2
is mobilizing and organizing the urban poor
through women-led savings groups, building and
legitimizing local knowledge through peer-to-peer
learning exchanges. Building on the profiling of over
113 communities over the past two years, data have
been uploaded to an online country-wide platform,
which is now used as reference for city development
discussions and planning. The YMCA has also held
56 settlement forums with communities to help them
prioritize community upgrading projects as an initial
intervention to service delivery and slum upgrading
processes.
Through this
program,
u r b a n
decision
makers recognize the value of urban poor knowledge
and experience as an essential input to resilient
development.
The Youth Power Space in Monrovia, funded by
the YMCA of Greater Toronto, has reached 2,425
young people during this quarter.
Participants have shared success
stories on how they have either
started a business initiative,
learned a skill that enabled
them get a job or been able to
be a voice and influence change
in their communities. A musical
band of young people is being established out of the
power space, using music and the performing arts
for education and awareness. Two new power spaces
have been set up in Kakata and Gbarnga. All three
power spaces will focus primarily on job readiness
and preparation services and civic engagement
activities, empowering young people to learn, lead
and act.
The Youth Opportunities Project has
begun the recruitment of 500 young
people from 10 communities in
Greater Monrovia. The project
aims to increase employment
readiness of targeted youth by
supporting the development of non-
cognitive skills and positive attitudes
towards work. The first 500 young people between
the ages of 15-17 are expected to go through 3
months of training in four modules: Job Readiness,
Social Support, Health and Hygiene and Financial
Literacy. Training manual for these modules have
been completed and training of staff facilitators
have been held.
The Civil Peace project has been launched in
Gbarnga, Kakata and Monrovia. 6 Young people
have been recruited to serve as peace mediators.
A senatorial debate for contestants of the
Montserrado County Senatorial Debate was held,
bringing over 150 young
people in contact with
aspirants to discuss their
platforms for youth.
The project also had an
advocacy workshop for
major national youth organizations to train them
on constructive engagements of duty bearers for
policy change. The total 185 people benefited from
these activities. In addition to these projects, the
YMCA Computer Training Program opened for its
29th cycle with the enrollment of 396 students at
beginner, intermediate and advance levels. In May,
we hosted an IT Career Symposium, which brought
together over 200 young people to meet renowned
professionals in the IT industry. The forum
enlightened young people on possible careers in IT
for employment and entrepreneurship. This forum
also laid the basis for the design of courses under
the YMCA Polytechnic. Additionally, a total of 230
children are participating in the Vacation Computer
Training Program, which runs for 2 months.
The Montserrado YMCA
Children Vacation Sports
Program has enrolled
500 participants between
the ages of 3 – 17 years.
During the vacation, the
kids learn the fundamentals of basketball, with
added life skills to include training in health and
hygiene, communication skills, peacebuilding, arts
and crafts, among others. All of these are taught
with the YMCA leadership development module
or Subject to Citizens (S2C) and the YMCA Core
Values cross cutting all activities.