Powering Change: Global Youth Mobilization Youth Webinar Series

The Global Youth Mobilization (GYM), in collaboration with the world’s largest Big Six youth organizations, and with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Foundation (UNF), is a movement of young people taking action to improve their lives now and in apost-COVID-19 world.

In February 2022 GYM launched a new impact report, Powering Change: Young People Leading the Covid-19 Response and Recovery to highlight the reach and investment in young people globally to date. The report, which includes case studies of global youth-led projects, highlights a series of policy recommendations for multinational agencies and institutions, governments, policymakers,and corporations to address and prioritise the needs of young people and future generations.

To support the launch of the report, GYM is hosting a series of webinars to share insights from the report and discuss lessons learned. The webinars will provide a platform for young people from Local Solutions and National Projects funded project, as well as representatives from national organisations of the Big Six Youth Organisation,to showcase their projects and engage in dialogues with practitioners on the following thematic areas:

  • Education disruption and youth empowerment – 18 April 2022–12h00 (UTC)/14h00 (CET)/09h00 (EST)/14h00 (CAT)
  • Vaccine hesitancy and combatting misinformation –21 April 2022–12h00 (UTC)/14h00(CET)/ 09h00 (EST)/14h00 (CAT)
  • Mental Health – 27 April 2022–12h00 (UTC)/14h00 (CET)/ 09h00 (EST)/14h00 (CAT)

For more information, please visit here.

Education disruption and youth empowerment

The pandemic has disrupted access to education and employment opportunities, severely impacting the futures and livelihoods of young people worldwide.

Through a direct investment in non-formal education and learning programmes young people are being provided with new and innovative opportunities for learning. Additionally, through youth-led projects young people and the most vulnerable in society are provided with new self-sustaining employment opportunities, which in turn must be supported by policy makers and stakeholders to support their investment and innovation to address the widening inequalities caused by the pandemic.

Hosted by the Big Six, this webinar will feature recommendations from youth-led funded national projects of the Big Six and Local Solutions projects, supported by the Global Youth Mobilization, to discuss learnings and ideas for shaping future approaches to non-formal education and how to overcome barriers for improved education opportunities.

To register for Education Disrupted, please visit here.

Vaccine hesitancy and combatting misinformation

The spread of misinformation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a public distrust in the response measures and hesitancy in receiving vaccines, which in turn has a disastrous impact on individuals, communities and society as a whole.

To curb the spread of misinformation young people are working, through their projects, to provide education and training programmes on COVID-19 to ensure that there is a higher uptake of the vaccines in their communities.

This webinar will showcase the evidence-based communication and training strategies implemented by young people and how they are taking a lead in the COVID-19 prevention and protection measures at local, national and international levels.

To register for Vaccine Hesitance, please visit here.

Mental Health

From the onset of the pandemic many young people have experienced bouts of isolation and loneliness that has further impacted their mental health. According to the WHO, 93% of countries worldwide have seen disruptions in critical mental health services.

To address these issues many young people, youth-led organizations and national organizations of the Big Six are working towards providing additional mental health support and identifying solutions for young people in their communities.

This webinar will highlight some of the lessons learned from these projects, explore the policy recommendations from GYM’s report and will showcase some of the examples of youth-led solutions to the mental health challenges today.

To register for Mental Health, please visit here.