We Are Hosting The First Summit For Youth With Disabilities!

The International Disability Alliance (IDA), UNICEF, and the Atlas Alliance, represented by Youth Mental Health Norway, in consultation with IDA's Youth Committee, are organizing a Global Disability Youth Summit under the auspices of the Global Disability Summit 2022. 

The Youth Summit will take place on 14 February 2022. The way this event will be organized will reflect the energy and dynamism of youth as it will be comprising a wide range of regional and global activities and draw attention to topics that are particularly important for youth with disabilities.

Young people with disabilities from different countries around the world shall present key issues that matter to them and their peers. The focus will be on ensuring that young persons with disabilities are not left behind in decision-making processes.

During this Summit, youth with disabilities will share what matters to them, what works and what needs to change.

This event is unique in the way that, the youth will be fully and actively involved: they will not only be participating and speaking in the event, but they will also play a key role in designing and planning for the event as well as in choosing the topics to be discussed during the day. 

In preparation for this event, consultation workshops are ongoing. So far youth consultation workshops have been held in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Iraq. The participants involved have been youth both male and female and LGBTIQ as well as the representatives of different disability categories.

During these consultations a number of key messages have emerged: 

• Making sure youth with disabilities are in work and earn an equitable living. 
• Flexible work environment like work from home model for persons with disabilities. 
• Internships and mentoring opportunities for people with disabilities. 
• Legislation to ensure implementation of policies that require companies to employ persons with disabilities. 
• Clear strong links with schools, colleges, universities, and employers. 
• Preparing young people with disabilities for the future of work and the potential effect of the 4th industrial revolution (e.g., artificial intelligence).

The Summit will be held virtually and it will be composed of regional activities and round tables on cross-cutting issues and will reflect the energy and dynamism of youth with disabilities.

For more information on the Youth Summit and to register, click here:
https://registration.tappin.no/register/youthsummit