The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States has officially launched an OECS Youth Strategy under the brand OECS YES. This strategy was developed based on the need for greater attention and action to issues directly affecting OECS youth. The goal of this initiative is to develop a Youth Empowered Society by focusing on key areas crucial to young people:
- YES I Belong – Citizenship & Identity
- YES I Earn – Employment & Entrepreneurship
- YES I Express – Creativity & Culture
- YES I Inherit – Environment & Sustainable Development
- YES I Learn – Education & Training
- YES I Matter – Child & Youth Protection
- YES I Move – Healthy Lifestyles
The campaign will have a significant digital component which will be led by Digital Marketing Consultant to the OECS - Anushka Singh.
“This is more than just marketing to young people through social media. Our goal here is to create a movement through social media where young people can collaborate and use their voices to impact change across the region.”
Director General of the OECS Dr. Didacus Jules expressed his confidence in the innovative strategy in engaging youth from across the region for better socio-economic outcomes.
“The Youth demographic are increasingly playing a central role in how the social fabric and societies of the OECS will be shaped into the future. It is vital we empower youth to take control of their future and to harness their collective views through a range of innovative digital mediums. The shaping of this Strategy involves a crowdsourcing of ideas from the youth themselves – we are inviting the youth of the region to tell us what are their aspirations, tell us what are the things that they would like to see put in place that they can take responsibility for to shape their own destiny!
A feature of this initiative will also be a Digital Internship Programme - whereby young persons will be able to learn Digital Marketing skills underneath the leadership of Ms Singh, while contributing to the development and execution of the online campaign.
Applications for the Digital Internship Programme are due on June 22nd.
Want to be a part of the OECS YES Movement? Follow OECS YES on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or visit www.oecsyes.org for more information.
