YAKA

YAKA

YES Akademia (“YAKA”) combines cross-cultural exchange, community development and youth empowerment, supporting young people aged 15–35, primarily from underserved or rural backgrounds. Each year, YAKA engages around 500 participants across Paris, its suburbs, wider regions of France, and through international partnerships, helping them develop civic and social entrepreneurship projects.
Its flagship programmes, IMPOWER and Press Start, run from two weeks to 18 months (100–500 hours), blending entrepreneurial and skills-based workshops, mentoring and field visits (both local and international, including India, Senegal and Tunisia). These experiences equip participants with practical skills and key competencies such as leadership, critical thinking, public speaking, and non-violent communication, while building confidence and encouraging further education, entrepreneurship, or personal initiatives.
YAKA also contributes to local communities, and has created three intergenerational centres in public housing in the Paris suburbs, one of which it continues to manage.
The Comgest Foundation’s 2024-2025 grant contributed to IMPOWER, PRESS START, YAMA, INTER’ACTION and SWITCH 6, supporting both programme delivery and the development of YAKA’s permanent team structure.

Main indicators of impact include:
1) IMPOWER: 22 French participants (“lauréats”) completed 350 hours of training over 18 months, including a 26-day solidarity immersion in Mbayene, Senegal, bringing together 33 French and Senegalese lauréats. They delivered: two local community projects and organised two Youth Forums in Mbayene and Dakar on culture and empowerment, with 150 attendees.
2) PRESS START: Social entrepreneurship programme included 20 lauréats from France, Tunisia, Belgium and Italy, with one week in Paris and one week in Nabeul, Tunisia, including visits to social incubators Station F and Excelity Lab, followed by 12 months of mentoring support for participants.
3) YAMA: A 2-week intercultural immersion at a French eco-village for 33 participants aged 16 to 32, including refugees and asylum seekers, representing 12 nationalities from France, Belgium, Germany and Spain.
4) INTER’ACTION: Creative, social and intergenerational workshops and community-building activities at a social residence in Montesson, Île-de-France, engaging more than 150 people throughout 2025.
5) YAKACO: A pilot project connecting 15 lauréats from Île-de-France and Marseille through 4 hybrid entrepreneurial workshops, totaling 20 hours.