Our dream
Let’s Change How We
Impact the World
Join a Town was founded in 2017 by a group of young Colombians living in Paris. We identified the need and relevance to support social development in emerging countries. The reality was, we lacked the means to have a direct impact, but we had expertise in entrepreneurship, social impact, and project management. In consequence, our idea evolved into an ecosystem where we were able to put this know-how on service of others.
”I'm aware of the immense social gap that exists in my country and all around the world, but I'm also a witness of the great achievements we've obtained as a global community when we'd worked together. I work to give people the opportunity to achieve a greater impact.
Juan Felipe MesaCEO & Co-founder, Join a Town
OUR VALUES
The base of every successful relationship is trust, within this ecosystem every taken decision, executed action, and achieved impact must be shared.
COMMITMENT
Realities won't be transformed easily. We need continuity, constancy, and adaptability in order to achieve our objectives.
SUSTAINABILITY
The global population and the environment are in need of pertinent projects that last in time. Projects that are able to be adapted and replicated.
WHAT WE DO
01. Accompaniment
From the identification of the problematic, through the execution, until the iteration of the project, Join a Town is prepared to give not only financial support but also guidance in project management, communication strategies, innovation processes, among others.
02. Visibility
In the first instance, Join a Town’s platform showcase real-world problems creating awareness of the realities lived by vulnerable populations. Second, this platform is the perfect space to share change-makers actions and the impact they are having around the world.
03. Impact Tracking
Join a Town tracks the impact each project is having among communities. This helps the evaluation of every action, therefore, gives insights on how a project could be iterated or replicated. Also gives a better understanding of how communities are reacting.
MEET THE TEAM
We are a bunch of people with different backgrounds and diverse life stories. Join a Town is a common shared project that put us together to transform the realities that our world lives. We believe diversity, cohesion and positive energy are key to achieve a greater impact.
Juan Felipe is an industrial engineer passionate about social entrepreneurship. He has a master’s degree in Systems Optimization. He has been working in Amazon around four years in the Supply Chain and Transportation department on the finance field, planning and controlling a budget of 1000 MM€ for the French Marketplace.
He believes education and entrepreneurship are the tools that will allow people to build a better world. That is why he is part of the directive board of the Colombian citizen movement “Todos por la Educación”, which looks forward to place education as a first priority in the national agenda. He is a youth advisor and responsible for the movement’s abroad chapters. After a couple of years in France, he co-founded ConnectX, an international network which promotes entrepreneurship in emerging markets. Currently, it is present in 8 countries: Ivory Coast, France, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Democratic Republic of Congo and Canada.
Juan Felipe envisions to close the social gap among societies. Conscious of the great effort this objective represents, he has joined forces with people from all around the world. He became a Global Shaper, community created by the World Economic Forum to empower young people who will shape tomorrow’s world. More recently, he became a One Young World ambassador, a community of global young leaders and change makers that, with their initiatives, are positively impacting societies.
On the path to achieve a social change, he co-founded Join a Town aiming the development of vulnerable communities around the world and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Passionate about culture and visual identity, Alejandro has followed studies in visual communication design at Javeriana University in Cali, Colombia. Nowadays, he works as a designer and illustrator for the school of innovation d.school Paris, an institution where he supports communication missions and projects development.
With his degree in hands, he moved from his country to Paris. In this city, he got a deeper knowledge of the culture of design thinking during the ME310 program of the d.school Paris and Stanford University. Today, in parallel of his daily job, he pursues a master degree in Cultural Innovation.
Alejandro, for a long time, had had the ambition to give back everything that he has learned and experienced. With his life objective in mind, his competences and his interest in sustainable development, he co-founded Join a Town. He believes this organization will build bridges where they do not exist and will enhance the life quality of many.
My name is Manuela, I come from Medellín, the city of the eternal spring of Colombia, but right now I live in Paris. I'm a mechanical engineer and I work in the automotive industry. I joint this amazing team because I believe there are lots of people that want to support developing communities, and if we can create a connection between them, we could make a difference.
Catalina Garcia moved to France from Bogota, Colombia, in 2012. She studied engineering with a focus on finance and proceeded to work as a consultant in KPMG. In her day to day job, she assists her clients on their financial transformation projects.
Join a town is an opportunity to be part of a different kind of initiatives with a broader impact on social issues such as education, health, and environmental sustainability. It is also a way to support communities around the world and be the witness of the changes they bring thanks to their local projects.
Esteban moved to Europe from Colombia in 2015. He holds an MBA from Grenoble Ecole de Management with an emphasis in Corporate Banking and continued working for BNP Paribas in Paris as a strategy analyst.
Join a Town is an excellent opportunity to be part of a different initiative that promotes and help social causes to help, support and develop communities around the world to be sustainable and experience the changes they bring to society thanks to local projects.
Andres is an innovation project manager who works with communities, public servants and companies to facilitate innovation through a human centred design approach.
After almost four years working with companies, communities and public servants, Andres believes that social transformation can not happen without a close work with stakeholders, a thorough understanding of their real needs and a maker state of mind that enables them to explore solutions through the building and acting rather than only thinking.
Andres has facilitated more than 20 training workshops and 13 social innovation projects within communities in Ecuador, Peru, France and Colombia. In addition, Andres is a trained design thinking coach by the d.school Paris and Stanford University and appointed Latin American citizen innovation mentor by the general ibero-american secretariat (SEGIB)
Andres holds an electronic engineering degree from Pontifical Xaverian University from Cali (Colombia)
Daniel is an industrial engineer passionate about social and sustainable development. He has been working in consulting for five years in different industries and countries.
He strongly believes that education and technology are the principal enablers to transform business, societies and economies.
Daniel has worked in different projects related to digital transformation, customer experience, business and technology strategy. Actually, he works in a management consulting firm based in Bogota, Colombia
