Youth Empowerment In Action At YMCA World Council

Africa's contribution to youth empowerment was highlighted yesterday at the 18th YMCA World Council held in Estes Park, Colorado, USA.

The youth empowerment model of the worldwide movement is Space, Transformation and Impact. In his report, World Alliance Secretary General, Johan Vilhelm Eltvik, commented, 'In the context of youth empowerment I want to pay tribute to Africa. My ideas and visions for youth empowerment and Change Agents, I found in the Subject to Citizen programme of the Africa Alliance of YMCAs. Thank you Africa!'

The African YMCA Subject to Citizen (S2C) change model focuses on transforming young people from subject to citizen, and once transformed, these youth then transform others, using their voice in appropriate spaces to influence for positive change.

Eltvik spoke of the great strides in the global YMCA movement which has, in the last four years, sharpened its focus by coming together under the banner of youth empowerment. This has involved 220 young leaders called Change Agents, including 35 African S2C Ambassador youth, who act on a community and global level to ensure that youth injustice is overcome and youth empowerment is safeguarded.

He emphasised that the model has been both internal in terms of youth taking a leading role and youth 'empowerment being central' within the YMCA, and that it is also 'our model to change the world at large'. He said that 'we want to triple the number of young people reached by YMCAs to 90 million'. He explained that a key awareness from his trips to worldwide YMCAs was that young people were receiving courage from the YMCA and that the YMCA was at its core 'all about young people and all about change'.

Much of the day was devoted to workshops on themes connected to youth civic engagement, health, empowerment, environment, movement strengthening and resource mobilisation, with seven of these being led by African participants.

I attended a workshop on S2C, held by S2C Ambassadors and Change Agents Marjorie Mambwe and Makau Mutua, which had a huge impact on the workshop participants, many of whom came to me afterwards to talk about global linkages around S2C.

Gil Harper, Africa Alliance of YMCAs
Christine Davis
Africa Alliance of YMCAs
Tel: +27 31 266 4478
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.africaymca.org