Attachments
INTRODUCTION
The Vision for Vulnerable Youth Initiative (VVYI) aims to increase the social agency, skill acquisition, and economic empowerment of 14-29-year-old female and male adolescents and youth, in and out of school living in vulnerable communities in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia. The project uses the Youth Ready (YR) curriculum, designed to equip youth with new knowledge, attitudes, and skills related to positive self-identity, basic literacy and reading, savings and financial education, health, and self-care, life skills, social-emotional intelligence, entrepreneurship, employability, citizenship, and resilience. Youth participating in YR go through two stages of the “Viability Journey.” In Stage 1, youth join a peer group in a safe space supported by adult mentors and a trained facilitator to guide them through theoretical training on building various skills. In Stage 2, youth create their livelihood pathway plan choosing education, entrepreneurship or employment, which they pursue with support from the same mentors and facilitators.
In 2022, a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) review was conducted to strengthen the curriculum and address youth gender-specific needs within the YR program. The GESI review created a gender-responsive and inclusive education, economic and protection systems for vulnerable adolescents and youth. This collaborative process was grounded in multifaceted components of transformation with the following definitions:
**Gender equality **is the state or condition that affords women and girls, men and boys, equal enjoyment of human rights, socially valued goods, opportunities, and resources.
Social inclusion seeks to address inequality and/or exclusion of vulnerable populations by improving terms of participation in society and enhancing opportunities, access to resources, voice, and respect for human rights.