IYF - International Youth Foundation (Kazakhstan)

For 30 years, we’ve driven positive youth development around the world. Through our experience and partnerships, we continue to enrich the global understanding of how to connect young people with hope, jobs, and a brighter future. Anchored by our mission, we are constantly deepening our research and bridging new partnerships to innovate and provide scalable, sustainable solutions for the most challenging problems young people face.

Partnered with Chevron, we worked in western Kazakhstan to connect young people with meaningful personal and professional development opportunities.

In Atyrau, the holistic Zangar initiative filled critical gaps for youth in life skills and science, technology, and math (STEM) education. With training relevant to the local job market, participants were prepared to succeed. Mindful of long-term programmatic sustainability, we also led a coalition of local community-based organizations and helped build their capacity to serve vulnerable youth. By empowering young people with the skills to be personally and professional involved in their communities, we also worked to restore important social engagement. From the start, the Zangar initiative was driven by youth and the local community--for example, they voted on the name, which means "mighty" in Kazak