagriks, we need to reach 10 Mil young people (as per the 3.5% rule). We have built a strong software for scaling youth centric work through our programs, designs and ecosystem but are missing the hardware, tech assets, digital infrastructure, storytelling and expertise to enable us to draw people in and offer cutting edge products & support collaborations among those working towards the same pursuits. For the next couple of years, we plan to bridge the gap and pivot to technology (with very essential role played by the on-ground facilitators in non elite rural areas) as well strengthen our FR strategy to include more supporters who strongly align with our mission of “every youth a jagrik and every space nurturing jagriks”. Capabilities & Challenges INTERNAL CAPACITIES: Our experienced founders (Ashraf Patel, Meenu Venkateswaran and Arjun Shekhar) along with a highly skilled (and diverse) team onboarded through a robust and a thorough process is well equipped to design and facilitate unique journeys, raise resources, execute on-ground programs with collective members and work in collaboration with each other. EXTERNAL CAPACITIES: The 200+ individuals and institutions that form a part of our cross- sectoral(development sector, academic institutions, UN, corporates etc.) coalition is one of our biggest strengths as we join hands to make youth centric development a norm. Our funders include UNFPA, Dasra, DKA, Miseror etc. We also have access to global networks such as Ashoka Global, Catalyst 2030, WEF, and much more as our founders and our work has been recognised at a global level (eg:Ashraf Patel, an Ashoka Fellow, catalyst member and also the winner of Schwab Foundation’s Social Entrepreneur of Year award, 2020 etc.) RESOURCES THAT WILL STRENGTHEN OUR WORK: As the pandemic invited us to reflect and innovate, we realised that pivoting interventions that use both tech and non tech elements will be essential to scale with soul. For this, we require talent that can help us make the shift and financial resources to experiment and grow. Resources that can help us aggregate our data much better and communicate it to the world is also essential for us to strengthen our work. We do the following very well: 1. DESIGNING and facilitating unique self to society journeys for different youth audiences ranging from urban middle class young people in schools and colleges to young people from rural and tribal backgrounds. (Our designs are based on the design protocol developed by our ecosystem and highly sought after in the development sector) One of our key strengths now is to conceptualise and implement country wide campaigns using 5th Space principles. These campaigns enable young people to engage in deep refl-action and advocate for specific issues in a way that ensures youth participation in promoting democracy and social justice. All our campaigns have been hailed as unique initiatives that have reached lakhs of people and received tremendous attention from the media. The unManifesto Campaign mentioned above had an online reach of 14 lcs and an onground reach of 1.20 lcs. The design was considered really exciting and the report was also shared at the UN headquarters through UNFPA. 2. Developing MEDIA PRODUCTS to advocate for youth work are in themselves a storehouse of research in practice. We have over 150 videos available, many of which are award winning films. The specialty of most of these films is the way the scripts are woven in a vidushak style, having a lot of humour and yet making a hard hitting point. Fun and seriousness is reflected in each of these products. The films are today much in demand and part of the core curriculum of youth programs in the country. 3. BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS not only in terms of numbers but also in terms of depth of engagement and joint outcomes. This strategy is mainstreamed in all our programs. Going forward we are going to strengthen this by mapping the field both nationally and internationally and developing new strategies to spread our influence (Currently, we have a coalition of over 200 cross-sectoral members). Additionally, we intend to continue expanding and strengthening our ecosystem of young people, youth workers, youth engaging organisations and youth interested individuals and organisations from across sectors. CHALLENGES: 1. Our biggest challenge has been in hiring people for certain functions especially fundraising which has led to a delay in building a robust function and consistent pipeline for resource mobilisation efforts. We are currently actively working on our hiring process to onboard a team member who will solely focus on FR while we also continue to engage consultants to ensure continued momentum. 2. Aggregating resources as a collective/consortium has been a challenge for us for which we continue to advicate at the right platforms 3. Leveraging technologies to enable systems orientation in the organisation Impact: Indicators & Progress 1. Milestones and goals against our major strategies: A. AMPLIFY - Narrative building to shift norms on Youth Centric Development across sectors - Creating a case for wider investment by influencing the influencers for youth centric development - Visibilizing Impact of grassroots youth leadership to through cutting edge narratives and dissemination by building strategic media partnerships B. ACCELERATE - Designing, piloting and scouling (scaling with soul), youth centric experiences to address current psycho- social needs of young people(Focus themes of Climate Change, Gender, Wellbeing, Livelihoods & Entrepreneurship and Constitutional Literacy). - Building capacities of youth engaging organizations and youth workers through earning resources, common design standards and mentoring support - Using cutting edge and co-created youth centric interventions to engage over 1 million youth and transform at-least 25% into youth leaders. Impact: 276- Youth Workers 7386- Jagriks 21- States C. AGGREGATE - Bringing together and synergising a cross-sectoral stakeholders into a robust coalition AND Building a strong and resilient organization that demonstrates high levels of Joy, Achievement and Learning - 80% members playing active role and 40% playing key roles in the success of the coalition - Enhance diversity and depth of the coalition - Deepen our learnings from the coalition building process and amplify best practices - Collaborative fundraising towards realising the shared mission and strengthening youth centric development Impact: 263- Members 139- Organisations 21- States 2. Governance Processes: - Organisation reviews- twice a year to assess it - board meetings twice a part of monthly internal gov processes - Forum meetings - Member engagement meetings Impact: Intergenerational Participants- 3240 Youth Workers- 104 Togetherness Table Journeys- 108 States- 11 3. Awards a. Social Innovator of the Year 2022 Ashraf Patel (founder CYC) by the Schwab foundation at the world economic forum. b. COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs. 2021 #SaathNirbhar: Wellbeing Together-relief & recovery initiative #SaathNirbhar: Wellbeing Together-relief & recovery initiative to build resilient communities through collective wellbeing c. Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 Ashraf Patel (Founder CYC)

Our Locations

Commutiny operates in diverse communities, fostering youth engagement and transformation through exploration and reflection in vibrant spaces.

Address

3rd Floor, 8, Balaji Estate,
Kalkaji, New Delhi – 110019

Hours

9 AM - 5 PM