Liberia YMCA S2C Ambassadors develop a youth engagement model

Last week, the S2C AMBASSADORS of Liberia YMCA in Adama E. Kamara and Ebenezer Saah Davies reached out to local branches to have consultations and engagements with staff, volunteers, interns, board members and members for the lay-out and development of a youth engagement model for the YMCA. The engagement and consultation included meetings and focus group discussions with young people, executives of the following local branches: Yekepa YMCA, Ganta YMCA, Gbarnga YMCA, Kakata YMCA, UT YMCA, and Montserrado YMCA. The exercise was intended to gather the views and aspirations of young people to feed into a strategic framework document for effective youth engagement within the Liberia YMCA.

Having been trained on the Human Center Design module at their S2C program, they are taking informed steps that involve and prioritize young people to addressing issues that affect them. To better allow young people from different branches to say their mind and speak out on issues that are affecting them, two sessions were conducted separately to avoid fear. There were closed door session for young people only and this strategy enabled every young person to freely speak out about issues that affect them within their various branches followed by possible recommendations.

This initiative was stemmed from their just ended S2C Youth Act Camp 2022 that saw petition from young people access. The National Secretariat through its NGS/CEO is supportive of these initiatives