Who we are
Social Shapes Foundation, a non-profit entity, has been registered as a section 8 company since 2018. Our mission is to shape communities that nurture rural youth’s ability to fulfil their aspirations, placing youth at the forefront of change and development.
Our vision is to enable an honest and equal chance for every young individual to succeed and shape their future.
Our Values
Human-centric problem solving
We design for effective, long-term and inter-generational impact
Build trusting relationships
We provide accurate and timely support to our constituents
Leverage technology
We create evidence-based efficient operational practices
Problem we are solving
Youth in villages have the potential to be ambassadors of change for their communities, but face multiple barriers that impede their growth. They struggle in school and to find productive livelihood opportunities in the 21st century world of work.
a. Limited jobs and careers witnessed in the proximity
b. Poor self-awareness about skills and abilities
c. Low parent aspiration and engagement
d. Gender and social identity biases
a. Lack of sources of credible and timely information about available opportunities and training avenues
b. Poor digital access and literacy
c. Poor social and financial capital
a. Lack of counselling or mentoring opportunities, and relatable role models
b. Deficiency of information and training material in vernacular
c. Absent productive support systems for life / co-curricular skills
d. Gaps in industry-relevant skill training in proximity
Aspirations in the Context of Indian youth
In India, approximately 200 million 10-24-year-olds are at risk of unemployment / under-employment as much due to lack of ability to access opportunities as may be due to limited options. Pushing rural youth into the career/profession “not fully understood or preferred” is not the way to go. It’s high time we take the youngsters on a journey where, based on their capability, personality type, and socio-economic profile, they can identify and understand what career and/or employment options are good for them and where they would like to be in the future.
Increasingly the education and skill development policies in the country are focusing on building 21st century skills early on, many aspects of which are out of context for rural youth, setting them up to fall behind, unless they receive appropriate extra-curricular guidance and support. The program provides much needed catalytic support to education and skilling interventions, making them truly accessible and relevant for rural children and youth.
Our approach
To achieve this mission we partner with grassroots organizations in our intervention states to implement our programs in a manner that there is:
- Shared ownership of the programs and outcomes by making them community driven, employing local people, resources and techniques to drive change
- Systemic and sustainable operations design leveraging technology based on context and on-ground evidence for efficient implementation at scale
- Foundational solutions to problems with programs addressing issues at fundamental and behavioural level for effective, long-term and inter-generational impact
Our Team
Management & Governance
Prachi Agarwal
Siddharth Gupta
Program Design Team
Suchaita Tenetti
Kritika Sen
Program Implementation Team
Barsharani Dash
Tusharkanta Padhan
Athar Hussain
Village Youth Cadre
A specially recruited cadre of youth volunteers from the intervention villages support the program implementation, with the objective of better community outreach and sustainable impact.
Non-Executive Advisors
Zeeshan Ali
