Blog

Photo by Kwizera Theogene: https://www.pexels.com/photo/aerial-view-of-the-market-27523707/

March 5, 2025March 5, 2025

Maximizing Social and Environmental Impact in 2025: JAY4T’s Perspective

Jabulani Youths for Transformation (JAY4T) was honored to contribute to Business Fights Poverty’s Together for 2025 forum, sharing insights on how businesses can maximize their social and environmental impact in the coming year. As a youth-led nonprofit dedicated to economic empowerment and poverty alleviation, we believe that businesses must embrace three key principles in 2025: active listening, intentionality, and sustainability.

Priorities for Businesses to Maximize Impact in 2025

1. Active Listening: Understanding and Responding to Community Needs
For businesses to drive meaningful impact, they must not only listen but actively engage with the communities they serve. Impact is maximized when solutions are co-created with those who will benefit from them.

At JAY4T, we recognize that for our social enterprises and community initiatives to be effective, we must continuously listen to the voices of the youth. Our work spans multiple economic enterprises aimed at alleviating poverty, alongside a vibrant community platform that connects young people across the country. This platform provides entrepreneurship resources, skill development tools, and job opportunities. However, the effectiveness of these programs depends on how well they align with the real needs of the youth.

To ensure we stay relevant, we recently launched a youth employment survey to better understand the challenges young people face in securing sustainable livelihoods. This data will inform the evolution of our programs, ensuring that they remain responsive and impactful.

2. Intentionality: Purpose-Driven Business Practices
Social impact is not an afterthought; it requires deliberate and strategic planning. Businesses must embed social and environmental considerations into their core operations rather than treating them as peripheral activities.

For JAY4T, being intentional means structuring our programs to create lasting change. We don’t just create opportunities for youth—we ensure that these opportunities are sustainable, relevant, and empowering. Whether through our social enterprises or our community engagement platforms, every initiative is designed with a clear purpose and measurable outcomes in mind.

3. Sustainability: Building Resilient and Self-Sufficient Organizations
One of the greatest challenges facing social enterprises and impact-driven businesses in 2025 will be financial sustainability. Many organizations rely heavily on grants, but this model alone is not sufficient for long-term growth and resilience.

To address this, organizations must diversify their revenue streams, incorporating business models that generate income while advancing their mission. At JAY4T, we are actively exploring multiple funding sources to ensure the sustainability of our programs, including partnerships, investments in social enterprises, and revenue-generating initiatives.

Overcoming Challenges in 2025

The biggest challenge the social impact community will face in 2025 is ensuring long-term sustainability. While external funding can provide an initial boost, organizations must build models that allow them to sustain and scale their impact independently. Businesses and nonprofits alike must innovate, leveraging technology, strategic partnerships, and hybrid funding models to create resilience.

Guidance for Corporate Social Impact Leaders in 2025

If there is one piece of advice we would offer to corporate social impact leaders stepping into 2025, it would be this: focus on achieving organizational excellence before scaling impact.

Before expanding programs or launching new initiatives, businesses must evaluate their internal operations to ensure they are running efficiently and effectively. A strong foundation allows for greater and more sustainable impact.

As we step into 2025, the call for businesses and social enterprises is clear—listen actively, act intentionally, and build sustainability into every aspect of impact work. At JAY4T, we remain committed to these principles as we continue to empower youth and drive transformative change in our communities.

By working together with businesses and other stakeholders, we can create a future where social and environmental impact is not just an ambition, but a reality.

Photo by Dennis Magati: https://www.pexels.com/photo/smiling-man-in-jacket-16556736/

February 28, 2025March 5, 2025

The role of the social economy in creating sustainable solutions for Africa’s challenges

At Jabulani Youths for Transformation (JAY4T), we are committed to fostering youth-led innovation and entrepreneurship as a pathway to sustainable development in Africa. As part of this mission, we are excited to contribute to the upcoming Annual Africa Conference on Social Entrepreneurship (AACOSE) 2025, where we will delve into the vital role of the social economy in addressing Africa’s challenges.

Rethinking Development: From Dependence to Collective Ownership

For many years, African nations have relied on external aid and services that often come at a high cost. However, there has been a significant shift towards a social economy, where non-profit organizations and social enterprises prioritize people over profit, reinvest in communities, and embrace collective ownership models. This transformation is crucial in ensuring access to essential services such as healthcare, food, and employment—fundamental pillars of an improved standard of living.

The Social Economy as a Solution to Youth Unemployment

Unemployment remains one of the most pressing challenges faced by Africa’s youth. Limited job opportunities, corruption in hiring practices, and a shrinking job market have made it increasingly difficult for young people to secure decent employment. However, the rise of youth-led social enterprises has demonstrated the power of social innovation in job creation.

Youth across the continent are launching ventures that address societal issues while providing employment opportunities for themselves and their peers. Entrepreneur Support Organizations within the social economy have played a significant role in this movement by offering capital, mentorship, and training to help young innovators succeed. Despite this progress, challenges such as limited infrastructure and restricted market access continue to hinder the growth of youth-led enterprises. More investment in infrastructure and targeted support from established non-profits through advertising and networking will help unlock the full potential of young entrepreneurs.

Investing in the Social Economy for Sustainable Development

The social economy is directly linked to achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including No Poverty, Zero Hunger, and Decent Work & Economic Growth. By supporting youth-led initiatives and creating an enabling environment for social enterprises, Africa can drive inclusive economic growth while promoting community-driven solutions. Stakeholders—including governments, funders, and development organizations—must collaborate to invest in youth-driven social innovation and reinforce a solidarity-based economy that benefits all.

February 14, 2025March 5, 2025

Transforming Feedback into Growth: JAY4T’s Journey to an Employment Collective

At Jabulani Youths for Transformation (JAY4T), we believe in the power of feedback to drive meaningful change.

Rethinking Youth Unemployment Solutions

For years, both public and private sector players in Kenya have attempted to tackle youth unemployment through training programs, startup incubation, and capital provision. JAY4T initially followed similar approaches, offering capacity-building programs to empower young people. However, despite these efforts, unemployment rates in Kisumu continued to rise.

Through a deep process of reflection and feedback, we realized that our intervention models were not creating sustainable employment opportunities. We engaged with young people from our programs and beyond, actively listening to their experiences, skills, and aspirations. Their feedback revealed that traditional training and capital-focused interventions were insufficient. What they needed was a system that recognized them as human capital—not just as job seekers or beneficiaries, but as contributors to their local economies.

The Shift to an Asset-Based Approach

Inspired by insights from GlobalGiving’s Sharing Power Through Co-Creation Guide, we shifted our focus from aid and training to an asset-based entrepreneurship program. This new approach acknowledges the potential within young people and the resources they already have access to. Instead of designing programs in isolation, we created the Employment Collective, an interactive forum where unemployed youth can collaborate, share opportunities, and develop economic enterprises based on their existing skills and networks.

This transformation was fueled by active listening. By prioritizing the voices of young people, we learned that sustainable change comes from linking isolated talents and opportunities to create value. Our role evolved from being direct implementers to facilitators of connections, enabling youth to leverage their own strengths and resources.

The Role of Feedback in Sustainable Change

JAY4T’s journey underscores the importance of perceptual feedback in social impact work. Our experience has shown that effective listening goes beyond collecting opinions—it requires meaningful engagement, co-creation, and the willingness to pivot based on community insights.

Through our Employment Collective, we continue to act on the feedback we receive by:

Creating spaces for open dialogue, where young people can express their challenges and ideas freely.
Encouraging peer-to-peer collaboration, allowing youth to learn from and support each other.
Providing access to resources and tools, helping young entrepreneurs and job seekers turn ideas into action.
Continuously iterating on our programs, ensuring they remain responsive to the evolving needs of the community.

We remain committed to fostering a culture of listening and co-creation, ensuring that youth voices shape the future of of employment solutions in Kenya. We invite others to join us in this journey—whether by engaging in our Employment Collective, sharing insights on feedback practices, or collaborating on innovative solutions. Together, we can transform feedback into real, sustainable growth.

December 7, 2024March 5, 2025

JAY4T at ASSEK 2024

Insights from the ASSEK Annual Conference and Innovation Awards Gala 2024

The ASSEK Annual Conference and Innovation Awards Gala 2024, themed Collaboration4Impact: Economic Empowerment to Address Unemployment and Promote Sustainable Innovation, was an eye-opening event! It was a two-day event held at Emara Ole-Sereni in 2024. Its purpose was to bring together great minds to share innovative ideas on how to address the high unemployment rate and tips on how to make our organisations more effective, focusing on the growth of Entrepreneur Support Organisations (ESOs).

Transforming ESOs into Centers of Sustainable Innovation to Achieve Global Impact

This discussion emphasised that while ESOs are established to support entrepreneurs, they must also become self-sustainable to thrive. Experts in the field, through a panel discussion, highlighted that a significant challenge for ESOs is insufficient funding, which can cause the organisation’s operations to stall or collapse.

ESOs were advised to focus on delivering valuable services that create and maintain a strong market reputation, establishing impactful partnerships that leverage combined resources and expertise with the stakeholders. ESOs should also diversify revenue streams to ensure smooth operations. This approach helps ESOs tailor their support for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and startups while remaining resilient.

Leveraging AI to scale the socio-economic impact for startups and SMEs

We are living in times where AI is rapidly evolving, and businesses are continually integrating AI into their operations. The speakers highlighted the power of AI to simplify planning, research, and evaluation. They urged organisations to integrate AI strategies into their operations by first listing the potential challenges in society, and then identifying some AI solutions to help address the listed challenges.

Organisations can effectively leverage AI by prioritising key areas and building affinity diagrams. The speakers, however, emphasised that applying strong cybersecurity measures is important to safeguarding organisations’ systems, networks, and programs from potential digital or cyber attacks, such as phishing or malware. Additionally, ESOs need to measure quantifiable metrics, which is essential to tracking progress and gaining actionable insights.

Improving Behavioural Competencies of ESO Staff for Increased Enterprise Outcomes

This session focussed on both the behavioural competencies of staff as well as the Sustainable Development Goals. Improving behavioural competencies among ESO staff is an important component of success. The event highlighted the value of having soft skills, such as persuasion, networking, independence, and self-confidence, which empower individuals to build strong professional relationships and positively influence others.

When aligning your organisation’s mission and vision with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), you should use the ‘AIM’ approach. This means being Authentic, Intentional, and Measuring your progress and success. This approach will enable you to enhance personal growth and achieve organisational excellence.

Achieving Organisational Excellence

Have you ever sat down to evaluate the structure of your organisation? Have you achieved organisational excellence?

Finally, the conference reminded us that achieving organisational excellence begins with a thorough evaluation or reevaluation of the organisation’s structure, leadership, and strategic planning. Organisation leaders are encouraged to define a clear vision, continuously assess every aspect of their organisation, and take steps to implement and monitor their programmes with determination. By addressing arising challenges from the root, organisations can drive meaningful and positive improvements and, therefore, achieve lasting success and excellence.

The ASSEK annual conference and Innovation Awards Gala was a success and was quite inspiring. I gained a lot of insights on how to enhance our programmes and build a sustainable and innovative organisation. JAY4T looks forward to joining ASSEK in 2025 as a member organization and to collaborate with other Entrepreneur Support Organisations in the community to create employment solutions.