Graduation day -SDG Pitch-event hosted by Cyberport

On 27 November 2021, the first YAAPP cohort graduated in a fantastic event at Cyberport in Hong Kong and live-streamed globally. The 16 Ambassadors and the teams they had created gave 7 minute pitches about their enterprise solutions for a social issue they had identified in their community. Using the SDGs as a contextual starting point, they framed their solutions in terms of the Systems Work of Social Change (Rayner & Bonnici) and keeping a keen eye of truly sustainable propositions.

The 2021 projects were:
Te Harrington: Rente, a fashion rental platform for teens
Bella Li: Glbal Goals Council Network, expanding SDG club co-ordination in schools
Anna Wei: Apogee Academy, online SDG education
Justin Cheng: Viva, platform to help the poor access help
Michelle Wang: Mind of Arts, mental health through art
Romina Philips: Slowway, educating fashion designers in sustainable practice
Sophia Lawrance: MergeHK, rescue dogs for young offender rehabilitation
Aiden Howe: Helpers for Helpers, peer led story-telling and empowerment
Alissa Pelletier: Visiualise, SDG photo depository
Arthur Cheung: SDGxEdu, in-school peer led SDG classes
Jason Qiu: CarbonNeutral, student tree and seaweed planting projects
Jane Poon: ProjectProvision, SpendZERO initiative
Alvin Wong: March to Your Beat, autism therapy through percussion
Ines Farcis: Peers 2 SDGs, platform linking youth social enterprises
Kadence Wong: Youth Co, best practice facilitator for youth social groups
Alasatair Woo: DIY, database of social programmes

Votes were cast by the audience through Slido and the winners were:

For Presentation -Anna Wei, Apogee Academy
For Inclusion -Alvin Wong, March to Your Beat
For Innovation -Jane Poon, ProjectProvision
For Impact -Bella Li, GGC

2021 Ambassador achievements post programme:

• Bella Li joined our training team for a workshop at French International School to share her Global Goals Clubs Council initiative with grade 12 students.
• Alissa Pelletier and Ines Farcis helped the Foundation run a SDG game day for middle school students at French International School and Alissa presented her Visualize initiative to them to inspire student action.
• Jane Poon has been published in the South China Morning Post on harbour clean up and also ran a workshop for the HK Academy for Gifted Education
• Aiden Howe, with his Helpers for Helpers initiative, organized and ran the first Coalition for Minority Empowerment on December 18th 2021. This brought together a number for youth initiatives and 3 NGOs particularly concerned with migrant workers. The ITS Foundation hosted the event and provided keynote speakers.
• Justin Cheng and his VIVA initiative organized and ran the first Hong Kong Youth Poverty Alleviation Summit in February 2022. Again, the ITS Foundation hosted and provided keynote speakers and the event was attended by youth groups and NGOs aimed at poverty issues such as homelessness.
• Bella Li and Romina Philips organized the HK SDG Summit 2022. The morning of the event brought together a number of high profile HK youth and NGO and corporate ESG participants. In the afternoon, the ITS Foundation had trained 20 young people to deliver a SDG problem framing and solution ideating workshop. This group included 8 UNITAR Youth Ambassadors: Bella, Romina, Kadence, Jane, Aiden, Te, Justin and Alissa.
• Six Ambassadors have joined the Youth Advisory Committee of our own ITS Foundation: Anna, Aiden, Justin, Jane, Kadence and Michelle.