May we offer to each and every one of you the warmest greetings and wishes for a peaceful and happy Christmas. Following a year of manifestations, the National Youth Council prides itself on accomplishing much of what it set out to achieve throughout 2021.
This last year has been a challenging one and for some more than others. Despite the continued persistence of challenges, NYCD’s key priorities of advocacy, institutional framework strengthening, and networking have gathered pace and visibility.
The NYCD Executive was installed on January 23rd, 2021 and throughout this past year its President, Ashma McDougall sought to lead the Council in a revitalization project across re-branding, institutional framework strengthening, increasing, and diversifying its project scope, and networking with youth groups – all of which have been dubbed successful.
“Our first year has not gone by without challenges, though we have achieved much of what we sought to accomplish through 2021, the success was not met without obstacles. In our first quarter, we kicked things off with a revitalization strategy in efforts to draw much attention to the Council – through social media, project identification, increased communication with youth organizations, and most importantly youth outreach.”
The current Executive continues to stand resolved in cause and purpose to extend its reach through the revitalization of District Youth Councils across the island. The council has successfully increased its presence in the communities through the revitalization of two (2) district youth councils namely the East and Roseau South & Central. Executive Lead on the District Youth Council Revamp, 1st Vice President Lander shared his experience thus far.
“We are excited for the revitalization of the District Youth Councils. We are however disappointed with the current buy-in from the youth groups within the districts; however, we are positive that with increased engagement and continued communication with key community youth leaders, we expect positive results come 2022.”
The Executive looks forward to the successful implementation and revitalization of District Youth Councils and the subsequent election of the respective Executive Committees this February 2022. A key objective the Council set forth was to increase its financial independence through 2021. The primary revenue source through government subventions would not suffice in meeting the operational budget of the NYCD.
Greater efforts have been made in expanding its project portfolio through grant writing to meet the demands of the projects targeted at youth development. The Council successfully applied for two of three (3) grants in 2021 to fund an Environmental Youth Conference with the objective of establishing a Youth to Call Action Plan.
In 2022 the Council seeks to target youth male development through a mentorship program and will continue its grant writing efforts to meet that need. “Project MAYBE [Making Young Boys Excel] is my brainchild project which will realize increased male mentorship for our young boys and men – a key development issue in Dominica” McDougall stated.
The million-dollar project is one which the Council embarks on aggressively seeking funding for through 2022 to contribute to the realization of the vision. The dearth in the relationship between the Council and youth organizations was also a priority of the Council – through capacity building training, youth group outreach, General Assembly, financial support, and the digital youth network, it has realized greater communication with the registered organizations.
Through 2022 the Council embarks on greater dialogue among youth across the country to contribute to imposing projects that are more meaningful and will have a greater impact. Other key projects of the National Youth Council throughout 2021 included BAE Talk, a project focused on increasing local black history awareness among youth in Dominica.
This project will continue through 2022 with jeopardy trivia among secondary school students with an aim to increase knowledge of local black history among youth. The Strong Bodies Strong Minds (SBSM) Pilot Project was initially intended to mature in June 2021 however the onset of COVID-19 contributed to the extension to December.
The Council embarks on adopting strategies to realize the sustainability of this after-school project within the five primary schools from which students benefited, from holistic development. The National Youth Parliament Program is a major project by the NYCD which will provide an opportunity for youth to debate national issues within the House of Assembly. The Youth Parliamentarians will be appointed for a one-year term and the call for parliamentarians is currently open until January 17th, 2022.
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