Ashraf Patel

Ashraf has played a key role in shaping the youth work field for nearly three decades as co-founder of Pravah and ComMutiny - The Youth Collective. She is a passionate advocate of inside-out youth leadership and committed to strengthening youth-centric development and societal wellbeing based on the constitution values. Towards this aim she is currently part of co-creating the vartaLeap Coalition in her volunteering capacity. This is  a cross-sectoral community with 180 leading organisations, youth work practitioners, policymakers and key stakeholders who are working together to scale with soul, the mission ‘Every Youth a Jagrik, Every Space Nurturing Jagriks’ (Jagrik being a self-awakened, active citizen).
 
Ashraf is committed to coalition building and collectivisation.  She is the co-founder Commonwealth Alliance of Youth Worker Association (CAYWA) and in the past has been part of steering groups of a number of collectives including WNTA, Vikalp Sangam, Catalyst 2030 and International Forum for Volunteering Development. With Vyaktitva she is contributing to the OD and culture portfolio specifically with development organisations and collectives. She is also Guest faculty at ISDM offering a course called Par-us-Par, Spurring Collectivisation: Nurturing Alliances, Networks and Coalitions.
 
A graduate in Physics from Delhi University and a postgraduate in PM&IR from XLRI, Jamshedpur, Ashraf began her professional life in HR and Organisation Development in the corporate sector before shifting to the field of adolescent and youth development.  She is an Ashoka Fellow (1997), a Jubilant Bhartia Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award (SEOY) Awardee (2020), and a Schwab social entrepreneur (2021). A certified MBTI facilitator, she was also part of the Harvard Executive Education program on Leadership for System Change(2023) and has co-authored a number of learning resources and a field resource book 'Ocean in a Drop – Inside Out Youth Leadership' (Sage 2013).