Global Youth Service Day

The theme for National Youth Day 2024 is “Arise, Awake, and Realise the Power You Hold. The celebration provides an opportunity for educating young people about social consciousness, leadership, and responsibility through a variety of talks, events, and cultural events.

Teachers: Visit the free MY HERO Lesson Plan for Global Youth Service Day featuring youth heroes. Includes discussion guide and learning outcomes.

Environmental activist Slater Jewel-Kemker began her journey as a MY HERO Youth Reporter. She has dedicated over a decade documenting the work of brave youth from around the world for her feature documentary, "Youth Unstoppable."

Slater Unstoppable

Produced by:MY HERO

Slater's commitment to the global youth climate movement is truly inspiring. Slater Jewell Kemker is a Director, Activist and change maker.

Film

60 Sec Docs with Jahkil Jackson

By: 60 Sec docs

Jahkil Jackson from Chicago is the founder of Project I Am, an organization raising awareness about homelessness.

Green SuperHeroes 2030 Trailer

By: Los Angeles Barea

A group of 10 young environmentalists changing the world for the better. Their powers make the planet greener.

MABON ‘The 8 year old activist’

Jack Davies

Our world has a serious ocean plastics problem. There are now a higher number of plastics in the ocean than the number of fish.

Interview with Youth Activist Sophie Healy-Thow

Kitty Richardson

Words Have Power

Produced by:Lynne Cherry

10-year-old Jaysa rallies the community with her speeches about how the power plant causes asthma and “so much suffering.” When they succeed in shutting down the plant, Jaysa concludes that “words have power.”

Wear a Mask Hamilton Parody #STOPTHESPREAD

Angelina Pendleton-Mendez & Leila Woodward

A reminder to wear a mask and help stop the spread of COVID-19.

Olivia's Birds and the Oil Spill

Producer: Lynne Cherry

Young Olivia loves birds, and creates over 500 paintings of her feathered friends to raise funds for Audubon's bird rescue.

Matagi Mālohi: Strong Winds

Forest Woodward, Canyon Woodward, Aidan Haley

We need to be the strong winds, that Matagi Mālohi, that bring the change our people need to see.

Alex Epstein: The Power of Volunteering

Producer: The Institute for Advancing Unity/The Working Group

A young man becomes an activist when his fellow citizens suffer from a national disaster.

Stories

Daniel Goldberg

By: MY HERO Staff

Daniel Goldberg, a Santa Barbara teen, created "Zoomers to Boomers" a collection of Gen Z shoppers who bring groceries to the Boomer generation during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Greta Thunberg

By: MY HERO Staff

On the first day, Greta Thunberg, a climate activist with Asperger's, protested outside of Swedish Parliament alone. Now, she's leading 1.5 million students globally.

Trash Heroes

By: Elias Amador

Trash Heroes is an international, volunteer-led organization that mobilizes youth in over 12 countries to clean and prevent plastic waste in their communities.

William Kamkwamba

By: Dorothy Lie

William Kamkwamba is a Malawian engineer, TED speaker, and memoirist who, at 14, built his first windmill from junkyard scraps to help his struggling family farm.

Listen & Read Along

Ryan Hreljac

By: Wendy Jewell

Ryan Hreljac helps build wells for clean water in Africa.

Art

Together and United (a portrait of Greta Thunberg)

By: Deysha Cumba

Greta Thunberg is a Swedish climate activist.

March for Our Lives Posters

By: Adobe Project 1324 and The Amplifier Foundation

March for Our Lives Posters commissioned by Adobe 1324 and the Amplifier Foundation

Tyra Hemans

By: Mariam Tehari, Boys & Girls Club Laguna Beach

Tyra Hemans, advocate for The March For Our Lives

Cameron Kasky

By: Logan Hirte

A voice from March for Our Lives inspires Logan

Audio

MY HERO Suggested Video

“(I Can’t Keep) Quiet” (2017) via Choir! Choir! Choir!

In the face of adversity, MILCK refuses to be silent. The Los Angeles-based singer went viral at the Washington Women’s March with her song “(I Can’t Keep) Quiet.” We loved it. So we invited her to come sing it with us.

On February 6th, a sold-out crowd of 1300 singers at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto raised their voices to protest the current US administration’s threatening action on global liberty, women’s rights, healthcare etc. Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman, co-founders of C!C!C!, taught their arrangement of “Quiet” to the pumped-up, all-ages crowd, and an hour later, MILCK joined them to sing lead and record a powerful show of peaceful, harmonic resistance, with proceeds going to support the American Civil Liberties Union.

“Quiet” has quickly grown from female empowerment anthem to a unifying message of hope and raucous protest for young and old, and for all genders. Play it, feel it, share it!

#ICantKeepQuiet

Directed by Byron Kent Wong,
Iron Bay Films

milckmusic.com
choirchoirchoir.com

MY HERO Suggested Video

"The Greta generation - youth activism around the world" (2019) by BBC Monitoring

Meet some of the young activists around the world using social media to make a difference.
Presenter: Nicola Morrison
Video editor: Shreyas Reddy

MY HERO Suggested Video

"Young Activists on Why They March | Teen Vogue" (2016) by Teen Vogue

Emma Gonzalez, Jaclyn Corin, Sarah Chadwick and Nza-Ari Khepra are part of the surge of young activists building a new movement to denounce gun violence and call for safety in all of our communities. And this is why they march.