Chai, Charcha and Change

PDF Download the programme information in Hindi [PDF]

What is Commutiny

Commutiny is a year-long fellowship programme offered by The Youth Collective to support young people strengthen their passion for creating a better world, ignite change within their own selves and lead social change on their own terms.

As a Commutiny Fellow, young people will gain platforms to question, understand and explore complex social issues and analyse their effects on human and natural worlds. They will gain opportunities to work closely with other young people who have similar passions and be navigated by leaders in the social sector and other fields.

Communtiny Fellows will also avail of a year-long financial support (between May 2008 and April 2009) to implement a social change initiative that they are passionate about.

The Youth Collective this year will select 33-40 fellows, who will undertake the Commutiny journey over one year.

The Collective is encouraging young people who have already been making a difference in their communities and young people/youth groups with ideas of change initiatives that address issues of particular concern to the young to apply.

Who can apply

A: YOUNG PERSONS between ages 20-27,

B: YOUTH GROUPS (where members are between 20-27 years of age), which are already making a contribution towards social, environmental and development problems and issues that face their communities, their country or the wider world.

C WORKING PEOPLE between 20 and 27 years, who have been nominated by the voluntary organisations where they are working.

All applicants must have:

The Commutiny Journey

Application and selection

  1. To be a part of the Commutiny journey, please fill the application form and submit it to us by December 15, 2007.
  2. We will review your application and select you for a telephonic interview.
  3. We will further invite you for a face to face interview. Once you clear the above phases, we will select you as a COMMUTINY FELLOW. As a Commutiny Fellow, you will receive a monthly living and learning stipend between May 2008 and April 2009.

>> The journey begins
January 2008 to April 2008

An experiential event
As a Commutiny Fellow, we will invite you to an experiential event between February 4–8, 2008. This event will consist of workshops on building leadership skills, discussions on social issues, spaces to share personal passions and ideas for change, and a scope to transform a ‘social change idea’ into a ‘social initiative’.

Preparation for the journey
Based on your ‘social initiative’, you will prepare yourself to undertake the year-long journey.

>> The fellowship journey
May 2008 to January 2009

A learning exposure
You will intern in a voluntary organization for a period of 3 months. Here you will gain a deeper understanding of the issue that you have chosen to address through your initiative and experience how such issues are worked upon on the ground.

A unique gathering
With your experiences, learnings and improved ideas, you will meet the other fellows and us after the 3 months. You will share your sharpened initiative, work more with us to finalise its design. You will submit your completed design of the social change initiative in the form of a proposal.

Self-directed action
You will implement your initiative for a period of 6 months. In this phase you will keep us informed about your progress and successes, and we will support you in ways we mutually agree upon.

Submission of project
At the end of the 6 months, you will submit the work you did as a Commutiny fellow. This could be a report, an art-work, a campaign design, a document, a film/video – anything that will add to the resource pool that we will build to help future Commutiny fellows to learn from or adopt to work further on.

>> The journey continues
February 2009 to April 2009

Exploring the future
You will join the members of The Youth Collective to work on ways to further promote youth development and youth action.

The Commutiny Festival
You will work with the other Commutiny fellows to organize a youth event to inspire more young people to take up social change initiatives such as yours.

Application steps

PDF Application Form in English [PDF]

MS Word Application Form in English [MS Word]

PDF Application Form in Hindi [PDF]

MS Word Application Form in Hindi [MS Word]

Application Deadline extended to 15 December 2007

  1. Please fill the application form.
  2. E-mail the form back to applications@commutiny.in or send by post/courier to Durba Ghose, C/o Pravah, C-24B, 2nd Floor, Kalkaji, New Delhi 110019 by 15 December 2007.
  3. We will review your application and if it is suitable, we will call you for a telephonic interview by December 18, 2007. Please note that we will only contact selected applicants.
  4. We will next invite the selected applicants for a face to face meeting. We will reimburse your travel cost if needed.
  5. If successful in the interview, you will be awarded the COMMUTINY FELLOWSHIP for a period of 1 year.

About The Youth Collective

The Youth Collective is a group of progressive and like minded individuals/organisations who have a passion and belief in the power of young people to bring about social change. As a group we wish to make sure that young people question and explore complex issues in the human and natural worlds in different ways, and act to bring about a positive change. For this, we are working at:

The members of The Youth Collective are:

The Youth Collective member profiles. Durba Ghose is the Process Facilitator.

All the best with your application.

Contact Us

For further queries, you can contact applications@commutiny.in
Or contact Durba Ghose / Ashraf Patel at Pravah, 2nd Floor, C-24B, Kalkaji, New Delhi 110019
Tel: +91-11-26213918/26440619/26291354