What were District Youth Assemblies (DYA)?

The youth of Pakistan has decided that now is the time for action. Their communities are facing problems – water shortages, unauthorized seizure of playgrounds, ruthless disregard for environmental issues, to name just a few – and they have resolved to take matters into their own hands; they’re identifying problems, coming up with innovative solutions and they’re putting those solutions into practice by banding into District Youth Assemblies.

District Youth Assemblies Development was a programme that supported young people and helped them launch inventive projects to bring a positive change in their societies.

These projects represented empowerment, that young people were taking charge of their world.

We helped them take control. When they became a member of our local District Youth Assembly, we provided hands-on training to put their projects into practical use. We showed them how to plan, design and execute more such projects in the future – all on their own.

District Youth Assemblies was a chance to interact with Active Citizens at home and abroad – especially UK. This gave an opportunity to discover how other young people, just like you, were solving their community problems.

We wanted to:

• Provide youth the skills, knowledge, understanding and training to implement community projects. We established partnerships with organisations that were working for youth welfare to make sure that guidance is available. Training was provided on: leadership, communication, advocacy, citizenship, volunteering, social action project delivery, fund-raising, entrepreneurship, partnership and network building.
• Help develop networks with the UK both face-to-face and online, so that young people could share ideas, knowledge and experiences with fellow young UK Active Citizens and form new relationships. This was to help them better understand their role as Global Citizens.   
• Develop projects for community’s betterment so that youth could address priority issues and involving people from all generations – the Active Citizens took charge, but made sure that everyone pitched in, in any way they could!
• Help raise concerns with community leaders so that a spirit of active citizenship can be developed. We facilitated discussions about policy for youth at national, local and community levels.

How did DYAs work?

District Youth Assemblies comprised of two groups of young people:

• Core group members – Fresh young people who were passionate about volunteering their time and effort for community betterment. They were keen on initiating interesting projects, and when it came to generating funds, they weren’t afraid to get out there, find the right sponsors and sources, and get them to step in and help out.      
• Youth group members – Relatively experienced young people who had previously implemented social action projects either on their own or by being a part of a non-government organization. Example: A young group Jagoo Pakistan Ethics Development Society Multan, Saiban Welfare Society Rawalpindi and Crystal Future Group Rawalpindi have joined District Youth Assemblies as Youth Groups. These groups entered into a partnership with us and were mainly responsible for implementing projects

Core groups worked in management teams; young people could become a Core group member and find their place in any team. Some management teams like Communication, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation functioned very well.

Youth groups were linked with these teams. Management teams provided additional support to the Youth Groups during the execution of projects.

Where were the District Youth Assemblies in Pakistan?

District Youth Assemblies were actively working in 10 districts of Pakistan: Abbotabad, Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Muzzafarabad, Narowal, Peshawar, Quetta, Rawalpindi, Sargodha.

Who participated?

Young people could become members of District Youth Assemblies if they were:

• between 15-35 years of age
• living in the district where District Youth Assemblies are actively working
• good team players and enjoyed networking with new people
• full of enthusiasm
• willing to build networks and learn new ways of working with community people

When will District Youth Assemblies happen again?

We aren’t planning on reviving District Youth Assemblies any time soon in Pakistan yet.