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Welcome!
We are starting the first quarter of 2021 with a series of new offerings to engage young leaders and support youth development implementers. Through new publications, Communities of Practice, and our new podcast, we will deliver useful resources and practical tools that assist you in your important work with communities, families, and young people. In this spring issue of our newsletter, we share the lessons learned from 17 youth assessments conducted for USAID missions around the world, give you a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to be a Youth Advisor in a Community of Practice, and present the ongoing work in our Youth in Agri-Food Systems Learning Activity.
Around the World with YouthPower
Launches

How to Create Safe Spaces for Youth
Research shows that safe spaces for girls and boys increase their psychosocial assets and may correlate with a stable economic livelihood later in life. As part of the YouthLead #Space4Her campaign, YouthPower2: Learning and Evaluation (YP2LE) is launching a new online Youth Center Toolkit. Garnered from global research, this toolkit provides resources and examples of constructive safe spaces that give youth an opportunity to connect with others who are facing similar experiences and challenges. Safe spaces can promote healing, empowerment, and resilience. These programs provide a set time and place for youth to engage with each other and in activities that range from education to sports to civic engagement. USAID is committed to developing resources that help youth in their Positive Youth Development (PYD) journey. This toolkit can help your program create a safe space that contributes to an enabling environment for youth. Stay tuned for a webinar about the toolkit in early March 2021.
View the Toolkit
Join the Communities

Communities of Practice (CoP) are spaces to engage with like-minded individuals invested in applying Positive Youth Development approaches to specific topics through funding, research, or program implementation. To join the CoPs and see the discussion boards, you must be a registered member of YouthPower.org. Register for free.

The following CoPs are launching in February and March 2021:

Gender CoP’s Social Norms and Youth Working Group
In partnership with the Passages Project, this working group will collaborate on reviewing and prioritizing findings from a literature review, developing an engaging digital showcase of findings to filling key gaps in our understanding of the relationship between gender and social norms and youth wellbeing. Working group members will engage with the latest evidence in the field and be recognized in the final product. Join the Gender CoP Discussion Group to learn more about the Working Group!
 
MENA Youth CoP (in English and Arabic)
The MENA Youth Community of Practice aims to foster learning, knowledge sharing, and collaboration among youth and youth-serving stakeholders supporting PYD in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This is the first YouthPower CoP to launch in a bilingual format. This community is open to all stakeholders including civil society organizations, donors, implementing partners, and youth. Members are invited to participate in upcoming events such as virtual meetings and webinars and are encouraged to share ideas and post content such as discussion questions, resources, events, lessons learned, and best practices. Stay tuned for more information.

Higher Education, Engagement, and Transformation (HEET) CoP
The HEET CoP aims to engage expertise within the international education community to advance higher education and youth learning priorities, engage older youth (ages 18-35) to integrate transformational PYD approaches, and work to strengthen the link between PYD and higher education programming. Join the HEET CoP Discussion Group to stay up to date on the kick-off!

Youth Systems Strengthening CoP
The Youth Systems Strengthening CoP aims to provide an open learning and sharing space for participants to understand more about the purposes, processes, and results associated with reforming systems (e.g., education, health, workforce development, criminal justice, transportation) that impact the positive trajectory of young people. Join the Youth Systems Strengthening CoP Discussion Group for more information on the kick-off!

WORQ Group 
This discussion group provides a space for USAID, implementing partners and local organizations to share information on and discuss the toolkit for measuring employment and earnings by using the 

Workforce Outcomes Reporting Questionnaire (WORQ). Beyond USAID's implementing partners, this toolkit is useful for other organizations that are implementing workforce development programs. Join the All YouthPower Members Discussion Group to learn about the WORQ Discussion Group launch!

Tips:

  • Learn how to join a CoP and engage with its members.
  • CoP members receive weekly notifications of ongoing activities from their registered communities. You can change the frequency of the notifications by adjusting the setting on your YouthPower.org profile.
Now Available

Youth Assessments 101: Lessons Learned

From planning to analysis, this new brief offers guidance on conducting youth assessments, drawing from the lessons learned throughout 17 youth assessments conducted under YouthPower Learning and YP2LE from 2015-2020. Designed for USAID staff, Youth Assessments 101 provides an examination of the main stages of a youth assessment: startup; selection of data collection methodologies and stakeholders; organization of assessment teams; data analysis and interpretation; and development of end products. There is also a specific section on adapting data collection for the COVID-19 virus. Access the full brief now.

YouthLead Platform Now Available in Arabic

YouthLead.org, the online platform for young changemakers, is now available in Arabic, in addition to English and Spanish. Connect with peers around the globe and access resources, funding opportunities, events, and more. The French version of the website will launch within the next few weeks. Look for announcements on YouthLead.org.

The PYD Lab Brings New Perspective to PYD Work
The first episode of The PYD Lab is now available. The podcast, which launched in late January 2021, is for implementers and young leaders who want to examine innovative approaches to Positive Youth Development and hear stories of young people leading change in their communities.

The opening episode, Brave Enough to Demand Change, explores the threats facing women in politics in Brazil. YouthLead Ambassador and law student Fernanda Ribeiro talks about the rise of femicide, the dangers of advocating for the dismantling of structural violence and the health crisis Brazilians face in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Listen in now.

In Review: The State of Knowledge on Marginalized and Vulnerable Youth
An estimated 85 percent of the world’s youth population live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Although evidence exists that millions of young people are vulnerable to multiple levels of economic, health, and social challenges, our understandings of youth vulnerability and marginalization remains siloed. To address this gap, YP2LE systematically searched the academic and grey literature and conducted focus groups and key informant interviews (KIIs) to appraise the state of knowledge and evidence on youth vulnerability and marginalization across the international development community. The results can be found in the full report, "A Systematic Literature Review of Positive Youth Development Impacts on Marginalized and Vulnerable Youth." A brief summarizing the report is scheduled for publication in March 2021.
Update

Coming Soon: Youth and Agri-food Systems Findings
Through a USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS) funded buy-in, YP2LE will release a Global Food Security Strategy white paper, a gender-responsive literature review of youth and agri-food systems, and a Shocks Rapid Assessment on COVID-19 and Desert Locust this year. This buy-in, known as the Youth in Agri-Food Systems Learning Activity, will advance knowledge on approaches to and the state of evidence for youth inclusion in international development interventions related to agri-food systems, and more specifically agriculture-led growth and food security, resilience, nutrition and water security, sanitation, and hygiene. As part of the activity, YP2LE will track strategies, map pathways, and gauge the state of the evidence for youth contributions to the achievement of country self-reliance through RFS areas of work. Look out for more information in the coming months.
Feature
Youth Advisor Balkis Chaabane, Youth Engagement Community of Practice

Meet Balkis Chaabane — CoP Youth Advisor
“Youth empowerment can only come from youth themselves. It is important to keep that in mind because when you have a high-level panel with experts who are over the age of 40 deciding what is best for youth, it simply does not make sense,” Balkis Chaabane says.

Balkis believes youth empowerment requires true buy-in from youth and that is one of the many reasons she became a Youth Advisor for the YP2LE Youth Engagement Community of Practice (CoP).

CoP Youth Advisors and CoP Champions jointly make sure the community develops and fosters a common sense of purpose. Balkis’s role consists of listening to members’ needs; promoting a passion for learning and exchange; maintaining a vibrant virtual meeting space; hosting and facilitating virtual meetings; and communications and outreach. 

“Communities of Practice offer participants a space to collect, customize, and disseminate Positive Youth Development resources,” Balkis says. “It is an online group that fosters a sense of understanding, teamwork, networking, engaging with others in applied learning, and exchanging expertise and experience.”
Read on ...
 

Upcoming Events

YP2LE Events
Early March: Youth Center Toolkit Launch
March 17: Business Entrepreneurship and Private Sector Engagement CoP Meeting  
March 18 and March 25: MENA Youth CoP Kick-off 
March 24: Joint Gender and Youth Engagement Meeting

Other Events:
March 22: Civil Society Policy Forum
April 19: AILA International Fellowship Spring 2021 Cohort

For more information, visit the Events section on YouthPower.org.

New Resources on YouthPower.org

YP2LE Learning Resources

Agriculture and Food Security

Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance

Economic Growth, Education, and Environment

Gender

Health

Find more resources and events at YouthPower.org.

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