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September 15, 2025September 15, 2025

How JAY4T Youth Lead Their Own Transformation

At JAY4T, transformation isn’t something done for the youth – it’s something they lead themselves every day.

Jabulani Youths for Transformation empowers young people by leveraging and transforming their talents, skills, and knowledge into social enterprises that create positive impact. You have the ideas, the talent and the skills. We walk the journey with you, shaping those ideas into reality.

In this blog, we will explore how young people in JAY4T take charge of their journey and lead their own transformation.

The JAY4T approach - Why Youth are at the centre

Our asset-based approach starts with what young people already have – their existing skills, talents, and knowledge. We support youth to access entrepreneurship resources, skill development materials, networks, and tools to make their work possible.

We focus more on working with youth, not for them.

One example is our Xchange Bazaar events, a space where young people come together and share their ideas, skills, and resources in exchange for the same, much like barter trade. The main aim is to network and get what they need to grow their career or skillset. This is followed by masterminding sessions where we discuss one project at a time, brainstorming solutions to challenges, and then work alongside the youth to turn their ideas into reality.

Ways JAY4T youth lead their own transformation

Identifying Opportunities

We have young people coming from diverse communities, each with unique challenges and gaps. Many begin their transformation by spotting these issues and creating solutions that drive change.

Learning and Upskilling

Through JAY4T’s entrepreneurship program, youth are equipped with skills, resources and tools which guide them in their change-making journey.

We also have the Employment Collective, a community-driven forum that connects Kenyan Youths with job opportunities, entrepreneurship resources, and skill development materials and peer learning.

The Xchange Bazaar is another learning hub where youth trade skills. For example, “I’ll teach you Canva design if you teach me digital marketing.”

Collaborating & Networking

Youth build partnerships with peers and mentors through structured matching during our events, working in small groups to solve specific challenges.

Building a Future Mindset

Our vision is to see youth flourish beyond JAY4T, taking what they’ve learned and applying it in careers, businesses, and community leadership.

Be Part Of the Transformation

The JAY4T team invites more young people to step forward, take the lead, and shape their own journey.

Join JAY4T and become part of the co-creators. Step into your own transformation:

Register through our youth application form to join the movement.
Jump into the community forum to connect with peers, opportunities, and resources.
Showing up at our free events on Eventbrite – real talks, real skills, and real networks.

June 8, 2025June 8, 2025

Kenya’s Youth Economy? We’re already building it: JAY4T’s Contribution to AACOSE Academia 2025

Exploring youth innovation at AACOSE Academia

AACOSE Academia is an important component of the Annual Africa Conference on Social Entrepreneurship (AACOSE), organised by the Institute for Social Transformation at Tangaza University. AACOSE Academia serves as a forum for academic contributions that bridge research and practice, providing a platform for scholars and practitioners to present empirical research that contributes to Africa’s social economy and development agenda by engaging in discussions on social entrepreneurship and the social economy.

This year’s conference was centred on the theme, Social Economy: Building a Sustainable and Inclusive Future for Africa. At AACOSE Academia 2025, I had an opportunity to present research addressing a question facing millions of young Kenyans and young Africans at large. How do we turn social innovation into sustainable livelihoods?

In Kenya, youth unemployment is a major challenge facing millions of youth, full of ideas, energy, and potential. But what if we stopped seeing youth as job seekers and started recognising them as solution makers? Just what if?

Being passionate about youth empowerment and social innovation, I chose youth and social innovation as the subtheme, and focused on important topics like the social economy, youth unemployment in Kenya, social enterprises and social innovation.

Why the social economy matters

Kenya’s social economy, just like the global social economy, covers a wide range of activities and organisations that prioritise social and environmental goals over their own profit, often focusing on addressing local needs and promoting community well-being.

Unlike the profit organisations, these entities prioritise people, purpose, and collective participation. For youths, this space gives something special: the chance to create meaningful work that also solves real social challenges like unemployment, poverty, hunger, etc.

Innovation in action: Youth-led social innovation in Kenya’s social economy

In this section, I focused on Ecobana Limited, a youth-led social enterprise tackling period poverty and unemployment, while also addressing environmental degradation, by manufacturing biodegradable sanitary pads from banana fibre.

Kenyan youth are full of innovative ideas. Many of them are already building businesses and coming up with relevant local and environmentally sustainable solutions. What they often lack is long-term support, mostly from the Entrepreneur Support Organisations (ESOs). In my analysis, I found that Entrepreneur Support Organisations, which offer incubators, accelerators, and youth programs, tend to focus on short-term interactions like prize competitions, pitch events, hackathons, and award ceremonies, which are useful but insufficient for the development of these social enterprises.

Youth-led social enterprises don’t just need to be awarded and featured in articles. They need capital with patience, mentorship with depth, and support systems that understand their community-based models.

A better approach: Start with what we already have

I recommend that the youth embrace the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach. While one may need external support like funding, to successfully establish a social enterprise, we must first focus on what we readily have or what we can start with to develop the social enterprise.

The Asset-Based Community Development approach is whereby a community’s existing skills, natural resources, and knowledge are leveraged to create impact. Instead of focusing on what you lack, ABCD starts with what you have. An example is Ecobana, which uses banana fibre for its social enterprise. It’s not just about empowering, it’s sustainable.

What needs to change?

To make Kenya’s youth social economy thrive, we need:

ESOs to evolve from offering one-time or short-term support to developing social enterprises, to offering yearly long-term mentorships and funding partnerships.
Youth policies that reflect the reality of rural and informal innovations, not just urban innovations alone.
To start where we are. Instead of focusing on what youth lack, we should help them realise and leverage what they already have – skills, relationships, raw materials, and ideas that solve real community problems. I advocate for an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach.

My final take

Youth Innovation is not a gap – It’s a growing force. But we can’t just celebrate the wins. We must invest in the systems that make those wins possible and scalable.

As part of JAY4T, I’m committed to pushing the conversation forward. Let us match youth innovation with real, sustainable support.

About the author: Jesse Odippo

I’m Jesse Odippo, the Events and Communications manager at JAY4T – a non-profit membership organisation, which leverages and transforms the talents, skills and knowledge of Kenya’s youths into social enterprise co-creation for positive impact. I’m passionate about youth empowerment and committed to helping young people shape their futures through social innovation.

Presenting my research at AACOSE Academia 2025 was a defining moment in my journey as a youth advocate and communicator. I believe that real change starts with the community and I’m committed to helping youth realise the power they already have to lead the change.