CYP RCA/Meeting Notes March17 09

Africa (Dabesaki)

 * Where are some of the conflict issues for young people in Africa
 * Lives in Nigeria, but now in Ethiopia


 * personal experience
 * biggest problem, is the issue of "education"
 * people having correct set of values, and principles of citizenship, and responsibilities of what citzenship are
 * the number of young people involved with the militia, based on specific 'agenda'
 * political discussions about resource allocation

education is the biggest problem

 * trying to address conflict situation
 * seriously invest in citizenship education....what it means to be a citizen, in a country....what are the responsibilities?
 * lots of challenges
 * education provided as a free service, yet there are other costs that mitigate access (i.e., transportation)

Outcome(s)

 * when people are adequately schooled, then people are very likely to get a job; then the chances that they will want to be involved in negative activity are seriously diminished.

Canada (Tanyss)

 * youth in some communities frustrated, high rates of suicide
 * free schooling, free lunch still - some youth won't come to school
 * Tanyss & husband would go into school and teach youth how to be responsible for things wtihin the school environment, but then also in adding value to the community - turn things over to youth - an issue of empowerment....
 * we started to put them in charge of things in the school, give them a sense of empowerment,
 * they ended up taking charge of schools and having a role as helpful, caring citizens in the communities - "Empowerment" through porviding services to their community


 * Education - long-term advocacy
 * Education - st - access education online

An Empowering Experience

 * help people have an
 * empowerment is linked to responsibility
 * creating alternative learning.... emphasize education in different forms...
 * and allow people to develop the confidence....to participate, or take on the responsibilities
 * developing relationships? between people?


 * try to reach the mainstream youth, and marginalised youth....
 * ways to engage the peer group (signals to the peer group, tipping points)
 * change their behaviour, and change their behaviour....


 * give people a greater sense of their own power.....engage their own peers, and start to change their identity, and their
 * empower


 * move out of the mainstream youth


 * how do we use online to support offline
 * how do we ensure that young people are in a vulnerable situation, can benefit from these online resources
 * online activites
 * action learning, integrated processes
 * look for ways to move forward
 * Solomon Islands, and Jamaica - doing audio, radio (church radio stations, community radio stations)
 * Jamaica 12-15 years old


 * Solomon Islands, late teens - 30 years old
 * FN in Canada (17-30 years old) - fairly new, startup phase

Concept Paper?

 * what are we doing and what we want to achieve (Dabeski)
 * feeding in CYP strategy,
 * where are we going, and what we want to achieve (Nellie), plug into CYPs agenda (Nellie)
 * Keep in mind the LT goals (Tanyss)
 * Key Objectives (CYP) ....keep in mind, for workshop
 * ST - what will we do for now and June... keep in LT strategy

Workshop

 * we engage some key youth who will help to move this forward
 * reach youth who are more marginalised, or don't have Internet access
 * support each other
 * come out of it as a mapping exercise

Concerns

 * Victor...
 * difficult to create a roadmap for the whole programme
 * 1) - would it only include Zambia, consider inclusion of youth from Zambia
 * 2) - what role will this workshop have in the whole context; would the roadmap be premature
 * 3) focus on thematic areas
 * 4) include f2f workshops
 * 5) 1 day or regional workshop....some discussions with young people ...define workshops


 * set up a plan, to focus activities (Nellie)

Roundtable vs. Workshop

 * easier to sell (Roundtable Discussions)

Ideas

 * identifying themes
 * roundtable (discussion)
 * welcome from James, CYP - signal, to peer group
 * start online meetings, discussions
 * online
 * model the process to the trainers, just aw we are doing....
 * create timeframe for developing themes (do ti ASAP) - Nellie

Travel & Logistics

 * costs, etc
 * travel of key people


 * identify leading organizations, to be cable to attend roundtable discussions....
 * working in more than one country...

"Roundtable Discussion" - informal


 * wiki discussions this week
 * Tanyss comes, refine the ideas, and initial roadmap - Roundtable discussions
 * themes
 * Roundtable, builds a regional roadmap (April)

Availability - Tanyss
- not to look for partners yet... - make it a weekday, Friday April 3
 * free, afternoon, Thursday, April 2
 * free on Friday April 3
 * April 4, 5, open
 * April 6-8, then doing a workshop at Open University of Zambia
 * - adding to by Nellie and Victor
 * take forward on the wiki, theme identification

Criteria for Invitations to First Informal Meeting
Organizations or individuals who:


 * work with youth of the age group and including ‘at-risk’ youth
 * who have developed and implemented innovative and effective programmes for youth
 * have wide reach across Zambia (or have outreach elsewhere in Africa) so that they may be able to add value again further down the road
 * that operate community radio programmes, where we could enter into collaboration relationships with youth disseminating audio content (church radio stations, etc)

Step I

 * 1) put initial ideas forward on the wiki (Dabeski, Nellie, Victor, Tanyss, Randy)
 * 2) develop strategy for now to June with outputs
 * 3) # develop criteria for inviting others to the process
 * 4) plan of future meetings to take place

Step II

 * engage others in on-line discussions in developing workshop
 * invite organizations (as per criteria)
 * Region-wide

Step III

 * host regional workshop with exercises:
 * develop regional roadmap
 * identify top theme areas
 * ensure strong follow up

Step IV

 * develop country/ community roadmaps
 * grassroots implentation - pilot activities