RACHIT Sharma

Rachit is a poet, a facilitator, and an obsessive napper. For the past five years, he worked within the full scope of operations at Youth Alliance, currently, he leads Gramya Manthan, organizational Communications, and Team Development Processes. He curates his life experiences along the lines of 'if you keep searching for beauty in the world, you will eventually become it." Rachit spent his early years working with tribal communities and grassroots organizations in remote regions of Mizoram and Chhattisgarh. As a research fellow at the Dignity in Difference Project, he's building the capacity to identify factors, causes, and consequences of hate speech in the South Asian context. His poetry has found a home in several Indian and international literary platforms. When not enamored by poetry, music, and arts you can find him taking a purposeless nap by anything remotely tree-like.

SHASHANK KALRA

Shashank has reverence for nature and the spirit that pervades all. ​In the past decade, ​he has grown from a participant in ​Youth Alliance's first leadership program in 2012 to a volunteer​,​ to a skilled facilitator, and now the CEO. ​H​e ​leads fund-raising, strategy​-building​, compliances, and ecosystem ​networking​. ​​His theatrics, playfulness, and keen inquiries awaken possibilities in people and collectives.​ ​Shashank is an Acumen Fellow, a Bhoomi Senior Fellow, and a Youth Visionary Awardee of the Global Peace Initiative of Women. ​​​He holds the gifts of being grounded and articulate on one hand and innocent, child-like on the other. He enjoys curious conversations with people and ideas, apart from enjoying napping when it gets too much to handle. Right now, living in Rudrapur he is rooting himself in local work and also building foundations for a nationwide movement.

Shipra

Shipra's drive for change in the 'business-as-usual' state of the world started with her engagements in Robin Hood Armyand Fridays For Future-Delhi. She finds value in the 'alternative'- in thought and practice, that something different from the conventional way exists, and hopes to engage with it more intentionally.

A postgraduate from Azim Premji University, her interests range from facilitating and co-creating inclusive spaces of wholeness to thoughtfully working at the intersection of food security and climate change. While she has explored a bit of the latter through her field engagements in Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Odisha, she is exploring the former by being the Program Associate at Youth Alliance. Shipra likes to productively procrastinate by cooking large meals, loves to trek & make travel itineraries for friends, gets excited at moonrises & lies down anywhere and everywhere to stargaze.

Vibhuti

Vibhuti is a campaigner of the wisdom of playfulness. The journey of Youth Alliance and her own started almost at the same time when she was a student at Lady Shri Ram College. Her questions about the current development paradigms inspired her to co-create Earth-Shastra, a program that she currently leads, along with unconditional support to alumni, team development, and ecosystem work. Vibhuti is a former Teach for India fellow, who continued her commitment to education through her work at Sri Ram Ashram, Haridwar, and Shikshantar, Udaipur. ​She brings the perspective of body wisdom and uses various arts-based modalities in facilitation through her training in Interplay and Clowning. A trained leader at Interplay, she facilities various editions of ​Yes! Jams, Learning Societies unConference among others. ​After more than a decade of her work in social change, she has recently shifted to a small city in Uttarakhand to dedicate her time and skills to bringing about a change at a local level.

AArti Jain

Aarti's conviction in alternatives over mainstream brought her to Youth Alliance. She currently is the engagement lead in the organization. Aarti's curiosity lies in unraveling the gifts and conflicts of collective leadership. A former Teach For India fellow, she worked as an assistant school leader and later as a program manager at Nalanda Project to bring systemic change in the realm of education. Aarti is a committed team player who wings quick ideas on her feet. She values the feminine form of leadership and intends to preserve it. Aarti is someone who doesn't shy away from expressing an opposing opinion in the sea of homogeneity. A true-blue Indori at heart, Aarti carries/finds her Indori poha (and none other) and a glass of kadak chai wherever she goes.

SUNIDHI SINHA

Sunidhi is a facilitator, Expressive Arts Therapy Practioner and art lover. She has worked with various communities using art as a medium for inner transformation through group therapy. Her experience ranges from program design, management and implementation. She is passionate towards creating safe spaces that encourage people to tap into their braveness and become agents of change for their community. She's currently working as a Program Lead with Youth Alliance, where she gets the opportunity to bring her passion and experience on the same page. Apart from this, she prefers to spend her time soaking the sun, looking at flowers and finding opportunities to play and enjoy the simple pleasures of life.

ADITI BHATIA

Aditi goes through life aww-ing over almost everything, be it a kid, a dog, the moon, or a cute unexpected gift from a friend. After spending some time auditing private equity accounts, she joined Youth Alliance in the capacity of a Program Associate, to ground herself more in the art of empathetic listening and holding spaces for her fellow beings. She is quite fascinated by how "change" comes into picture, and almost always remains in for deep digging into human behavior and the mystery of existence. Grateful to discover the power of and her love for dancing, she goes gaga over free self expression, nature, poetry, hugs, music, books- anything that brings her closer to feeling alive. Lately, she seems to drown in seas of various kinds, trying to stay afloat while wholeheartedly believing in "Dum Spiro Spero". She adores a cup of chai, appropriate jokes and some restfulness..