The 2025 “Youth Hub” Regional Revitalization Talent Cultivation Award Scheme, organized by the Youth Development Administration, Ministry of Education （YDA）, is now open for applications. The scheme seeks to recruit local teams that have long established roots locally and care about the community to become Youth Hubs, as well as to support youth’s development locally through public-private collaboration. Any legally registered companies, firms, organizations, or legal entities which representatives have at least 5 years of experience in regional revitalization or community engagement are eligible to apply, and are welcome to submit their proposals online before 12:00pm on December 17, 2024 （Tuesday） to become one of the Youth Hubs in 2025.
Youth Hubs are required to offer at least 42 hours of locally-based courses, train five or more participants in on-site fieldwork, and submit proposals for cross-border collaboration or publication of their achievements, while those selected are eligible to receive up to 1 million TWD in incentives. The program will be expanded for the first time in 2025 to include an “optional project,” whereby selected Youth Hubs may provide some of their time slots free of charge for young people to make use of shared space and resources, as well as to organize youth exchange and small-gathering activities. Eligible applicants will have the opportunity to receive an additional award of up to NT$300,000, which is equivalent to a maximum total award of 1.3 million TWD!
In addition, Youth Hubs need to integrate their experiences of previous local initiatives, devising workshops, experiential exchanges, lectures, and other diversified forms of “locally-based courses” to guide young people between the ages of 15-35 to understand how to engage in their communities, get acquainted with local affairs, learn knowledge and skills about local areas, and build up the basic concepts of local action and regional revitalization. For example, the locally-based courses offered by Goldfish Space in Toucheng, Yilan, during the Youth Hub’s tenure were designed from the experience gained from organizing the Toucheng Art Fest, which has already been held for nine years. These courses focused on linking local cultures and tapping into the charm of the town’s unique features, thus enabling young students to systematically and gradually acquire knowledge of the local area of Toucheng and skills of local entrepreneurship.
Furthermore, Youth Hubs need to arrange at least 20 days of on-site practical work for young people between the ages of 18 and 35 and provide at least NT$20,000 in incentives for young people to accumulate experience in community activities through immersive hands-on work under the guidance of mentors, and ultimately put forward a Dream Idea proposal and implement it locally. For example, the Le Ballon Rouge Bookstore in Hengchun, the southernmost township in Taiwan, is not only the southernmost independent bookstore in Taiwan, but has also been recognized by readers and tourists as “Hengchun’s living room,” and has attracted coverage by major media agencies. Le Ballon Rouge served as a Youth Hub in 2024, planning and providing on-site training programs on food and agriculture issues, tourism, and environmental conservation to promote cooperation between youth and local communities, and to facilitate the balanced development of local industries from a sustainability perspective.
The final selection process of the award scheme is expected to take place in mid-January 2025. Youth Hubs for 2025 will be selected based on the maturity of participating organizations, the feasibility of their projects, and the potential for regional revitalization. The YDA looks forward to encouraging more young people to join regional revitalization and become a key force in driving the sustainable development of their localities through the program! Interested applicants can submit their proposals at the official website of the scheme （https://changemaker.yda.gov.tw/Gather/Apply）.
▲Promotional Image for the call for entries of the 2025 “Youth Hub” Regional Revitalization Talent Cultivation Award Scheme
▲2024 Youth Hub – Le Ballon Rouge, instructor vividly described Hengchun’s marine resources.
▲2024 Youth Hub – Goldfish Space （Yilan Lane Co., Ltd,） trainees conducted field visits to local stores.