High Value Badges
Youth demand to learn practical skills, in quality experiences with the real world; not just exercises or collages no one ever looks at, but with output of practical value to society. Schools and universities want badges, but don’t know how to do them right. Employers want badges, but don’t know how to asses their value.
Badges in themselves are not a magic wand. They are useless, if students lack motivation, meaning, mentoring, if activities do not generate valuable engagement and learning experiences, if documentation lacks strength and transparency. Badges need to get done right. Responsibility lies with those who issue badges.
YL Badges are built on today’s hero*ines initiatives, add value to their causes and involve experts. Results get storified, published and can get built upon. Good badges are more than a piece of proof for a past, closed, inaccessible activity. YL Badges are charged with dynamic potential.
Dynamic YL Badges represent at once …
Each badge is built on a real hero*ine’s model initiative. Teens or adults have already realized it. This means that others can replicate it, or add to it.
Model solutions fit for boosting or replication are a template and roadmap for action with impact on real lives and land. This makes it a project for use in Experiential Learning.
A badge represents a completed model initiative, and this initiative was led and realized by a human being. This person has knowledge, know-how and the right spirit to implement this project. This person can speak of the initiative, and this person can guide others to do like them. Potentially, this person is accessible as speaker or coach. Also you, as you earn a badge, you develop valuable knowledge and skills, and you can be a speaker and coach for others. The more missions you accomplish, the more wisdom you have to pass on. And it shows in the number and type of badges on your profile! It helps you show your competencies and services. It helps us and others find you.
Each badge stands for an implemented model initiative, a solution to heal lives and land, well documented in vivid photos (by the hero*ine), a valuable roadmap for others, a hero*ine protagonist to interview on adventures and anecdotes, to learn from and connect with as speaker, coach or project partner. This is all that journalists need to create epic stories, films, radio- and talkshows. That’s why we have YL Badgers create StoryMaps, add those to our Map, recommend sharing them with YL Magazine, social and news media, and invite adults, teachers and journalists to serve themselves on our Stories Map.
Badges embody projects completed in the past – and as model solutions and roadmaps for impactful action, even supported by coaches, further charged with bonus value for Badge issuers (offering compelling project opportunities) and youth leaders (earning a badge for their CV) – badges also energize future action.
Badges add high value to our holistic work on youth leadership and education.
Objective
Missions / Badges provide a concrete target, sense of completion and reason for celebration
'Bonus' Reward
We act out of unconditional love to uplift others, and enjoy benefits of fun, adventure and skills. Still, badges add welcome value for the Badger’s personal life challenges: school and professional paths
Incentive
We gain recognition, support and opportunity to ally with stakeholders who care for quality education, youth skills and workforce development
Profile
Badges, credits and levels help us see our tribe’s members’ experience, skills and theme focus at a glance
Connector
Badges are charged with data connecting changemakers, Badgers, Boosters, allies and the greater public
PEARL
The PEARL framework for Experiential Learning (EL) project experiences and badges developed by our multi-award winning partner, the Experiential Learning Network at University of Buffalo (New York State’s flagship university) and scaled to all 64 SUNY universities and colleges (State University of New York) provides perfect guidance and educational lens for “youth-led better world projects” to get used and credited in K-12, vocational, higher education, adult education and workforce development. It is built around a 5-step sequence in service to support positive evolution for humanity and Earth:
P repare _ research
E ngage _ converse with stakeholders involved
A dd Value _ evoke in/tangible impact on lives and/or land
R eflect _ what worked, what didn’t, what did you learn?
L everage _ what can be done next, building on this foundation?
Complementary, students vividly document their experience on multi-media Story Maps integrated in the badge and our Project-Planet.earth Map.
You can do this
With YL, you can badgify your own past, current and future projects – to use with your CV.
You can develop your own EL project opportunities and badges with this 5-step PEARL framework.
As a student, teacher, citizen, institution, organization … – you can offer youth and peers opportunity to earn EL badges with self-designed projects. For example, as a youth-led charitable initiative on campus, you can invite fellow students to add value to your initiative by creating a film, artistic design, an event, and other. They own this project, while you give them a platform to wield their skills with impact for an eco-socially relevant venture.
Our global ‘Federation’ offering High Impact Badges
In order to nurture a global culture of Youth Leadership and Experiential Learning at schools and beyond,
- we offer our YL Badges sourced from our hero*ine partners and YL programs
- we encourage stakeholders globally to define and offer badges to add to our Map
These stakeholders include youth leaders, changemakers, organizations, institutions, cities, companies, and, why not, “celebrities”.
A magic wand
In itself, badges are no magic wand improving education, skills, learning and professional journeys.
Charged with compelling vision, relevant impact, exciting activities and uplifting experiences, badges can be magic wands for inspired student engagement and quality experiences. Our missions provide all of it. Still, you need to wield the wand properly.
A seal of quality and trust
In itself, badges are no proof of awesomeness. Like degrees can get bought and AI composes divine self-descriptions and letters of application, it is difficult to know what really went into a badge. Maybe just a multiple choice online course?
Designed by high quality standards, badges can have high value for CVs.
Our missions built on teen hero*ines’ model initiatives make meaningful, truly relevant activities. PEARL adds high quality process and learning experience. Our future Dynamic & Gaming Maps will add further data on impacts and ripple effects to YL Badges. YL stands for high quality spirit and purpose – we don’t give out badges out of compassion; they get earned for real impact.
More reasons for YL Badges
Missions
Mission based activism is extremely useful for youth leadership at school and in general. It gives concrete goals, achievable targets for rapid impact and cause for celebration. That’s great for motivation, involving people and making news. But it also permits to let go, detach, move on … this is mighty important in a world where many causes and suffering are so enormous one might feel guilty about “not helping those people more”, especially when it comes to boss battles in crisis regions, ecosystem restoration etc. But with YL, letting go of one cause means taking on another. And that has majestic consequences. Read on:
While our Hero*ines have generated massive impact through single cause focus over years, and thereby broken new ground and established the paradigm of youth power, our vast majority of young Warriors is of different type – tending to act on a multitude of diverse causes. Maybe for the fun aspect, that’s fine. This multi-cause focus is precisely what this era needs : it generates
- year-round fireworks of action
- tons of impact on lots of things that need doing, near and far, for humans, animals, plants and the Land
- countless vivid photos and stories
- countless opportunities for people to participate and launch own initiatives following your example
- experiences as warrior, healer, planter, siren, charity champ, chef, wonder, artist, builder, animal angel, adventurer, storyteller
This leads to
- countless skills to share with others, also as speaker and coach
- dozens of badges for CVs of awesome; YL Warriors can earn up to 300 badges and ascend 100 levels by age 18
- ability to organize cross-disciplinary and cross-sectorial action
That makes a new, unprecedented super species of changemakers aka Able Active Caring Citizens and – drumroll – future good governors! Yo, pure epic. So #bemoreawesome and throw yourself into missions, gain badges and veritable superpowers!
Profile
Your YL Warrior Levels, Badges, Credits and Shirts gained help us better understand you. At a glance, we can see particular interest, talent, impact, experience, region and pace. We can also search the Map and Tribe by Badges / Warriors – for example for those with focus on water, or media, or charity champs – to hear, learn, team up for projects, to report, invite them on the Hero Show, to events, trainings, camps …
Opening paths
Yes, we want to help open our angels’, elves’ and beautiful beasts’ paths into society and the world, so that obligations around survival and expectations do not dim their spirit and limit their spectacular performance as changemaker rockstars. And – listen up – we want our hero*ines countless skills to get noticed and recognized by conventional society – by universities, enterprises and organizations – as they see dozens of high impact Badges in CVs speaking of impact, skills, experience and spirit unlike anything they’ve seen from anyone else. As our Warriors’ stories appear in news media and YOUTH-LEADER gets known as worldclass brand for high impact youth leadership, employers will respond accordingly. “Warrior Level 70. wow. We feel honored that you have chosen to join us. What would you like to work on?” Let’s get there.
Party!
Badges are also reason for celebration of your achievements, new adventures and awesomeness. Hi5! At season’s end and our annual Tribal Gathering, we will also honor outstanding performances, hand out Honor shirts and more.
Gamefulness
Badges and missions make us think of gaming, and that’s perfect, because we feel and perform best in good lightful mood. There is no need to feel suffering and empathise with people’s suffering once we have started doing what needs doing, and live changemaking as sport and lifestyle. Feeling the pain in the world is only the signal to act, and as you know most people don’t even act on it. So don’t feel ashamed of your merry heart and dancing feet – it is the way (think of Legolas at Minis Tirith and Krishna on his chariot) – and don’t let any “oh, it’s all so serious” but failing doom and gloomers dare pull you down. The divine child never quits Paradise state aka peace, love, joy aka the Divine Light dissolving demons and darkness. “Light is more powerful than shadows.” “And to you, Frodo, if give the light of our beloved star, Aerendil. May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.”
Feel of epic
We know it from Girl Scout vests – badges rock – and with YL’s #BeMoreAwesome, we also have badges, buttons and patches. Because it’s fun.
Artefacts
Badges on our mirror or wall are daily reminders of our virtuous hero*ine self, accomplishments, skills, vision, sense of purpose, mission on Earth, what family we are part of, and our global Tribe of like-hearted lovely folks to be with! They are charged with spirit with what’s dearest to our Heart … like our Patronus … and that is mighty sacred!
Signal
Our secret society all over Earth will recognize another in the streets … and we always know that’s one we have spirit in common with, like meeting Harry Potter fans 🙂 … but, for real.