Youth Forum of the Center (Foro Joven del Centro) - Argentina

The Forum, which took place October 17-18, 2002, involved debate, the promotion of the academic offerings of the University, and recreation. Young people were asked to submit proposals for new kinds of university programmes that would serve a need represented by the following kinds of questions:

• How have you improved communication in your school, a club, the society, or your neighbourhood? Examples might include the development of a job, the pursuit of sports as a way to integrate peers from different schools or backgrounds, etc.
• How would you describe the needs of our city? Suggested areas of focus include the development of a job related to the abandonment of animals on the street, control of city traffic, and stimulation of tourism; assessment of problems among young people like violence; and ideas for helping to diminish embarassment among young people related to sexual education campaigns.
• How might you improve the quality of life of marginalised sectors of society? Would community/family gardens, or computers and other resources help?

Responses to each theme/question could be submitted in any form: written paper, video, dance performance, dramatisation of a radio programme, advertising design, poem, etc. Groups of 3 to 5 young people, one of whom was of legal age and who could work to involve the institution with which the group was affiliated, were asked to work together to submit this material. UNICEN then elected a university coordinator. Teenagers outside the educational system were encouraged to apply.

A jury considered the applications, awarding prizes that included publication of the proposal and/or trips for all members of the group and the coordinator. A series of workshops was then carried out, as dictated by the winning proposals, for the university community, young people, and members of the civil associations with which they were associated. During the trips awarded to those who won first or second prizes, the Faculties of the National University of the Center, as well as the Upper School of Theater, held a presentation at institutions in various regions throughout Argentina to advocate for the career-related programmes suggested by the winning proposals.

Youth.

Since 1995, UNICEN, has organised meetings for secondary- or media-school students called "Journey of Promotion and Orientation" (Jornadas de Promoción y Orientación Vocacional) to present information on different careers. In 2001, the young participants were surveyed about expectations about future professional development, as well the development of the country more generally. The survey revealed that Argentinian youth see themselves as suffering in difficult and uncertain circumstances, but that they are far from apathetic about politics or social problems like unemployment, hunger, and inequality. These results inspired the present project.