CHANGING THE GAME THROUGH MEANINGFUL AND INCLUSIVE YOUTH PARTICIPATION (MIYP)

Dream Achievers Youth Organization (DAYO) Received a MYP Seed grant from CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality (CHOICE) to implement a Project called Changing the Game through Meaningful and Inclusive Youth Participation (MIYP) for the next Six (6) Months 1st February 2022 to 31st July 2022 in Mombasa County.

Meaningful and Inclusive Youth Participation (MIYP) is central to our common vision of achieving the outcomes and targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) , FP2020 goals , and the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health among other internationally agreed upon targets for eliminating poverty and promoting health, rights, and wellbeing.

These frameworks calls for deliberate actions that involve moving beyond the recognition and identification of young people solely as beneficiaries and towards engaging them as equal and valuable partners in projects, research, programs and initiatives that are led, co-led, and centered around young people, whereby they are equal partners in decision making with other stakeholders, or young people are consulted and meaningfully engaged in the execution of initiatives led by other stakeholders.

MIYP recognizes and changes the power structures that prevent young people from being considered experts regarding their own needs and priorities, while also building their leadership capacities. Young people includes ‘adolescents’ ages 10-19 and ‘youth’ ages 15-24 (based on the WHO definition)3 regardless of socioeconomic status, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, sex characteristics, marital status, religion, disability, political affiliation, or physical location. - Adapted from Youth Power, USAID4.

There are a number of accruing advantages associated with MIYP. These include to the youth, the organization, and community and to the nation, Benefits of youth participation for organizations include: Youth and adults benefit from each other’s’ skills, knowledge and capacities;, Enhanced organizational development as new energy, fresh ideas and enthusiasm is brought into programs, Additional data for analysis and planning that may be obtained only by youth, Additional human resources by sharing responsibilities between adults and youth; Increased acceptance of organization’s services, messages and decisions as youth contributed to shape them; and Increased credibility of the organization to both young people and advocates.

It’s on the above premise that Dream Achievers Youth Organization (DAYO) seeks to challenge the status quo by working in a school set up and specifically young persons with disabilities. DAYO seeks to create a movement that will secure spaces for young persons with disability in decision making platforms including in technical working groups(TWG), enhance capacity of young PWD’s to advocate for their Sexual Reproductive health and rights(SRHR), and forge partnerships and networks between the young PWD’s and the county health structures.:



ACTIVITY AND STRATEGIES:

STRATEGIES ONE: Capacity Enhancement Training at the school level.

• Conduct inception meeting at the school level with key stakeholders.

• Conduct a 3 day leadership and advocacy training for youth champions.

• Conduct mentorship sessions for students using PWDs champions.

STRATEGIES TWO: Convening consultative TWG heads Meeting.

• Inception meeting with key stakeholders.

• Consultative meeting with the youth champions

• Support youth champions to Attend TWG Meeting