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Aruba Youth Impact

Active in these sectors:

Provides services for: Youngsters

Aruba Youth ¡mpact (AYI) is a newly launched youth platform for the youth by the youth.

As an initiative of Heart-Centered Leadership Foundation, the youth platform grew out of the foundation’s philosophy: connecting youth to their heart, their compassion, and their purpose. The idea behind it flourished from working together with young people who showed an interest in becoming actively involved in community development and change, young people who expressed concerns about their community but not getting the opportunities to openly voice these concerns.

AYI aims to work towards increasing and normalizing youth participation and youth engagement that contribute to the development of skills and a growth in life experience. Through active youth participation and engagement, youth can have a more active, collaborative, and representative voice in their community: sharing concerns and ideas and proposing solutions to contribute to a more sustainable development of their community.

AYI aims to provide youth with a voice, build skills, and strengthen their resiliency by asking the 3 questions:
Who Am I?
What Are My Abilities and Strengths? and
What Do I Want?

These three questions help build a foundation of young people who are sustainable, resilient, respectful, and responsible.

Purpose of the organization

AYI aims to engage youth in Aruba between the ages of 14 and 25 years old to:
• become active and participating members of their community
• foster a generation of sustainable and resilient youth by offering personal leadership trainings and seminars
• create opportunities for youth to come together, interchange ideas, and create change and impact through community projects at all levels
• build and strengthen 21st century skills (life skills)
• promote the effective realization of the Sustainable Development Goals through execution of its projects

Services/Activities

The 7 main activities promote the Positive Youth Development approach, which takes a strengths-based perspective when it comes to fostering youth development by focusing on skill building and strengthening the relationships within the young person’s environment.
The 7 activities embody skills training, capacity building, promotion of youth engagement and personal leadership development: 

IMPACT YOUR LIFE:
Trainings and programs that strengthen social development, personal leadership, communication skills, personal confidence, inter- and intra relationships.

IMPACT YOUR FUTURE:
Programs targeted on the development of professional skills and attitude: goal-setting, resume writing, job interview skills, personal branding, debate skills, etc.

IMPACT CAMP:
Three to four-day seminars that foster personal leadership: communication skills, self-esteem, healthy and loving relationships, personal responsibility, commitment.

IMPACT CAFÉ:
Creating and promoting a safe space where young people can come together, share ideas, and propose solutions to issues they experience in their community, at school, at home. Impact Café offers young people the opportunity to have their voices heard and stimulates them to become change makers in their lives.

IMPACT FACTORY:
Monthly sessions where Aruba Youth Impact! members come together, brainstorm and start working on projects they want to implement.

IMPACT DAY:
Impact day is a day of awareness, where a light is shined on a topic or international observance, for example: Kindness Day, Earth Day, Day of Peace, Mental Health Day.

IMPACT YOUR COMMUNITY:
Fostering the principles of serving and leadership, Impact Your Community embraces giving back. Community work, volunteering, a special neighborhood project: the youth decide what or who they would like to give attention to during this day.