To celebrate International Youth Day on August 12, 2009, Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) is sharing some innovative stories of youth civic engagement throughout the world.

Colleen Hammelman, an ICP Program Associate, works with many diverse youth civic engagement projects throughout the world. One such project is Youth Star Cambodia.

Youth Star Cambodia is a Cambodian youth organization providing rural, national and local communities with community service volunteers to meet pressing human needs. University graduates between 20 and 27 years old, spend one year in underserved rural communities working with commune councils, community-based organizations, schools, indigenous organizations, and others. Volunteers undertake community mapping exercises to identify vulnerable populations and community assets and works with the community to jointly set goals to achieve during their service. Cambodian volunteers serve as catalysts for transformation strengthening communities in four key sectors: education and youth development, employment creation and sustainable livelihoods, micro business development, and health and well-being. Through these efforts communities are empowered to act, utilize local knowledge, and build collaborative relationships.

To learn more about Youth Star Cambodia, please visit www.youthstarcambodia.org.

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Liz Babcock, Coordinator of the Talloires Network at ICP, encounters inspiring university community engagement programs every day. One of the innovative projects she has learned about is the HIV/AIDS awareness project at the National University of Lesotho. Theatre students perform AIDS awareness plays in order to enhance consciousness amongst key audiences. The plays have been performed for secondary school students, members of dysfunctional or broken families, orphans and the homeless. Thanks to a grant from USAID, the program has been expanded to include all districts of Lesotho.

To learn more about this project, please visit http://www.nul.ls/about/nul-consuls-projects.htm.
 
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Hannah Ayers, a Talloires Network Service Fellow, is often impressed with many service-learning projects on university campuses in the US and internationally. One such program is the Mobile Literacy Arts Bus at Syracuse University in the US.

Art and architecture students at Syracuse University, in collaboration with a visual arts professor, transformed a used recreational vehicle into a functional Mobile Literacy Arts Bus (MLAB). The bus travels to local schools and community organizations, providing a mobile classroom, digital photo lab, gallery space, and community center. Students continue to play an integral role, mentoring individual students, developing new programs, and conducting outreach for this innovative and resourceful program.

To learn more about MLAB, please visit http://mobileliteracyartsbus.blogspot.com/.

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John Pollock, a Talloires Network Service Fellow, has been come across many innovative civic engagement initiatives in higher education. One that stands out is Alashanek Ya Balady (AYB) at the American University in Cairo, Egypt (AUC).

Alashanek Ya Balady (For you, my country) was established by AUC students in 2002 and is the community service entity of AUC’s Student Union. AYB’s aim is to develop the community in old Cairo, expand the horizon of the average citizens and families there, and provide opportunities for those who want to improve their situations. The primary activities of the program are eradicating illiteracy, providing micro-credit loans, youth development, English language training and computer literacy training. Chapters of AYB have also opened at four other universities in Cairo, and a registered NGO has been established to coordinate an expansion of their programs. AYB recently received considerable recognition from international award programs, including the MacJannet Prize for Global Citizenship and the King Abdallah II Award for Youth Innovation and Achievement.

To learn more about AYB, please visit http://www.ayb-sd.org/successful.html.

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Joshua Truitt, ICP's Summer of Service Fellow, regularly learns about unique Summer of Service programs through his research. One such program is Summer of Service and Leadership (SOSL) at the Chicago Public Schools (CPS).

SOSL targets racially diverse and predominantly low-income students in the transition from 8th grade to high school. The program combines a meaningful service project with curriculum that stresses literacy, leadership development, community awareness, and team building. Throughout the course of this innovative six week program, students map their communities, interview community leaders, brainstorm problems and potential solutions, and ultimately develop service projects that address these problems. Students also take part in team building exercises and develop their leadership skills.

Last summer students completed 11,000 hours of service with 100 different organizations across the city on student‐chosen issues ranging from hunger, healthcare, and environmental degradation to senior citizens, violence prevention, and animal welfare. According to a CPS teacher, “Educators will often decry the 'backsliding' that occurs in terms of loss of mastery over the summer break, and especially the period of adjustment between primary and secondary school. The Summer of Service and Leadership addressed both of these issues--students spend their summer learning and building their communities and they hit the ground running into high school.”

To learn more about SOSL, visit http://www.servicelearning.cps.k12.il.us/.

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Kelly Fox, ICP's Office Manager, encounters many innovative youth civic engagement organizations across the world. One of these is Ser Paz in Ecuador.

Ser Paz is dedicated to the peaceful integration of youth members of Ecuador’s pandillas, or violent youth gangs, into society. Participants receive training in professional, conflict mediation and resolution, and citizenship skills, and access to microfinancing. In return, former gang rivals work together to develop and operate small businesses that provide them with the economic means to escape impoverished conditions, conduct peaceful intervention and mediation of gang disputes, regulate and discourage violence and gun ownership in their communities, and serve as community liasions to articulate community needs and guide solutions to community challenges. Founded by Nelsa Curbelo, a former nun and school teacher from Uruguay, the organization focuses not on breaking up gangs as a solution to youth gang-related violence, but on recognizing the valuable role that gang membership plays in providing economic and social stability and a sense of belonging to disenfranchised street youth, and engaging those bonds of solidarity towards peaceful ends.

Find out more about Ser Paz at www.serpaz.org (in Spanish)

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 Melea Atkins, an ICP Intern, has been conducting research on green youth service organizations this summer. One organization she discovered in her research is India Climate Solutions.

India Climate Solutions is a new organization founded and run by two recent college grads, Anna de Costa and Caroline Howe. They recognized that, while individuals in India were developing innovative methods of combating climate change, those efforts were poorly documented, analyzed and communicated. In response, they created India Climate Solutions to serve as a forum for collaboration and a catalyst for action on climate change.

As a partner of the India Youth Climate Network, India Climate Solutions works to engage youth in finding innovative solutions to combat climate change. Their current project, the India Climate Solutions Road Tour, seeks to document a trail across the nation of climate solutions and empower youth along the route to create, communicate and celebrate their own solution.

To learn more about India Climate Solutions, visit www.indiaclimatesolutions.com

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Veronika Schlect, an ICP Intern, researches youth civic engagement programs throughout the world. One exciting program she has learned about is the Youth Social Inclusion for Civic Engagement project in Ukraine.

UNDP in cooperation with the Ukraine Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports, is implementing the Youth Social Inclusion for Civic Engagement project. The project aims to support youth inclusion, democratic reforms and youth civic engagement in Ukraine. Volunteerism is promoted and practiced as a tool for local development and the project works in particular with marginalized and disadvantaged youths. The project seeks to increase volunteering opportunities and help empower young people by engaging them in rural and urban communities throughout the country. Moreover the project strengthens the capacities of volunteers and volunteer organizations.

To learn more about this project, please visit http://www.undp.org.ua/en/local-development-and-human-security/787-youth-social-inclusion-for-civic-engagement-in-ukraine.

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To learn about more innovative and exciting youth civic engagement projects throughout the world, please visit ICP's website (www.icicp.org) and Program and Policy Database (www.icicp.org/programsandpolicy). If you have an innovative project that you would like to share with ICP, please fill out our Program and Policy Database survey (http://www.surveymonkey.com/newentries) or contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it