OBJECTIVES

To educate and support street youth-- especially in the area of SRH—through an education and media component, as well as through a business training and micro-enterprise credit programs component, which provides youth with alternatives to high-risk lifestyles.

BACKGROUND

Since 1988, SKI has worked with local agencies in Asia, Africa and Latin America to support and educate marginalized youth throughout the world.

SCOPE

As stated below, the project has trained more than 4,000 youth workers, who have in turn reached approximately 100,000 street youth, in various countries around the world.

MAIN ACTIVITIES

Education and Outreach:

• Two educational videos have been developed—Karate Kids, about STIs and HIV/AIDS, and Goldtooth, about substance abuse.
• Youth Workers are trained to provide education to youth, and in utilizing the videos to assist them in this process.

Business Training and Micro-Enterprise Credit Programs:

• Working with partner organizations, developed youth-specific business programs, including apprenticeships and individual businesses.
• Developed a “Street Business Toolkit”, which will assist youth workers in providing business training to street youth.

MANAGEMENT FEATURES

Strategy

Especially for a disenfranchised group such as street youth, combining micro-enterprise opportunities with ASRH programs—as this program project and agency does--is critical.

Capacity-Building

The youth targeted in this program develop not only in their education and life skills through the educational component, but are also provided with real-life alternatives to high-risk lifestyles through the micro-enterprise development component.

Mobilising Resources

By providing materials and model programs for reaching street youth, SKI has promoted and supported the development of programs which serve these youth, around the world.

Managerial Leadership

Few successful programs exist which have specifically focused on targeting street youth. This program will therefore serve as a model-- and as such will provide many useful lessons—for future interventions with street youth.

EVALUATION FINDING

SKI has provided more than 150 “Risk and Decision-Making Workshops”, trained more than 4,000 youth workers, and reached an estimated 100,000 street youth through its work. The Karate Kids and Goldtooth videos have been translated and distributed in over 100 countries, and the Goldtooth videa won a UNICEF award. Impact evaluation data was not available for this case study.