The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has launched a call for projects in order to identify and support 15 action projects (3 by region) which will be “certified” with the label “8th UNESCO Youth Forum” and implemented by, with and for young women and men between the 8th and the 9th UNESCO Youth Forum (October 2013-October 2015).

UNESCO’s call for projects launched Friday July 12, 2013  and is open to all young women and men who are members of a youth-led or youth-focused organization, project leaders or young entrepreneurs active in an established Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). The projects should focus on innovative and concrete actions that can help achieve positive change for, with and by young women and men on issues including social inclusion, civic engagement and participation, social entrepreneurship and innovation, prevention of violence and conflicts, intercultural dialogue, democracy and skills development.

Young people are invited to submit their proposals for an innovative action project in their community, country or region, by filling the submission form by August 12, 2013, International Youth Day, midnight, Paris time.

After receiving these proposals, an independent international jury will pre-select 45 projects by the end of September 2013 and their initiators will be invited to submit one-minute video describing their project so that these 45 short films can be visible online by mid-October 2013.

During the 8th UNESCO Youth Forum, the young participants will examine and discuss the 45 pre-selected projects with a view to choosing a total of 15 (3 youth-led action projects per the five UNESCO regions). On 31 October 2013, the 15 projects awarded the “8th UNESCO Youth Forum” label will be announced and presented at the 37th UNESCO General Conference, in November 2013.

More information? Visit the UNESCO call for projects website or email youth@unesco.org.

I would love to hear if your youth group or faith community takes the step of submitting a proposal. Please Bronwyn Clark Skov or post in the comments below.