Youth Portal

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Youth Portals are participatory spaces that young people can connect with each other and gain information.

Examples of Youth portals

(www.youthportal.in)

Youth Portal for Latin America and the caribbean [1] Since June 5th, 2007 UNESCO and CELAJU creating Youth Portal for Latin America and the Caribbean [2] (English version) to integrate the 22 countries and territories of the Caribbean region and globalize this tool for youth communication.

The Website is sponsored by the following networks: INFOYOUTH, Commonwealth Youth Programme, and CARICOM.

Background: In November 2004, CELAJU and UNESCO started proposing the creation of a Website for Latin American and Caribbean Youth, in view of the evident potential of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) for promoting youth issues, and having seen recently some small beginnings in use of specialized networks for youth affairs. The idea materialized on 12 August 2005, with the formal inauguration of the Website to celebrate the International Youth Day. The URL is: [3].

This Website is for the public, but especially for youth networks, organizations and groups, and people working with youth in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Website is an Internet meeting-place, a network of networks of youth organizations and people working with youth, public and private, national and international, in all subject areas dealing with youth issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. Building these networks will enhance the Website’s sustainability, since it will be nourished by the flow of information provided by existing networks.

For the time being, it is operating only in Spanish, as a first phase, in the second phase is already in English, but it is hoped to bring out Portuguese version soon.

This Spanish Website is visited by an average of 1000 to 5000 hits a day, and is being viewed as an extremely useful tool that is filling what until so recently was clearly a knowledge gap.

The Website has a range of communicational tools, especially Electronic Bulletin Boards (“country of the month” and “topic of the month”) and the Electronic Magazine on Youth Studies, as well as specific thematic sections and various specialized services, which make it possible to work on a variety of issues dynamically and participatorily, gathering a broad-based audience (youth leaders, promoters and specialized technicians).

The CELAJU team views integration of English into the Website not only as a linguistic issue, but as a strategic move to integrate the Caribbean effectively and open our site to the world of people who speak or know English, as the main language for globalized world communication. With so many countries that have such different cultures and features, different from those predominant in Latin America (both Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking) and such a great distance between the two regions, there are too few linkages of trade, communication and joint actions.

Whereas Latin America has strong ties to Spain and Portugal, and with some other Latin countries in Europe (France, Italy, etc.) the English-speaking countries of the Caribbean belong to the Commonwealth, led by the United Kingdom, and have relations with Africa. This arrangement leaves practically no dynamic relationship between the two regions, which explains the great mutual unfamiliarity, not only in cultural terms but also in regard to political happenings and even the most elementary information about each other, which poses a hindrance to integration.

Therefore, the Website proposes to work intensely to build bridges between the two distant but neighboring regions, operating especially with new Latin American and English- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean generations, who could propose, in the future, more fluid, dynamic bonds and relationships in the future than current generations enjoy. If Spanish becomes the second language of the English-speaking Caribbean, for example, this would make possible a great leap forward in this area. Doubtlessly, there is much work to be done, and the Website can help. Sourse: [4]

We hope that the Website will be recognized by professionals and leaders of organizations and networks of and for youth, as a setting for horizontal cooperation and coordination, an open arena for access to all the information about youth issues, a source supplying tools to use ICTs better, a forum for distance training, and an extremely convenient marketplace. We have confidence that the quality of services received and the warmth of the linkages generated will encourage everyone to visit the site regularly, and to want to be partners in an undertaking that will always be open to growth and innovation, actively collaborating in ongoing maintenance and improvement.