During the 4-day Social Responsibility and Policy Innovation summit in Tehran, Iran, Sara Ketabi, CEO of InnovaYouth, hosted global citizenship education courses, identified community issues in Iran related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as held policy forums with Tehran’s City Hall officials and political science professors on the importance of youth civic engagement and dismantling systems of poverty through entrepreneurship and a skills-based, sustainable education. This summit was the first of its kind to be implemented in the country held from 16-20 November 2019 in Tehran Province, Tehran, District 5, E Ferdows Blvd, Iran.
Sara Ketabi founded InnovaYouth in 2018, an award-winning education and citizenship development organization empowering young visionaries to lead. During InnovaYouth’s summit, amidst the deadly Iranian protests against the national regime, Ketabi proved to be a leading example of resilience in spite of brutal unrest and successfully hosted politically relevant workshops through a meticulous approach to inclusive and sustainable learning. The four key stages of knowledge and implementation reflected across all workshop curricula entail analyzing UN SDGs, understanding community needs, forming beneficial partnerships, and creating impactful social change projects in response to understanding regional and national issues.
Ketabi’s workshops challenged young people to solve real-world global issues that call for a redefinition of traditional academic experiences while empowering change-making mindsets to their local communities. Through the lens of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Ketabi tailored workshops to elementary, middle, and high school levels by adjusting the difficulties of the concept in each presentation and follow-up activity. However, the big ideas were kept the same for all grade levels per workshop topic to encourage participants to maximize their impact using current resources explored in the workshops.
Beyond the Tehran summit, InnovaYouth has hosted civic engagement, leadership and social innovation, as well as policy and research summits in 14 countries spanning across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. To keep up with InnovaYouth’s latest endeavors, visit innovayouth.org for more information.
