Jashn- e- Jaipur: A Youth Jumbish
Why Jaipur?
Our exchange with young people and organizations across the city of Jaipur led us to discover that while Rajasthan is known for its social activism across the world, the young people in Jaipur tend to be very disconnected from this legacy. The city is undergoing a number of changes which is resulting in a lot of turmoil. In terms of aspirations, the city is looking towards Delhi- malls, multi- storied buildings and call centers. Personality development, English speaking classes and tuitions for civil services among others are on the rise. Dealing with this fast paced urbanisation while being rooted in the cultural tradition has created a tough situation for young people. In this fast-paced, competitive world, the locus has somewhere shifted from education for development of character and growing up to become an effective human being, to education that merely equips young adults to do well for themselves alone. This has led to a preoccupation of the young person with his/her own development in exclusion of the rest of society.
Why do we need to work with Young people?
We believe that young people can change the world today. We believe that the young people have great energy and passion which infuses young people with the potential to initiate, actualize and sustain positive change in the world. Every young person has a potential to be a changemaker, all they need is an opportunity to discover that potential.
In a world where every day brings a new headline to add a sense of insecurity and fear, values like trust, love, peace and interdependence are fast giving way to cynicism, and a desire to focus on just self.
In this scenario, many young people who want to engage often hold back (willingly or unwillingly) for fear of being perceived as mad or being labeled as the odd one out. Often they are held back by their immediate families, who feel that this may take them away from their path towards success.
In this process the young people loose a great opportunity to develop as good human beings, who retain their individuality while valuing interdependence and hence connect their self with the larger society. The ability to think and analyse for one self, look beyond what exists, take stances and action, are all skills which are necessary skills for both career and in life and are learnt in the process of becoming an active citizen. Working with young people to inspire them to become change makers and active citizens is therefore imperative to the health of the entire world.
What is active citizenship?
The word citizenship is often viewed solely from the political lens. To many of us it defines the relationship of an individual vis a vis a state.
However, we believe that a citizen is also a denizen of a city, a nation and a world. We have a responsibility as guardians of these common spaces, beyond our homes and institutions.
Citizenship is that, which makes us participative, proactive, and responsible towards society. This citizenship is boundaryless, not defined by state, caste, religion, language.
An active citizen is someone who steps out of the comfort zone of complacency and acts for social change. Values of interdependence and ownership are at the core of active citizenship.
What is Jashn- e- Jaipur: A Youth Jumbish?
The JEJ is going to be a space to celebrate the young changemakers, inspire young people to get engaged and see how the process will benefit both them and the world at large. It will also give them concrete spaces to get involved through volunteering and other means, and put the focus on how it can be cool to be an active citizen. The Festival we hope will also help the society at large see active citizenship as an integral part of education of a young person.
We hope that the spirit of fun, celebration and hope, along with real examples will help inspire young people to embark on a journey of self to society, and start the process of creating a community of Youth active citizens who can create their own vision of what Jaipur should be like and act on it.
What will the Jashn- e- Jaipur: A Youth Jumbish do?
There are many young people wishing to create social change and becoming active citizens in Jaipur. However, they often find themselves in isolation and feel the need for a platform where they could connect with like minded peers, and discover and enhance their potential as change makers.
It is precisely this platform that we want to start building through the Jaipur Youth Festival. With this festival, young people will be inspired to become active citizens by creating their vision of Jaipur, celebrating the work of young active citizens and identifying ways in which they can get involved.
It will also create a case for how getting involved in society gives a space to learn many things including skills which help in developing a good responsible human being which will help in both career and life.
All this of course while having fun, and using interactive and creative methodologies like theatre, music, art, and craft among others.
Some questions that we hope the Big Shout will raise:
- Can Citizenship be more than just a relationship of an individual and a state?
- What are our responsibilities to common spaces beyond our homes and institutions?
- How are our lives connected with those who we have never met?
- What can we do to make love, peace and respect universal values?
- Why is Active citizenship so important?
- How can we move from independence to interdependence?
Vision:
To inspire young people to become active citizens by promoting new thinking and imagination on the theme and recognizing citizenship work done by young people.
Objectives:
- To inspire young people to become active citizens by recognizing and celebrating existing youth citizenship work.
- To create a community of Young active citizens who can engage with social action by helping them identify ways in which they can make a difference through methods such as volunteering.
- To enable young people to make a connection between self and society and make a case for active citizenship as an integral part of an individuals’ education and life.
-
Possible Outcomes:
- 40 young people register to volunteer with different organizations.
- 30 people sign up for exposure trips
- A forum of young active citizens who meet once every month for sharing what they are doing towards the Jaipur that they want and have imagined and sessions by diff orgs as inputs for the same.
Target Group- 15- 25 years
Scope of Impact- Adolescents, Youth and Parents and the larger society.
Process:
The Festival will actually be rolled out in three stages:
Stage One: Pre Event stage
- Connecting with various schools, colleges and organizations as well as individuals and identifying groups who could be interested in the festival. These groups could then be asked to choose a theme. Options could be offered where in the group if they choose could interact with a issues based facilitator and a skills based facilitator to create their presentation. (also connected with the Film fest and exposures).
- Identifying people and groups of youth who are already engaged in cit action.
- Connecting with different organizations and getting them on board for volunteering and interactive stalls.
- Film festival on issues
- Exposures
Stage Two: Event
Stage Three: Post event stage
Follow up
Evaluation
Volunteering
Forum
How can different people/ groups / institutions get involved :
Schools:
- Send children on the day of the event to participate (sections 9 and 11 pref)
- Choose to create a group to perform on day of event- within which
Option a- To choose a theme and devise it on their own
Option b- they ask us to connect them with facilitators on issues and/ or skill
- Host a film screening followed by a session on an issue to engage people in dialogue.
- Hold an internal debates, discussions and sessions, to talk about what is active citizenship and its need.
- Take the children for an exposure (with or without our help)
- Nominate groups/ individuals who have already been engaged in social action (groups who participated in Project Citizen)
- Ask children to create posters, write poetry, and create notice boards in this issue.
- Hold parents – children dialogue on this issue.
- Hold internal sessions on skill building on how to get engaged in society.
Colleges:
- All of the above
- Give us space to mobilize people and invite them to participate even outside of college if the college does not wish to engage directly.
- Nominate students as volunteers for the fest.
NGOs:
- Stalls during the event
- Facilitators for issues and skills- help facilitate the process
- Take on volunteers
- Facilitate exposures
- Volunteer as part of org team
- Share resources
- Help in outreach
- Help in identifying other facilitators and access to young people
- In case youth or adolescent oriented org then all the options as under schools and colleges.
- Developing creative interfaces between school and college students and the communities that they work with.
Artists- Theatre, painters, photography, musicians etc.:
- Help facilitate the process with young people.
- Create pieces on social issues which can be exhibited during the event and even before and after to make people think
- Creative ways of communication through the festival
Media :
- Outreach
- Taking up the issue for public dialoguing
These are some of the ideas that we have on ways in which people can engage
Why Jaipur?
Our exchange with young people and organizations across the city of Jaipur led us to discover that while Rajasthan is known for its social activism across the world, the young people in Jaipur tend to be very disconnected from this legacy. The city is undergoing a number of changes which is resulting in a lot of turmoil. In terms of aspirations, the city is looking towards Delhi- malls, multi- storied buildings and call centers. Personality development, English speaking classes and tuitions for civil services among others are on the rise. Dealing with this fast paced urbanisation while being rooted in the cultural tradition has created a tough situation for young people. In this fast-paced, competitive world, the locus has somewhere shifted from education for development of character and growing up to become an effective human being, to education that merely equips young adults to do well for themselves alone. This has led to a preoccupation of the young person with his/her own development in exclusion of the rest of society.
Why do we need to work with Young people?
We believe that young people can change the world today. We believe that the young people have great energy and passion which infuses young people with the potential to initiate, actualize and sustain positive change in the world. Every young person has a potential to be a changemaker, all they need is an opportunity to discover that potential.
In a world where every day brings a new headline to add a sense of insecurity and fear, values like trust, love, peace and interdependence are fast giving way to cynicism, and a desire to focus on just self.
In this scenario, many young people who want to engage often hold back (willingly or unwillingly) for fear of being perceived as mad or being labeled as the odd one out. Often they are held back by their immediate families, who feel that this may take them away from their path towards success.
In this process the young people loose a great opportunity to develop as good human beings, who retain their individuality while valuing interdependence and hence connect their self with the larger society. The ability to think and analyse for one self, look beyond what exists, take stances and action, are all skills which are necessary skills for both career and in life and are learnt in the process of becoming an active citizen. Working with young people to inspire them to become change makers and active citizens is therefore imperative to the health of the entire world.
What is active citizenship?
The word citizenship is often viewed solely from the political lens. To many of us it defines the relationship of an individual vis a vis a state.
However, we believe that a citizen is also a denizen of a city, a nation and a world. We have a responsibility as guardians of these common spaces, beyond our homes and institutions.
Citizenship is that, which makes us participative, proactive, and responsible towards society. This citizenship is boundaryless, not defined by state, caste, religion, language.
An active citizen is someone who steps out of the comfort zone of complacency and acts for social change. Values of interdependence and ownership are at the core of active citizenship.
What is Jashn- e- Jaipur: A Youth Jumbish?
The JEJ is going to be a space to celebrate the young changemakers, inspire young people to get engaged and see how the process will benefit both them and the world at large. It will also give them concrete spaces to get involved through volunteering and other means, and put the focus on how it can be cool to be an active citizen. The Festival we hope will also help the society at large see active citizenship as an integral part of education of a young person.
We hope that the spirit of fun, celebration and hope, along with real examples will help inspire young people to embark on a journey of self to society, and start the process of creating a community of Youth active citizens who can create their own vision of what Jaipur should be like and act on it.
What will the Jashn- e- Jaipur: A Youth Jumbish do?
There are many young people wishing to create social change and becoming active citizens in Jaipur. However, they often find themselves in isolation and feel the need for a platform where they could connect with like minded peers, and discover and enhance their potential as change makers.
It is precisely this platform that we want to start building through the Jaipur Youth Festival. With this festival, young people will be inspired to become active citizens by creating their vision of Jaipur, celebrating the work of young active citizens and identifying ways in which they can get involved.
It will also create a case for how getting involved in society gives a space to learn many things including skills which help in developing a good responsible human being which will help in both career and life.
All this of course while having fun, and using interactive and creative methodologies like theatre, music, art, and craft among others.
Some questions that we hope the Big Shout will raise:
- Can Citizenship be more than just a relationship of an individual and a state?
- What are our responsibilities to common spaces beyond our homes and institutions?
- How are our lives connected with those who we have never met?
- What can we do to make love, peace and respect universal values?
- Why is Active citizenship so important?
- How can we move from independence to interdependence?
Vision:
To inspire young people to become active citizens by promoting new thinking and imagination on the theme and recognizing citizenship work done by young people.
Objectives:
- To inspire young people to become active citizens by recognizing and celebrating existing youth citizenship work.
- To create a community of Young active citizens who can engage with social action by helping them identify ways in which they can make a difference through methods such as volunteering.
- To enable young people to make a connection between self and society and make a case for active citizenship as an integral part of an individuals’ education and life.
-
Possible Outcomes:
- 40 young people register to volunteer with different organizations.
- 30 people sign up for exposure trips
- A forum of young active citizens who meet once every month for sharing what they are doing towards the Jaipur that they want and have imagined and sessions by diff orgs as inputs for the same.
Target Group- 15- 25 years
Scope of Impact- Adolescents, Youth and Parents and the larger society.
Process:
The Festival will actually be rolled out in three stages:
Stage One: Pre Event stage
- Connecting with various schools, colleges and organizations as well as individuals and identifying groups who could be interested in the festival. These groups could then be asked to choose a theme. Options could be offered where in the group if they choose could interact with a issues based facilitator and a skills based facilitator to create their presentation. (also connected with the Film fest and exposures).
- Identifying people and groups of youth who are already engaged in cit action.
- Connecting with different organizations and getting them on board for volunteering and interactive stalls.
- Film festival on issues
- Exposures
Stage Two: Event
Stage Three: Post event stage
Follow up
Evaluation
Volunteering
Forum
How can different people/ groups / institutions get involved :
Schools:
- Send children on the day of the event to participate (sections 9 and 11 pref)
- Choose to create a group to perform on day of event- within which
Option a- To choose a theme and devise it on their own
Option b- they ask us to connect them with facilitators on issues and/ or skill
- Host a film screening followed by a session on an issue to engage people in dialogue.
- Hold an internal debates, discussions and sessions, to talk about what is active citizenship and its need.
- Take the children for an exposure (with or without our help)
- Nominate groups/ individuals who have already been engaged in social action (groups who participated in Project Citizen)
- Ask children to create posters, write poetry, and create notice boards in this issue.
- Hold parents – children dialogue on this issue.
- Hold internal sessions on skill building on how to get engaged in society.
Colleges:
- All of the above
- Give us space to mobilize people and invite them to participate even outside of college if the college does not wish to engage directly.
- Nominate students as volunteers for the fest.
NGOs:
- Stalls during the event
- Facilitators for issues and skills- help facilitate the process
- Take on volunteers
- Facilitate exposures
- Volunteer as part of org team
- Share resources
- Help in outreach
- Help in identifying other facilitators and access to young people
- In case youth or adolescent oriented org then all the options as under schools and colleges.
- Developing creative interfaces between school and college students and the communities that they work with.
Artists- Theatre, painters, photography, musicians etc.:
- Help facilitate the process with young people.
- Create pieces on social issues which can be exhibited during the event and even before and after to make people think
- Creative ways of communication through the festival
Media :
- Outreach
- Taking up the issue for public dialoguing
These are some of the ideas that we have on ways in which people can engage
4:26 PM |
Category:
Youth Festival
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