There’s a version of “impact” that exists mostly in pitch decks and Instagram posts: big words, big problems, no logistics.
I’m not interested in that version anymore.
This post is about what I learned running and supporting youth‑ and climate‑related projects like DiliSprouts, LCOY Armenia, and UNICEF‑linked initiatives like #SadiSiDoma and climateedu.mk—and how working inside real constraints changed the way I think about building anything.
The fantasy: “We’ll just inspire people”
When you’re young and angry at how the world works, it’s easy to believe that:
- If the story is strong enough, structures will appear.
- If you care enough, money will come.
- If the cause is noble, people will automatically follow through.
Reality: inspiration without logistics dies quickly.
You can get people excited in a room or a Zoom call. But if there’s no clear next action, no budget, no roles, no accountability, the energy evaporates. I’ve watched it happen. I’ve contributed to it happening.
Working on climate and youth projects forced me to grow out of that fantasy.
DiliSprouts: starting with hunger, not hashtags
DiliSprouts began with something simple and brutal: kids going to school hungry in Tavush, Armenia.
We didn’t start with a manifesto. We started with empathy interviews:
- Students talking about skipping breakfast because there was no food.
- Kids describing the embarrassment of not being able to buy what classmates were eating.
- Young people explaining how hunger killed their focus and energy.
The idea—school gardens, nutrition curriculum, workshops—had to respond to those realities, not our need to feel like “change‑makers.”
What constraint taught me here:
- You can’t design from your feelings alone. You have to design from other people’s constraints: their time, their energy, their health, their social context.
- Your solution has to fit into school schedules, local climate, available materials, and teacher capacity. If it doesn’t, it’s just a pretty PDF.
We built budgets. We made a materials list in actual prices. We planned days, roles, and follow‑up. It wasn’t perfect, but it was real.
LCOY Armenia: climate conferences with teeth
With LCOY Armenia, the point wasn’t “let’s have another youth event.” It was:
“How do we give young people a serious place in conversations linked to COP and national climate priorities?”
Constraints here:
- Limited time
- Limited budgets
- Limited public attention
- A lot of skepticism about youth being more than decor
Working on communications and socials meant more than just posting graphics. It meant:
- Coordinating messaging so it matched what organizers, speakers, and partners could actually deliver
- Making sure people understood why attending mattered beyond a selfie
- Helping shape a National Youth Statement that wasn’t just symbolic, but connected to ongoing processes
What constraint taught me here:
- You can’t just “raise awareness.” You have to plug awareness into existing structures: statements, policy channels, partner organizations, timelines.
- Adults will take you more seriously when your work respects their constraints too: scheduling, decision processes, institutional rules.
#SadiSiDoma & climateedu.mk: digital projects grounded in real homes and schools
With UNICEF North Macedonia, as a U‑Ambassador and volunteer, I was part of work around:
- #SadiSiDoma / #VolunteersForChildren – young people planting seeds at home to support mental health and eco‑awareness during COVID.
- climateedu.mk – a platform aiming to integrate environmental and climate education into the formal system.
Constraints here:
- Young people didn’t all have the same materials, space, or internet.
- Teachers already had overloaded curricula.
- Families were dealing with stress, finances, and uncertainty.
That meant:
- Designing challenges that could be done with cheap or recycled materials.
- Creating content that was simple enough to try, but structured enough to feel like more than a trend.
- Thinking about long‑term integration into education, not just one‑off campaigns.
What constraint taught me here:
- Real change almost always depends on boring details: who prints materials, who runs the workshop, who follows up, who maintains the garden, who updates the site.
- Digital education projects can’t just live online; they have to respect the constraints of classrooms, devices, and human attention.
What all these projects taught me about building in general
Youth and climate work looks very different from building a brand or a business on the surface, but the underlying lessons are the same:
- Constraint is not the enemy—it’s the shape of reality.
Budgets, time, capacity, culture, politics. If you ignore them, your project fails quietly. If you embrace them, your project becomes sharper. - Real people > imagined users.
Empathy interviews with actual students, teachers, and volunteers revealed things no brainstorm could. Assumptions die fast when you listen properly. - Impact needs infrastructure.
It’s not enough to have a good idea. You need:- Processes
- Roles
- Follow‑up
- Documentation
Otherwise, the project dissolves when the original team leaves.
- Your ego can’t be the core metric.
Being “the founder” or the loudest advocate feels good. But if the work isn’t usable by others when you’re not in the room, it’s not built yet.
How this shapes the way I build now
When I work on anything today—JUSU, Luminatrix, SlayHood, EmrahX, OpenBar—I try to ask:
- Who is this actually for?
- What does their day look like?
- What constraints are they operating under?
- How can this project respect those constraints and still move something forward?
If the answers are vague, I don’t trust the project yet.
Constraint stopped being the thing in my way. It became the design partner that forces me to get real.
If you’re working on your own “impact” idea—youth, climate, social anything—my invitation is:
Before you perfect the story, map the constraints.
Before you post the announcement, list the boring tasks.
Before you call it a movement, make sure someone can actually use it.
Pretty can be added later.
Reality has to come first.
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