After several months of hard work conducting research about how to enhance youth work readiness in Kisumu, Kenya; Youth Excel's Issue-Based Collaborative Network (ICON) participants present their main findings to key stakeholders in the community. Through youth-led locally developed research, youth-led and youth-serving organizations have identified key aspects to address to enhance youth work readiness in Kisumu and Kenya. The knowledge products produced by ICON participants include recommendations to enhance the livelihoods of persons with disabilities (PWDs), women and other key identity groups.
Youth Excel supports young leaders and youth-led and youth serving organizations around the globe to use research and data to improve their own positive youth development programs. It helps young leaders leverage the research and data that they produce in intergenerational learning and dialogue to strengthen local, national, and global development outcomes.
What is an Issue-Based Collaborative Network (ICON)?
Youth Excel’s ICON whole-system-in-the-room model convenes a diverse group of youth-led and youth-serving organizations and groups to form a place-based collaborative that collectively tackles a shared problem. The participants build skills in Research-to-Change (implementation research), conduct research to strengthen their own work, share data, create new knowledge collectively, learn from each other, and produce knowledge products to support youth advocacy and engage with local decision-makers.
Kisumu ICON: enhancing youth work readiness by engaging higher education institutions, the public sector, and the private sector. Co-led by IREX and Lakehub Foundation and engaging diverse youth, youth-led/youth-serving organizations and groups.