Global Kids, founded in 1993, is a New York area charity that uses interactive and experiential methods to educate youth in New York public schools about critical foreign policy issues, and provides students with opportunities for civic and global engagement. The mission is to transform urban youth into successful students and global and community leaders.

The program reaches over 12,600 New York youth and educators each year, and the online programs have reached millions of youth in over 100 countries.

For educators and administrators outside New York City, Global Kids offers training and technical assistance opportunities to offer similar services in their school districts.

For students outside New York City, Global Kids offers various online programs. Global Kids’ Online Leadership Program has developed strong ties with Microsoft, PBS, UNICEF, Time Warner Foundation, Google Grants, and other organizations. Global Kids has also presented its Online Leadership Program to the United Nations and many other well known conferences and forums.

The Online Leadership Program focuses on 4 initiatives:

1) Digital Media Initiative: In cooperation with the MacArthur Foundation, teenagers use online dialogues, virtual worlds, machinima, podcasts, blogs and other venues to provide feedback on the use of digital media in their lives.

2) Gaming: Trains young people to build online games about world issues. A game developed by students, in cooperation with professional game designers, educates players about the obstacles to education faced by children in Haiti.

3) Virtual Worlds: Global Kids has developed programs in the virtual world of Teen Second Life to educate youth on such topics as racism, genocide in Darfur, child trafficking, and the digital divide.

4) Dialogues: Global Kids uses online dialogues to create discussions among young people on world issues.

The High School for Global Citizenship, was also founded in Brooklyn, NY in 2004 to provide students with a well-rounded education with an emphasis on studying international issues.

Information on donating or cooperating with Global Kids can be found on their website.