The Youth Parliament's 5th Anniversary =)

Kyle Tayler: Youth Venture

On July 10 2007 we had a chance to meet Kyle Tayler, from Youth Venture through the Ashoka Foundation. He's doing what most of us have been inspired by many times, have dreamed of many times - mapping change around the world. Just a short email from him, do check out his website!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kyle Taylor <mrkyletaylor@gmail.com>
Date: Jul 10, 2007 7:11 PM
Subject: Update: In India, South Africa Movie Posted
To: Kyle Taylor <mrkyletaylor@gmail.com>

Hello!

After a nice seven days off, including a trip to the bush and the Live
Earth concert in Joburg, I am heading full-steam ahead on the last
month of this incredible adventure. I arrived in Mumbai just in time
for a monsoon and am now in New Delhi visiting some incredible teams
doing work in every field imaginable. I spent the day with the
leaders of an amazing organization called Youth Parliament that is
working to give voice to young people while promoting a safe space to
exchange dialogue. It was very inspiring!

In other news, the South Africa video is done, thanks to some help
from Erin Gordon, a YV intern in South Africa. It is quite good, as I
was finally able to incorporate multiple interviews. You can find
that on the homepage here:

http://www.genv.net/en-us/node/3346

I have also posted tons of pictures from South Africa, including
visits to YV teams, sunrise over the Cape of Good Hope, skydiving,
safari sitings in Kruger Park and a few shots from Live Earth. Look
out for video from Kruger and Live Earth soon! The pictures are all
posted to flickr. Just click on the album you want at the right. The
link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyletaylor/

Finally, a big congrats to my sister Chelsey who graduated Saturday!
I am a very proud brother.

Look out for an "email postcard" later this week. I'm hoping you
won't mind forwarding that on to friends and family as we try to boost
web traffic in the final weeks of the trip.

More soon from the other side of the planet.

Peace,

Kyle


--
Kyle Taylor
Spokesperson
Ashoka/Youth Venture

Follow My Adventure!
www.genv.net
Click the Dream It Do It Tour Box!

CREA Workshop with TYP on Human Rights, Sexuality and Gender!

A brilliant two day training workshop at The Attic, with all the coordinators of The YP. Conducted by Neha Sood and Vinita from CREA.
Thank you guys! You really made us think and
we all took some seriously valuable inputs from those two days!

Yuva Parliament in Chandigarh

Yuva Parliament is a young people's movement that has recently been launched in Chandigarh. As they explore their journey and process of discovery, they are being supported and mentored by The Youth Parliament in New Delhi throughout this process. Later on in August, both organizations will visit each other, to train, share best practices and learn! We congratulate them for conducting their first successful session!


Continuing on the objective of ‘Changing Mindsets’ & ‘Initiating Volunteerism’ amongst the Youth of today, We Volunteer has initiated a concept named Yuva Parliament for the first time in the city.

Yuva Parliament, is a platform for the youth of Chandigarh to come together and Connect - Discuss – Formulate action plans on how the youth can impact the society. The first session was held on 29^th June, 2007 at Punjab Kala Bhawan.

The idea behind Yuva Parliament is to bring together the youth from sundry domains and provide them with a common forum where they can share their views and opinions on the most imperative issues in Chandigarh and also formulate methodologies to work collectively to alleviate the problems.

The basic idea lies in letting the participants decide how they can impact the society in their own ways, using their own areas of interest or profession.

So, to create a CHANGE you need not wear a khadi-kurta, carry a jhola & set off to the slums. Society can be impacted in a lot many other ways & that’s what We Volunteer is working on, to redefine what people call “Social Work”!

For the first session, the major umbrella domains were,

• Performing and Visual arts
• Creative arts
• Media
• Sciences
• Activism
• Miscellaneous

85 participants from the above domains were present at the first session. Youth Icons, like Dr. Gaurav Chabbra (spearheading an NGO called Hum Log in Chandigarh and also winner at the WHO short film awards, for his film titled “MudCake”, Mr. Gaurav Gaur, a leading social activist in Chandigarh were present at the session.

The session had an NGO Resource Panel chaired by the heads of various progressive NGOs in Chandigarh. The chair comprised of Col. Bedi (YTTS), Mr. Bhullar(Educare), Mrs Harleen Kohli(CEVA), Mr Ajit Tomar(a leading RTI activist from Burning Brains Society).

The first session started with an open house discussion on the impending issues that are affecting the society today. Issues related to Depression problems in youth, Slum Education, HIV/AIDS, child beggars, and environment formed the crux of the debate.

The second stage of the session comprised of the youth being divided amongst teams based on their areas of interest, that were Performing & Creative Arts, Activism, Health & Sciences & Media. The teams chose their own issues , brainstormed on them, discussed & then formulated Action Plans to find solutions to these issues.

It was really an interesting view to see the youth being so actively involved in the discussion & formulation, being eager to contribute their share.

The last stage was the presentation of the Action Plans formulated by all teams, one by one, to the dignitaries present there as well as the parliament. The parliament was open to suggest any modifications for the plans or to offer any help with the resources the teams would need during the execution of the plans. The projects were critically analyzed by the dignitaries. The dignitaries proposed to provide support and resources for the projects of the youth.

The parliament session was declared closed after a small presentation on Volunteerism 2.0, which is all about redefining how people take the term Social Work.

Not a complete instantaneous impact, but “a Perfect Start” is what we could call it. The work for next session has already begun. Its going to get BIGGER & BETTER each time.

“CHANGE INITIATED”

- Preet Arjun

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare!

The Black Cow Company, in association with Hindustan Times and The Youth Parliament presents The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

For further information please contact Adhir Ghosh at yp.adhir@gmail.com or 9818253776.

TYP announces its new project!

Kaivalya:

A recent initiative launched in March 2007, Kaivalya is a Sanskrit word that means ‘knowledge, enlightenment and realization’. The project works through engaging young people in research projects, community interaction and participating in intervention based programmes to understand Gender and Sexuality, with the specific aim of providing an interactive platform to increase awareness on transgender issues.

Those interested should contact Project Head Sneha at yp.sneha@gmail.com!