YouTube funds videos to inspire worldwide positive change 

The reinvestment was announced at its Creators for Change Summit held last week in Oval Space, London. Over a hundred YouTube creators gathered at the arts venue to celebrate last year’s progress and foster collaboration between leading advocates of social change for the year ahead. 
The investment will include providing production and marketing support for diverse voices who harness the power and scale of YouTube in groundbreaking and positive ways, said Juniper Downs, global director of public policy for YouTube, in an interview with The Nation. 
“We will engage more creators in the program, arm the wider YouTube community with new tools and education on how to create change, and empower more young people to use their voices to encourage positive social messages,” Downs added in a company blog post. 
YouTube Creators for Change is a global initiative that supports creators tackling social issues and promoting awareness, tolerance and empathy on their YouTube channels. 
 “Video is a powerful medium to open minds to new perspectives and shared experiences. Creators prove that to us every single day,” said Downs. “And we think Creators for Change this year will reach and inspire even bigger audiences.”
For Downs, the word “change” means participating in, and helping to create, the world we want by having an impact on important social issues. At the summit, Downs took to the stage to tell participants that at YouTube, they believe that everyone deserves to have a voice, and that the world is a better place when we listen, share and build community through our stories. 
YouTube Creators for Change is a critical part of our mission to facilitate understanding and empathy by combating messages of hate, xenophobia and extremism online, she said.
Downs quoted Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, the founder and editor-in-chief of Muslim Girl, a platform for Muslim women’s voices in the West, and one of last year’s “fellows” from the United States. 
“In a moment of competing headlines and harmful misrepresentation of people different than us, this programme is a reminder that none of us are voiceless.” Al-Khatahtbeh said in 2017. “Our stories deserve to be told, and anyone has the power to hit ‘record’.” 
Downs added that 2017 was a difficult year as people were increasingly divided about the kind of world they wanted and how we would go about creating it. 
Also, she said, 2017 was the hardest year in YouTube history in term of the kind of content they saw. That’s why the social video channel invests in people and technologies need to enforce standards, she added. 
The company said that in coming months it would announce the global recipients of the production grants for this year.  Since YouTube launched its Creators for Change programme in September 2016, the American video-sharing website has partnered with 39 inspiring creators from around the world, helping amplify their voices to counter hate and promote tolerance. 
Last year, YouTube chose 11 ambassadors from 10 different countries as the faces of the programme. Those ambassadors helped them to identify 28 fellows from around the world and then helped mentor and support them to become a change leader on YouTube.
Over the last year, those creators, each of whom was given a financial grant, have released dozens of thought-provoking videos that show the power of video to encourage empathy and understanding.
Downs said her company has been very happy with the first year of the programme. 
In 2017, total views of YouTube Creators for Change videos broke 60 million, and 731,000 total hours were spent watching them.
Most importantly, Downs saw a growth in the number of people who wanted to be a part of the initiative. 
“From what we see here [in this year summit] these creators are so inspiring, and wanted to make video themselves and see what good they could do with their voices,” she said. 
Creators for Change collaborated with social impact organisations and experts in Australia, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, France and Belgium. 
Among ambassador last year, Downs gave particular credit to YouTube Creators for Change ambassador Humza Arshad. 
Arshad is a British and Pakistani YouTube comedian based in the UK. Widely known for his “Diary of a Badman” series on YouTube, Arshad also uses his self-deprecating comedy to tackle difficult issues like extremism and gang violence.
Creators for Change, has educated over 15,000 young people in over 200 locations through local grassroots efforts, including workshops and school programs, to take a stand against hate online, Downs told the summit. 
In fact, students surveyed in Germany and the UK reported a significant increase in confidence in their ability to identify and counter hate speech online as a result of the workshops, she said.