Four young people sitting on blue and orange cushions atop wooden pallets outdoors, reading YARD program materials.

Youth Advocating for Their Rights and Development

A YOUTH-LED platform in Tripoli, Lebanon, part of SHiFT Social Innovation Hub.

SHiFT Trains

YARD Leads

Communities Change

SHiFT Trains

YARD Leads

Communities Change

See our method

CAMPAIGNS

Express Without Bullets

Sparked by Ahmad’s story (“عبّر بلا رصاص”), this movement runs awareness sessions in Tripoli schools, distributes campaign booklets, and times public-safety messages to moments of risk such as exam results, New Year’s fireworks, and unexploded ordnance, with ActionAid and SHiFT.

featured story: Ahmad

“Stop stray bullets. Don't deprive anyone of their life.”

Read Ahmad's full story →

Not a Solution

Drug use is climbing among young people in Tripoli, and it is too often treated as an escape from pressure rather than a danger in itself. After training with UNODC on drug prevention through sport, YARD youth passed the method on themselves running field sessions, storytelling activities and awareness videos for children aged 14–18, then taking the message online for a week around the International Day Against Drug Abuse.

Watch on Instagram →

Disability is not an Obstacle

People with disabilities in Tripoli are frequently seen as something to be managed rather than as neighbours, colleagues and contributors. YARD youth built a campaign to shift that perception, combining awareness workshops, interactive community events, a media push and youth training sessions that put the abilities and rights of participants at the centre.

Watch on Instagram →

An Impact, not a Burden

Syrian refugee families in North Lebanon carry a label before they carry anything else: burden. YARD youth challenged it directly through educational, social and cultural activities workshops, awareness events, interactive sessions and programmes for children and young people that brought refugee and host-community participants into the same room.

Watch on Instagram →

Fundraising Campaign

The recent war left families across Lebanon without shelter, food or the basics of daily life. YARD youth joined SHiFT and Have a Dream to run a community fundraising drive, collecting both financial and in-kind donations and mobilising their own neighbourhoods to give.

Watch on Instagram →

Online Harassment

Repeated unwanted messages, threats, content shared without consent and online bullying have made digital space unsafe for many young people and the psychological cost of it is rarely discussed. YARD youth launched an awareness campaign teaching how to recognise online harassment, respond to it safely, protect themselves and others, and report abuse and ask for support when it happens.

Watch on Instagram →

Waste Management

Plastic waste piles up in Tripoli's streets and homes because recycling is treated as somebody else's job, not a daily habit. YARD youth trained on waste management with Mohamad Ibrahim of Nuovoplast and ADNPC Trading, then launched Be Green, Be Clean, Be a Recycling Machine touring every SHiFT department to share practical, low-effort recycling habits people could adopt at work and at home.

Watch on Instagram →

Reforestation Campaign

Lebanon loses forest every year to fire and encroachment, while the fines meant to protect what is left have been overtaken by the collapse of the lira. After training on reforestation and forest law with the General Manager of Horsh Ehden Nature Reserve, YARD youth built an awareness campaign around two short films: one explaining what the forest trespassing law actually says and what breaking it costs, the other making the case for raising encroachment penalties so they carry real weight again.

Watch on Instagram →

Trainings

YARD youth marching with advocacy placards through a Tripoli street.

Advocacy and Rights

Learning rights, running campaigns, and taking demands to the people who decide.

YARD and ActionAid youth on the Tripoli shore holding a No drills, No oil spills, No kills banner.

Climate and Environment

Holding decision makers accountable for water and waste across Lebanon.

Entrepreneurship programme participants on stage holding their certificates.

Economic Empowerment

Turning ideas and skills into businesses and income.

A YARD volunteer loading relief boxes of food and water into a car.

Emergency Response

Stepping up when crisis hits, from shelters in Tripoli to aid across Lebanon.

Young people working together on laptops around a table during a YARD training session in Tripoli.

Safe Spaces and Wellbeing

Building the skills to protect peers and make communities safer.

GOLD

Training young leaders in communication, teamwork, and advocacy.

POLICY AND RESEARCH

Youth and decision-makers seated around tables during a YARD roundtable discussion.

Policy

YOUTH-LED Roundtables

Four structured dialogues brought young people face-to-face with decision-makers to turn evidence into action.

Youth policy recommendations presented across four regional roundtables.

See Policy Paper

Research

Tripoli's City Profile

YOUTH-LED research mapping the city’s social and economic landscape.

See research

YARD youth at the Climate Festival, a YOUTH-LED gathering on climate accountability and action.

Research

Climate Abuse Research

YOUTH-LED study on climate accountability and water & waste management.

See research

PODCASTS

The Link Between Environmental Disasters and Climate Change

Dr. George Mitri

Plastic Pollution

Mohammad Ibrahim, Director General, ADNPC

The Role of NGOs in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

Ghaith Bitar, Executive Director, SHiFT Social Innovation Hub

Neglect of Green Spaces in Lebanon

Sandra Saba, Director, Horsh Ehden Nature Reserve

Water Pollution in Lebanon

Dr. Marc Bouji, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, Saint Joseph University, Beirut

Climate Change and Adaptation

Sabine Abi Aad, Regional Communications and Campaigns Coordinator, ActionAid

Fossil Fuels

Liliana Demartini, Climate Justice Programme Adviser, ActionAid

Impact stories

“The training gave me confidence I never thought I could have.”

She arrived with a scented candle business and a fear of the camera. Through YARD's digital content workshops she learned to tell her story and now films the videos that market her products and encourage others.

Humanitarian response

YARD and SHiFT volunteers loading relief boxes and supplies into a truck for displaced families.

When crisis hits, YARD youth mobilize fast, distributing hygiene and food kits, coordinating shelter and WASH support, and offering psychosocial first aid to families displaced by conflict and disaster.

Cities covered

2819

Families supported

250+

Youth mobilised

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