YouthSpeak 360 Program
By joining YouthSpeak 360, you can help shape community health programs that matter most to you! When you sign up to our WhatsApp campaign (open only to youth ages 18-24 who reside in Guyana, Honduras, Mexico or Peru), you will answer weekly survey questions and receive health tips through WhatsApp. Every week this website will be updated with the latest survey responses, so you can see what youth in your community think about health issues that matter most to them too! This information will provide program managers, policy makers, funders and other stakeholders who work with youth on health issues with current and relevant information to enable them to make evidence-based decisions regarding programs, policies, resource allocation and design rapid responses to critical youth health problems.
Statistics
A real time review of our health surveys to learn more about what young people are saying.
About Us
For regional youth and adolescent health strategies and programs to be successful, it is crucial to have a current and relevant understanding of the health situation being faced by them. Youth and adolescent voices are also important to get a better understanding of their lived experiences and design health programs that respond to their needs. YouthSpeak 360 is an integrated digital initiative that reaches youth, gathers information from them, and collates and presents the data on this website for youth serving stakeholders to utilize to develop an effective response. YouthSpeak 360 has been designed and developed as a collaboration between the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and Cell-Ed, a global social impact organization, along with inputs from key stakeholders and youth experts in the region. Currently in Phase II, YS360 is being launched in Guyana, Honduras, Mexico and Peru in Spanish and English languages.
Background
Young people in the Latin America and Caribbean have become high users of mobile devices as well as using mobile devices to access the web. Internet Usage Rate Among Children in Selected Countries in Latin America in 2019. The percentages of Internet users in North America, South America, and Central America are above the global average, while the figure for the Caribbean is slightly below that average (A Profile of Adolescents and Youth in the Americas).
Currently, all age groups, including adolescents, rely on mobile-cellular technology for making phone calls and accessing other digital services and platforms, including the Internet and social media. Access to the Internet and utilization of digital technology are also well integrated in the Region. According to the PAHO report, the profile of young people in the Americas sketches a portrait of opportunity and challenges. The presence of a historically large cohort of young people in the Region provides the opportunity for rapid socio-economic growth, if strategic investments are made in the health and development of young people.
Social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, develop, live, work, and age. To truly respond to the needs of youth and adolescents, it is critical that providers and other key stakeholders have a deep and meaningful engagement with them to understand their lived experiences, identify their challenges, and develop policies and programs to effectively respond to them. In addition to socio- economic influences on adolescent and youth health, media plays an important role in influencing the health of this population. This is especially true for sexual and reproductive health, which is usually considered private and sensitive, so youth seek information from online spaces where they can be anonymous and safe.