About us

Building bridges in youth development and cultural understanding

How do we work?

Klamath Basin Youth Without Borders started in 2005 with the intent of expanding the borders of high school students education beyond the classroom in Klamath Falls. We strive to encourage travel abroad with the intention of helping low income families in developing countries.

Our Mission: KBYWB fosters cultural understanding, acceptance and respect between our youth and aid recipients by providing opportunity to serve abroad. Our goal is to partner with the community in service projects and youth development.

KBYWB started the Color the Community Projects in 2021, to give low income youth the ability to make a difference in their own community, and help supplement funds for an abroad trip. These projects help keep the work of KBYWB mission focused and result driven while getting youth engaged with their communities.

Color the World Projects:

Color the Community Projects:

Part of our rationale is that we recognize that understanding, acceptance, and respect between cultures both between cultures in Klamath County as well as between countries, can do more than anything else to ensure our long-term safety and to promote stability and prosperity. As stated in our formal mission, we believe the benefits would not only be to the recipients who receive material aid and experience positive youth workforce in action, but of great significance, our youth, while consciously performing a service, would receive a cultural experience which would broaden their horizons in a lasting way.

So far KBYWB has done building projects in Thailand (2007), Brazil (2009), the Dominican Republic (2012), Trinidad (2015), Macedonia (2016) ,Thailand (2017), and Peru (2022).

Living in a rural community can feel like a blessing and a curse. A small community means knowing everyone and always having a helping hand, but can be hindering to learn about other cultures. The Color the Community Projects opens youth up to educational opportunities, while creating relationships with others in their own community. This is a way for students to get involved, and helps with financial opportunities for traveling on our Color the World projects.

Projects completed to date include Klamath Piano Project located inside the tourism center, Mills Neighborhood clean up, painting projects, and the creation of a culture center.