Voice Linking and Learning in the Philippines
the inc. BEGINNING
It was over a decade ago when a group of young career professionals composed of JR Demecais, Yani Alonto, Argie Aguas, Joseph Navarro, Mildred Ople, Joejit Velasquez, and Vince de Guzman would spend their weekends and time outside of their official workplace doing volunteer work for various youth and youth-serving organizations whose advocacies matched their own. But each time they would finish one of these volunteer activities, they yearned for something more because they knew deep down that doing volunteer work individually for other youth organizations
their regular wage-paying jobs to work in a startup. And even so, it again took another three years for YGOAL to become fully operational because it was only in 2016 that the founding members became full-time with the organization. It was a journey froth with struggles and hardships. And in the middle of it all was the fear of failure. Because, just like anybody, they were supporting not just themselves but their families as well. So it was also a story of courage to push forward no matter what. Their daily living was not the only one at stake, but more so their dreams for a better future and nation that can only come about with the collaboration of organizations working towards that goal. Therefore, YGOAL adopted the social enterprise model to achieve its mission to help youth organizations while operating as a consultancy and training company. As a learning organization, they designed YGOAL using a creative, innovative, and collaborative organizational framework, co-creating their programs with their stakeholders and clients focused on personal and organizational growth. This was YGOAL then. But their journey with Voice helped shape what YGOAL came to be, as a grantee of Voice and as Voice Linking and Learning facilitator in the Philippines.
could only achieve so much, that they would only be able to reach a small number of people, and those little projects would not be able to achieve sustainability. Thus, in 2010, the idea of forming an organization to help other youth organizations began. And soon, YGOAL was born. But it still took another three years for the company to be formally registered in 2013 as the core team continued their full-time professional careers with their respective companies, because none of them had mustered enough courage then to give up
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