Chai, Charcha and Change

FAQs

1. What is the Commutiny Fellowship Programme?

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.

Commutiny fellows will avail of exposure, training, and networks of fellow changemakers to implement a social change initiative on any issue that they are passionate about. Communtiny Fellows will also avail of a yearlong living and learning allowance (between May 2008 and April 2009) so that they can implement their project without having to work to earn a living .

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

2. What is 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:

Amrita Patwardhan, Sir Ratan Tata Trust (Mumbai)
Dr. Anita Patil-Deshmukh, PUKAR (Mumbai)
Arjun Shekhar, Pravah (New Delhi)
Ashraf Patel, Pravah (New Delhi)
Avinash Kumar, OXFAM GB (New Delhi)
Dr. Ram Narayan Syag, Samavesh (Bhopal)
Gagan Sethi, Jan Vikas (Ahmedabad)
Meenu Venkateswaran, Pravah (New Delhi)
Mukesh Tiwary, Sir Ratan Tata Trust (Mumbai)
Nanni Singh, Youthreach (New Delhi)
Nayan Patel, Yuvshakti – Janvikas (Ahmedabad)
Rustam Vania, Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology (Bangalore)
Sandip Naik, The Hunger Project (Bhopal)
Vartika Jaini, Sir Ratan Tata Trust (Mumbai)

3. Can you explain what you mean by "FULL TIME" engagement?

If you read the programme information and process (www.commutiny.in), you will realize that this fellowship programme has a strong component of young people coming together to share and learn from each other's experiences and even learning hands on through a 3 month learning exposure with an NGO/ individual/ any other private or public institution working in the area of the fellow's interest. Finally we would like the fellows to become active change agents in society. We are looking for people who are willing to devote a minimum of 1 year full time to this entire process, and be potentially interested in a continued association with the Youth Collective agenda for an extended period of 2-3 years. The engagement beyond the 1st year, need not be full time.

4. I am already working in an organization. Will you consider me for the Fellowship, if I house my project within my organization?

If you are being nominated by your organization, we will consider your application if your organisation is willing to depute you on a Full Time basis for this purpose. For the period of the Fellowship the project you will undertake should be housed outside your organizational space.

5. I will be nominated by my organization. Can I continue to work part time with my organization even while I undertake my project with the Youth Collective?

We respect people's capacities to multi-task and engage with multiple projects, and have multiple identities. The commitment to the Fellowship is full time – and we would expect you to prioritise this as your full time engagement. All other engagements may be voluntary in nature, and undertaken in your personal time.

6. I would like to study along with doing my Fellowship. Will this be possible?

We would encourage you to continue your academic programmes – provided they are not full time in nature and can realistically be done along with your full time project.

7. What do you mean by 'Youth Group'?

Youth groups are informal groups of young people who do a not have a registered legal entity. The nature of such groups should be more in the form of voluntary action groups.

8. I read that 'Youth Groups' can apply for the fellowship, but having gone through the application there doesn't seem to be a specific provision for this. Does the application need to be from an individual or from the entire youth group?

Members of informal youth groups can apply – as individuals. The group can also apply as a whole, but if invited, the group would have to nominate 1 person to participate in the Fellowship programme as a full time member.

9. Can people outside of India apply for this? If an applicant is selected, for how long should he/she be expected to stay in India? Is it for the entire duration? Or just for the initial 3 months period?

At this point, the programme is targetted to people residing in India. Please apply if you are willing to stay in the country for a minimum of 1 year, with the possibility of extending your engagement for 2-3 years. We do not support international travel, and will not be able to make remittances outside India.

10. Please inform us about the amount of fellowship.

The Collective plans to provide a learning and living stipend to each fellow between May 2008 and April 2009, that will enable a young person to implement her/his social initiative without having to earn a living. The stipend will further depend on the project the young person undertakes, where s/he resides for her/his project work and other such criteria.

It is likely that Fellows working in rural areas will receive a relatively higher learning stipend while fellows working in urban areas will receive a relatively higher living stipend. The learning stipend will be determined on the basis of a learning plan, and would be disbursed on actuals. The total stipend amount will vary between Rs. 10-15,000 per month beginning May 2008 till the end of the term.

11. What is the term of the Fellowship

The initial term of the Fellowship is 1 year, with an option to extend it to upto 3 years based on a mutual agreement on the long term engagement.

11. Currently it is only Hindi and English speaking youth who will get an opportunity to work with you. Can you include youth speaking other regional languages?

We are aware of this issue and have debated on the same. We assure you that at the Collective we would have loved to have kept the programme open for all young people. But we have our own limitations and as of now do not have the required language skills amongst us or the required resources to conduct multi-language processes. We really wish we had.

However, people do not need to be excellent in these languages to apply. They just need to be able to communicate comfortably in either Hindi or English.

12. I got a mail from you regarding the COMMUTINY FELLOWSHIP. But the application form says that minimum age criteria is 20 yrs. But I'm 18...so can i still apply?

We do not have the scope to accommodate your application. But please be in touch and log on to www.commutiny.in from time to time so that you get to know of other opportunities for yourself. Commutiny will also make the effort to inform you of other opportunities, as and when they arise.