10 Billion Strong Initiative
Launched in 2019, 10 Billion Strong is an environmental leadership initiative which seeks to train and support the next generation of environmental leaders.
In just under 30 years, the United Nations predicts that the world population will reach 10 billion. This 35% increase by 2050 will fundamentally change the resources available to sustain, feed, and power our planet. In response to this, Empowerment Works has incubated the 10 Billion Strong Initiative.
Our short-term goals are to educate youth and to drive immediate impact in communities through sustainability-focused action and policy changes at the community level. By harnessing the power of networks and collective action to share information, ideas, support, and best practices can flow from community to community.
Our longer impact will be achieved by developing leaders who can champion sustainability efforts, no matter what career track they take or location they live in. By investing in youth, and creating lifelong support networks, our community will have sustained impact across all sectors, including business, government, labor, and nonprofit organizations.
Program Portfolio
Serving Emerging Leaders in More than 20 Countries
The 10 Billion Strong Initiative works towards its goals through four core programs:
- Green Leaders Academy - a 15 module course focused on environmental literacy, leadership development, and civic engagement.
- Master Trainer Institutes & Accelerators - designed to support environmental NGO and social enterprise leaders to maximize their impact and integrate our curriculum into their training.
- Solutions Hackathons - these virtual and in-person events convene youth leaders to design and prototype solutions to pressing environmental challenges.
- Network Building - we connect and mobilize leaders across all six continents.
Committed to Impact
The 10 Billion Strong Initiative has trained more than 500 leaders since 2019. Last year, the initiative supported more than 400 leaders in 22 countries to enhance their ability to address critical environmental issues. Across all of our programs, nearly 100% of participants report that our program has helped increase their leadership skills. And 92% of our participants reported that our program helped increase their ability to address environmental issues in their communities.
In 2022, we plan to scale our impact and grow from training hundreds of participants to thousands per year.
