CAPACITY AVAILABLE AT YVSP UGANDA

Contact Us:

Ngaya Didas Victor

Executive Director

Youth Volunteer Service Program – Uganda
Reg. No. 12985

Tel: +256775102727/+256701768062
volunteeryouthservice@gmail.com

"Most of us are trying to find ourselves, We are Sick, We have no jobs, We are lost, We have no skills to deal with certain things and no forum to express ourselves, We are in a box"

SITUATION ANALYSIS

The capacity available to the Youth Volunteer Service Program to implement her strategic objectives and to contribute to the betterment of Uganda's vulnerable young population focuses in the following categories of needs;

1. the Sick (those suffering from cancer, HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria that has affected the so many young people in the country);
2. the Orphans (due to the effects of wars in the North and Eastern art of the country);
3. the Poor and the Homeless - Street Kids, and;
4. a wide Society of 64% of Young people who are unemployed. Uganda is a very Youthful country with over 78% of the total population being young people with age bracket between 0-35 years.

The capacity we have to fulfill these objectives is limited, We need donors, sponsors, partners and well wishers to support this humanitarian response and help us fulfill our desired objectives through integration of service with the provision of tangible materials. This also examines the situation with regard to our partners who provide skills in various spheres of life for the benefit of our target population.

1. Curriculum and Materials Development

YVSP has developed a wide range of material in the areas of life skills, leadership training and values education. These materials have been used with large numbers of young people, although they have not necessarily been exposed to rigorous testing. In some cases the materials may form part of education and training curricula devised for young people in the different target groups identified as a priority by the Youth Volunteer Service Program.

2. Program Design

Programs are designed perticulary those that are attractive to the young people and which achieve a range of development objectives. Our Programs meet the integrated needs of young people (their economic, educational and social needs) and reintegrate youths with communities. 

3. Trained Staff to Work with Youths in Service

One of the key constraints to implementing a large-scale Youth Volunteer Service Program has been the limited financial capacity to enable massive involvement and training for employability an meeting their health bills which has become very costly on our part. This often time affects us especially when we don't get the required funds. It will be crucial to access other available resources to engage a big number of participants and train staff supervising young people in effective youths development practice. 

4. Providing access to Young People participate in YVS Activities

The participation of young people into Youth Volunteer Service Program may be a massive challenge, particularly in the unemployed target group and those with health related illness. 

The partnership created with community-based organisations and youths forums/clubs are playing a very useful role in assisting with the placement of these so many young, However, this is insufficient, more support is needed.

5. Program Delivery

As outlined above, the experience acquired by Youth Volunteer Service Program staff in delivering Programs for young people has been very useful in assisting YVSP in developing its own Programs. 

6. Widening the Diversity of Empowerment Activities

This Strategy outlines the need for the Youth Volunteer Service Program to encourage and acknowledge all community youths initiatives. Engaging these initiatives  has been constructive in increasing the reach and diversity of this humanitarian support into a number of communities.

We are seeking for Donations, Sponsors and partners in this Struggle. 

STEPS IN ESTABLISHING THE YVSP

INTRODUCTION

The overall mandate for the Youth Volunteer Service Program is established through its Policy Framework. It outlines a Programmatic implementation strategy. The YVSP Steering Committee facilitated a number of activities in 2017-2018. Various processes over the past year have led to the development of a range of initiatives. 

Contextual Readiness for the Youth Volunteer Service Program

Within each of the target groups identified for Youth Volunteer Service Program, various processes contributed to preparing the ground for the introduction of such Programs. These provided important foundations for taking forward the recommendations made from the initial activities. 

Unemployed Youths

The Jobs Summit process took forward the work of the Steering Committee, and agreed to a resolution that supports the need for Programs that involve the unemployed youths in service activities whilst enabling these young people to access accredited education and training through these Programs. The proposal emerging from the Jobs Summit were adopted.

Youths in Conflict with the Law

The YVSP is engaged with the responsibility of rehabilitating young people in conflict with the law. There is support expressed in the judicial system, for the potential that service offers as an alternative sentencing option, and as a mechanism for realizing the strategy of restorative justice. Relevant government departments (such as the Departments of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Defense and Security, Rehabilitation or Correctional Centres and others) have already begun collaborating on these issues and this provides a forum in which to take forward these proposals.

Action Plans:
Project Activities

In order to implement pilot projects for the four target groups, the following steps are necessary:

a) Stakeholder Involvement

For the Youth Volunteer Service Program to be successful and to reach large numbers of young people, close involvement of different stakeholders has been necessary. Therefore, in implementing projects, the Project Team has ensured broad stakeholder participation.

b) The Training of Trainers (T.O.T) Course

The T.O.T was done which emphasized on mobilizing the participants for capacity building and orienting them into the Program, preparing the grounds and creating awareness of the need to participate in the YVSP activities.

This has helped to produce well-grounded Youths to meet the challenges of Uganda’s Socio-economic Transformation through an adequate empowerment programs which are designed to be imparted in the Youths to augment the existing academic and skilling gaps.

c) Monitoring and Evaluation

The T.O.T also set up projects and community Development strategies that are linked to monitoring and evaluation activities seeking to find answers to medium-term considerations such as the required institutional and funding arrangements to be devised by the Youth Volunteer Service Program.

d) Costing and Financial Planning

The Project Committee set up activities that requires labour intensive and a few which require capital intensive to ensure the development of a medium-term financial plan based on costing models derived from pilot and other related activities.

e) Building Awareness

An advocacy campaign was launched to create awareness of the need for a Youth Volunteer Service Program and its benefits to Communities, Young People and the Economy. Such a campaign included a Celebrations on National Youths Service Day, radio and TV talk shows, debates, participating in youths forums and formations, organizing summits and symposiums at institutions of higher learning and public gatherings among others.

YVSP FOR SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AND EMPLOYMENT

Skills Development and Employment Programme

The Youth Volunteer Service Program (YVSP) shall have a Youths Skills Development and Employment Programme. It shall be the Youths flagship programme of the Department of Skills Development.

It shall provide Character Building Programs, soft and hard skills training and dispatch the Youths to rural areas to undertake various rural infrastructure and other development projects. It shall transform Youths from both rural and urban areas, from being job seekers to become job creators in their own right, breaking the vicious cycle of social grants dependency.

The Department of Skills Development and Employment shall partner with the Ministry of Agricultural to train agri-paraprofessionals in smallholder livestock and dairy production, and more in vegetable gardening and other areas of the same field. Other Ministries shall also help the YVSP to identify areas which needs deployment of relevant Youth Army’s members for service. The Department shall invest in programmes to train and deploy Youths.

Background

 The objectives of SDEP are to:

1. Train Youths through specifically developed programmes linked to community needs in rural and urban areas

2. Develop Youths with multidisciplinary skills through civic education

3. Capacitate Youths in retaining knowledge and technical skills acquired during training

4. Increase the number of communities receiving support in their self-development

The programme is specifically designed as part of the National Youths Service and focuses on aspects of Patriotism, Discipline and Service Delivery in communities.

Recruitment is done through advertisements and selection by community structures.  SDEP participants shall be expected to stay in the programme for 6 months following their recruitment from communities. The first 3 months of the programme shall focus on skills development while the latter 3 months shall focus on incubation of enterprises.

The curriculum of the YVSP program shall provide subjects such as Drill, Physical Training, Leadership, Civic Education, Life Skills, Youths Regeneration, Diversity Management, Environmental Management, Public Service Induction, Communication and Social Responsibility among other programs

The programme shall focus on character building in order to deliver Youths who have developed self-discipline, are proud Ugandan and can take the lead in their communities.

Given the spare capacity of the UPDF to present and support the broader YVSP program, a number of Youths may be reached and a significant citizen building is offered. Each of these Youths will have a significant impact on the socio-economic development of their communities.

On conclusion of the DOD NYS program, the participants return to their own departments to continue with their Youths Service Program.

Skills Development and Training

The skills development provided by the Youth Volunteer Service Program (YVSP)'s SDEP shall be in the domains of Construction, Agriculture, Disaster Mitigation, Office Management,

Basic Administrative Skills, Project Administration and Enterprise Development. Construction in rural areas has been identified as an immediate focus area of skills development.

The skills-development phase will be followed by the community-service phase, where the youths will apply their newly acquired skills in rural communities under the leadership/mentorship of the responsible department.

The final phase or exit strategy of the YVSP will be linked to the maintenance and operations activities of local and district municipalities. The strategic outcomes of the program in the long term are expected to be:

1. a decline in the level of Youths unemployment in rural areas

2. an increase in Literacy and Skills

3. an increase in disposable income of Youths in rural areas as a result of Employment and Entrepreneurial Opportunities

4. decreased dependence on transfers from family members working in urban areas.

On conclusion of the Service Year YVSP program, the participants are in positions to be employed, or to contribute to the economies of their respective communities through building enterprises.

In its initial phase, young people between 18 and 35 years of age shall be enlisted, with a minimum educational standard of senior four (4). They shall be drawn from rural wards across the country, including farms, small rural towns and some peri-urban areas.

Application forms shall be available from the Department of Skills Acquisition/Development and Employment Division (SDEP)