Youth Development

The Shaqodoon program was created to provide Somali youth with greater access to training, internships, work and self-employment opportunities in order to productively engage youth and add to the stability and development of the region. Shaqodoon is Somali for “jobseekers”.

Funded by the State Department, EDC’s Darfur News and Information Service encourages constructive dialogue, mitigates tensions, and builds the capacity of Darfuri radio journalists to increase the provision of news and information in the region. This two year project offers news, information, and an educational shortwave broadcast service in Arabic, Fur, Masalit, and Zagawa for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and other vulnerable populations in Darfur. Special attention is given to explaining the Darfur Peace Agreement.

The Rwanda Youth Opportunity Network (RYON), an EQUIP3 Associate Award, aims to develop a thriving youth livelihood support system in Rwanda to increase the prosperity of not only youth, but also the public and private institutions that support and benefit from youths’ productive engagement in Rwandan society. To achieve this goal, RYON will provide youth in Kigali with market-relevant life and work readiness training and support, hands-on training opportunities, and links into the employment and self-employment job market.

Designed to respond to Garissan youths’ needs and assets, the Garissa Youth Project (G-Youth Project) aims to empower youth to make sound career and life decisions as they transition from high school to the next phase of their lives. The project is also building the capacity of local institutions and networks to sustain the much-needed services that G-Youth will provide.

Preparing Youth for Work (PAS), an EQUIP3 Associate Award, is a workforce preparation program that assists minimally educated youth (ages 16–30) from East Timor’s most rural areas in gaining the skills and expertise needed to find job opportunities and promising futures. These young men and women will benefit from the program’s 8-month combination of off-the-job classroom instruction, on-the-job training, and livelihood accompaniment.

The goal of this project is to prepare a protocol for documenting parent involvement strategies being used by urban districts and schools that serve large proportions of economically disadvantaged and minority students in the Northeast and Islands region.

Through this program 10,000 students in 12 schools in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa are receiving health education, health services, and computer education. A mobile van is traveling around to communities in the areas providing these services. EDC developed the health education curriculum, trained health educators, and is assisting in the planning and evaluation of this project for Mpilonhle, a South African NGO.

Eyes on Bullying is a national, multimedia bullying prevention program designed to provide parents and caregivers with user-friendly and effective ways to learn the essential principles of bullying prevention. The multimedia program, initially developed for IBM employees, includes a 42-page Toolkit with key information, resources, and six skill-building activities for caregivers and parents to use with children.

EDC, with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, will collaborate with Latino parents, youth, and community agency staff on the development and dissemination of a Spanish-language version of the proven Saving Sex for Later intervention. This is an innovative, evidence-based, and user-friendly parent education program designed to promote healthy sexual and reproductive choices on the part of young adolescents. It consists of a set of three audio CDs and accompanying print brochure, which will be available in both English and Spanish.

OJJDP created a national effort to enhance the development of mentoring programs for youth involved in the juvenile justice system, juvenile reentry, and foster care. This initiative promotes collaboration among community organizations and agencies committed to supporting mentoring services for system-involved youth. Its objective is to identify and support the development of new and effective mentoring programs and determine how to expand these models for system involved youth.