The purpose of a Youth Leadership Forum is to:
Increase the number and quality of opportunities for young people to develop the capacity to lead, stimulating the provision of world class leadership opportunities and supporting young people who face greatest risk of negative outcomes – encouraging all young people to be on the path to success.
Encourage a culture where young people are welcomed as leaders of change.
Promote and support change within the youth leadership sector to further develop the market, supporting sustainability including the involvement of the private sector.
Why do we need a Youth Leadership Forum?
Young people in developed world today are growing up with ideals, expectations, ambitions and talents which are unprecedented, driven by new technology like Web 2.0, higher levels of education and globalisation.
As a State, we have a scarcity of strong organisations engaged in youth leadership, and in recent years, there have been no creative experiments in this area.
Kerala’s young people face new kinds of social challenges in a static world – while the world is becoming more complex, flatter and technology being a major driver of these changes. The World around Kerala is faced with negative pressures of terrorism, economic pressures of globalisation. Kerala has no such pressures and therefore no pressure for thought leadership. Historically, the lack of opportunities in the State has led us to be exporters of our most productive resources – our people. Recent global events started with displacement of jobs due to internet technologies and now the deep economic crisis has meant that these jobs are going to be permanently displaced.
The displaced Keralites will find it more difficult to absorb into their motherland. Unemployment rates and other cultural issues will lead to more crime, unhappiness and violence. Therefore, Kerala cannot afford to be complacent in the globalised world.
It is a well known fact that Malayalee’s perform better outside the State. This is a situation that needs to change if we want a progress in State Economic Output.
The recent success of Resul Pookutty, A.K. Antony, Vayalar Ravi on global and national platforms needs to be looked at with a talent of Abdullakutty being suppressed at the State level to illucidate this case. Political leadership over the last 10 years has focussed on infighting amongst leadership positions leading to a loss of productive time.
In our community, talent continues to go to waste; thousands of young people face acute difficulties in making the transition to adulthood; public perceptions of young people is often negative – reinforced by unfavourable media portrayals – with young people often being perceived as part of the problem rather than the solution, and at worst viewed with fear and suspicion. These negative perceptions mask the extraordinarily positive work in which young people are engaged – whether in the private or public sphere. Young people are still denied adequate representation in the places where power is exercised, from parliament and local associations, to businesses and voluntary organisations.
Youth Leadership Forum will increase the quantity and reach of opportunities for young people in Kerala; to create a new wave of thought and change for the State of Kerala.
Recent Comments