Think Creative Fall 2024

building futures

Rosa Isabel Melgar, age 19, had an opportunity to leave her home in Puerto Cortés, Honduras, a Caribbean community with a long tradition of irregular migration to other countries. Years earlier, her mother made the journey north, and Melgar’s sister later followed. Melgar remained in the Barrio Medina com munity of Puerto Cortés and is stepping up for her neighborhood. “People leave their neighborhoods for various reasons, either involuntarily or voluntarily, because they say they want a better future,” Melgar says. “But they can build our future here.” Youth around the world face significant chal lenges related to unemployment, social frag mentation, lack of political and community en gagement, and limited economic opportunities. These issues are interconnected, with financial instability exacerbating social tensions and undermining community cohesion. However, holistic youth programming that centers youth as co-designers and partners offers a powerful solution by addressing these challenges. By building platforms that create economic opportunities, fostering social cohesion and nurturing leadership skills, these programs empower young people to become catalysts for positive change in their communities. Building youth leadership skills Positive Youth Development is an approach to supporting young people in reaching their full potential by engaging them directly, connect ing them with supportive adults and creating opportunities for them to build community. It aims to grow youth’s skills and belief in them selves while creating a safe, enabling environ ment where they can participate actively in the world around them. Melgar has been developing her leadership skills through the 1,500-strong youth program called Agentes de Cambio (Agents of Change), an initiative supported by USAID’s Sembrando Esperanza (Planting Hope) that works with a consortium of organizations in 25 target mu nicipalities. Agentes de Cambio is one of several community-focused activities the program supports to foster rootedness by placing youth at the center of identifying, developing and car rying out locally conceived and led activities.

Participating in Sembrando Esperanza ’s activities has been a turning point in my life. Through this activity, I discovered my leadership skills and the ability to positively influence my surroundings.” - Rosa Isabel Melgar, Agentes de Cambio Participant “

To harness young people’s potential, the program invests in engaging diverse youth, building leadership skills, creating networks of like-minded people and developing community projects. “Once we acquire skills, we bring them to our families to create more positive relationships at home,” explains Melgar, one of the 150 Agentes de Cambio in the coastal city of Puerto Cortes.

During co-creation sessions, youth collaborate with the larger community and civil society organizations to identify challenges—such as lack of economic opportunities or gang violence—and brainstorm innovative solutions to address them. “Participating in Sembrando Esperanza ’s activi ties has been a turning point in my life,” Melgar explains. “Through this activity, I discovered

Photo by Jim Huylebroek

16 | Think Creative | Fall 2024