Youth‑Powered Systems Change
A global youth innovation think tank built on intergenerational collaboration and mentorship — where young people, university fellows, and community leaders co‑create real solutions to the challenges shaping our future.
Guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goals and our HEAL · DREAM · BUILD · LAUNCH framework — because solving big problems requires big imaginations.
We exist to inspire and activate young visionaries to innovate solutions for a better future — treating children and youth not as leaders of tomorrow, but as co‑creators of change today.
For a decade, Dream Tank has been a living proof‑of‑concept: a global movement and innovation accelerator that turns youth imagination into ventures, campaigns, and civic blueprints aligned with the world’s most urgent goals.
Fellowships & Programs
Labs, accelerators, and trauma‑informed programs that carry youth from dream to launch.
Global Partnerships
Cities, universities, and institutions co‑designing change alongside the next generation.
Innovation Fund
Capital and R&D that move youth‑led ideas from prototype into the real world.
Dream Tank 101
The fastest way to understand what we do — and why young people belong at the center of solving the world’s biggest challenges.
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The SDGs, Grouped the Dream Tank Way
We don’t work the seventeen goals as a flat wheel. We cluster them into four human arcs — Surviving, Living, Sustaining, Thriving — with Partnerships at the center holding it all together.
Partnerships for the Goals — the connective tissue
SDG 17 sits at the center of every Dream Tank arc: the multigenerational, cross‑sector collaboration that links all four zones and makes systems change real.
Moments From the Movement
Real rooms, real collaboration — youth, fellows, mentors, and city partners building together.
A Decade of Dreaming, Designing & Launching
From a single question in Boulder to a global model for youth‑powered systems change.
Dream Tank begins with a single question — posed to an impact‑investing advisor on a family‑office panel — that opens an experimental phase in Boulder.
The first Dream Lab launches with youth in Boulder, CO, and the first pitch night is held at Impact Hub Boulder.
The first Fellowship brings university and high‑school students into one cohort — taking on real roles to run Dream Tank and its programs for the first time. Pilots run at Crest View Elementary and Manhattan Middle.
First Accelerators and DreamMakers Playshops take youth from idea to prototype.
Design World. Youth‑led ventures begin tackling SDG challenges — and the student Owl Campaign influences local policy.
Dream Tank receives official 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.
Hacking for Heroes Hackathon and the Youth‑Led No Plastic Campaign launch.
Dream Tank youth take the stage at Davos / World Economic Forum.
NextGEN Innovation Fellowship & Rapid Response Team; the #1BillionYouthMovement, #GoBigFromHome and #ReversePandemic Hackathon; the Reverse Pandemic Inter‑Gen Collective Impact Virtual Summit.
DreamMakers design an SDG VR world for the Burning Man Metaverse; youth delegates join the YOUNGA2020 UN Takeover; Dream The Future 1.0 & Dream Master Training online courses go to beta.
Partnership with the Robert Jones Black Foundation launches Hayden’s Kindness Challenge.
“May the Fourth Be With You” soft‑launch of the virtual headquarters; pivot toward the Accelerator as a global SDG web3 game.
The first annual Brown University Winternship — a two‑week student design sprint — launches a tradition of intergenerational innovation.
Founders NFTs for Island17 created and launched; metaverse DAO structuring and collaborator research.
The second annual Brown University Winternship — a two‑week student design sprint.
Youth podcast prototypes (“Building Dreams for the Future”) and the Playa Puertecito Collaborative — inviting others onto our Boulder‑to‑Baja Initiative.
The third annual Brown University Winternship creates Project Spark — a summer‑camp wellness and innovation program in Baja.
Coral Sunscreen — fiscally sponsored by Dream Tank — raises an R&D grant for a coral‑regenerating sunscreen.
Safe House partnerships expand in Kenya, deepening Dream Tank’s global reach.
The NextGen InnoVision Lab — the fourth annual Brown University Winternship. Students and youth create Lumi, a custom GPT that democratizes access to tools and mentorship (with partners in Kenya), and prototype Dream Tank’s Innovation Fund to back youth‑led solutions.
Global expansion begins in earnest — starting with Safe House Kenya — as Dream Tank lays the groundwork for the Systems Change L.A.B.
The fifth annual Brown University Winternship was already planned when tragedy struck. Rather than push forward, the team stopped and listened — and what emerged was HEAL. Dream Tank’s process evolved from Dream · Design · Launch into Heal · Dream · Build · Launch, built in deep partnership with the PEAC Institute. This became the founding framework for the Systems Change L.A.B. — and launched DreamCast, Dream Tank’s first global broadcast.
The Systems Change L.A.B. launches its founding pilot in Golden, Colorado — in partnership with the City of Golden and Colorado School of Mines — bringing youth, university fellows, and community leaders together to co‑create real Local Action Blueprints.
Young people pitch the future of Golden at the community showcase — covered by the Golden Transcript as “intergenerational problem‑solvers pitch ways to help Golden.”
The PEAC Institute partnership — strong from the beginning — continues to strengthen, bringing relational, equity‑centered methodology and global civil‑society reach.
A Systems Change L.A.B. session with the PEAC Institute brings youth and community voices into peacebuilding — part of the deepening Dream Tank × PEAC partnership.
The Future Is Being Designed Right Now
By the young people who will live in it — and everyone willing to build alongside them.
