Global Opportunity Youth Convening (Philadelphia 2018)

During the week of December 2-8, 2018, twenty-four young leaders from twelve countries gathered in Philadelphia, PA for The Global Opportunity Youth Convening (GOYC), to address the global challenge of how to provide productive livelihood opportunities for the world’s young people. The youth delegates came to Philadelphia from many different geographies but shared a similar profile of being youth who were born into poverty and having a current or past experience of being disconnected from opportunities for formal education, training, and employment. The delegates also had found ways to overcome these barriers to find their way to productive livelihoods that support their own economic needs, their families and their communities. Finally, they are youth who experience most directly the impacts of many of the most intractable challenges facing the world today – income inequality; climate change; forced migration; extremism; digital disruptions to traditional livelihoods. The GOYC was one effort to ensure that the vision, energy, practical knowledge, digital fluency and experience of these ‘opportunity’ youth begin to shape the many responses to the global youth employment challenge that are initiated by government, corporations, and training and education service providers. 

The Philadelphia youth convening was the inaugural youth event of the Global Opportunity Youth Network, a new effort to catalyze and support collaboratives of government, business, education, nonprofit, and youth leaders within a given community, who share a goal of increasing jobs and livelihoods for young people. These collaboratives will focus specifically on creating action plans in support of young people who are out of school, unemployed, or working in informal jobs. Youth voice and agency is a central strategic pillar of the GOYN. Throughout every step of the change process, GOYN partners ensure youth are engaged to design, champion, and lead solutions in their communities.