BUENOS AIRES, March 12th, 2012 - Pamela, Mauricio and Gabriela are young people that lived in institutions and foster’s homes and now want their experiences to be useful to other young people that are planning to leave these kind of institutions.
The stories can be found in the E Guide, www.guiaegreso.com.ar, a web site that includes useful information to improve youth opportunities when exiting an institution. The guide provides suggestions to find a job or an apartment and information about trainings, health services and social plans.
This initiative was developed by Doncel, an organization that promotes practices to improve the transition that occurs when a young person leaves an institution and starts adult life. In particular, the Social Inclusion Program for Young Institutional Residents aims to increase the opportunities for people between 16 and 21 years old.
In 2010, the project won at the Youth Innovation Fund, a contest that provides an opportunity to young staff of the World Bank to design and implement youth development projects around the world. The selected initiatives provide funding, technical assistance, and knowledge exchange through partnerships with local youth and organizations.
“While I was in Washington, I worked developing youth initiatives so I was chosen coordinator for the Youth-Youth (Y2Y) Community. Then I began collaborating with Doncel Association and we were awarded by the Youth Fund to help youth at risk by creating this web site”, says Claudia Oriolo, co- creator of the project with Sara Giannozzi.
Other examples that support youth
The Youth Innovation Fund was launched as a pilot in 2005 in Latin America, and since then Argentina has been selected by other two projects: Mendoza Emprende (2008) and the most recent Youth Employability and Social Inclusion Improvement Project, that was awarded with US$10,500 and will be implemented in 2012.
The main objective is to give technical training to secondary school students on setting-up and repairing computers. Moreover, the equipment will be donated to community food centers and organizations. Also the students will be trained on the separation of the components for recycling and safety disposal, as part of the E-Garbage Project that takes place at La Plata University.
“Our idea is to give skills to youth people to improve their employability and their knowledge about the current opportunities to access higher education, while keeping a close social and environmental commitment”, explains María Laura Oliveri, who developed the project with Santiago Scialabba, both from Argentina office.
