Student, Changing Destinations: Journey to Excellence, Inc.
Event Title: Advancing Youth through Social and Economic Empowerment
Date: September 25, 2019
SPEECH
Youth Empowerment is very close to my heart. A lot of youth are addicted to their phones that when I’m at lunch in my school, people sitting across from one another—instead of talking—are texting each other. Social Action is important to tackle this problem. When I return to my community, I’m going to start a campaign called “Put Down the Phone, Pick Up a Friend™.” Everyone is so attached to their phones—worried about what’s going on and who’s doing this and that—that it’s time we put it down and look for people to connect and engage with. I’d be increasing the number of social interactions within my community.
Co-op Living is one of the greatest resource at risk to my generation. Hope has been fading away since technology has become more prevalent. Everyone’s worried about updates; who’s going to Snap them next and who’s on Instagram. Social media is enjoyable but leads to social isolation that leads youth to antisocial behaviors, suicides, and separation from the community. The solution for this issue is co-op collaboration and just becoming a part of the community. Community is what sets people up for greatness!
Former Vice President
UNESCO Center of Getafe-Madrid, SPAIN
Maria Cruz Rodríguez del Cerrois an author of over 50 scientific and review articles published in high-impact international journals. From 2009 to 2019, Maria Cruz Rodríguez del Cerroserved has as Vice President of the UNESCO Center of Getafe (Madrid, Spain) and as Director of the Cabinet of the President of the Economic and Social Council of the King of Spain from the years of 2002-2006. Further, she was the principal investigator and co-principal investigator in 17 national and international research projects, as well as the organizer of national and international Congresses of Psychobiology and Behavioral Neuroscience. As a visiting professor, Maria Cruz Rodríguez del Cerro lectures at Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey and University of California, Irvine. She holds a PhD in Psychobiology from Psychology School of National University of Distance Education (Madrid, Spain).
Event Title: Advancing Youth through Social and Economic Empowerment
Date: September 25, 2019
SPEECH
Education as a tool to create peaceful and inclusive societies
My aim is to highlight the importance of the first parent-baby relationship for the future of the individual and, thereby, of society. The title indicates that we can shape our brains and thereby our behavior mainly through early life affective interactions. A bit later in life, enters another powerful factor, Education. Affection and Education: both impact the way in which people live their lives. The structure of our brain is based on the research of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the eminent neurophysiologist who is well known as the father of Neuroscience. One of his most significant contributions to the knowledge of the Nervous System was the phenomenon of the growth and development of neurons in mammals, as a function of their behavioral experience. Why do I introduce my talk with this insight? It is because the idea of the statement, EDUCATION FOR PEACE, is directly linked to the concept of Brain and Behavior. Taking into account these ideas, we can assume that Family and School are the major influences on the structural and functional development of our brain and our behavior. The Environment is a third factor that plays a significant role in this process. During gestation and during the post-natal period, through our mothers, the Environment internal and external…affects our brain development.
“Education, as one of the critical factors, … shall be directed toward the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.” ( Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights). On the other hand, “Peace education is the process of acquiring the values and knowledge, and developing the attitudes, skills, and behavior to live in harmony with oneself, with others, and with the natural environment”.
Monisha Bajaj (ed.) Encyclopedia of Peace Education. (pp. 75-83). Frequently, the programs devoted to Education for Peace are directed toward Educative and NGO policies. My aim here, today, is to alert stake-holders and representatives from different institutions involved in Peace Education Programs as to the ways in which gestation, the perinatal period, and the first years of life, play a crucial role in the structural development of the brain and the subsequent development of the behavior of individuals. This unifying concept is based on neuroscientific studies of my colleagues and my own research group (of UNED, Madrid, Spain; Rutgers Univ. NJ, USA).
How do we develop our understanding of brain and behavioral function? We need to use animal models to study questions such as molecular processes underlying brain development, neurochemical mechanisms, neurotransmission, and communication among neurons. Using Positron Emission Tomography imaging technology (or PET), neuroscientists have found dramatic changes in the level of energy use by children’s brains over the first several years of life—from very low at birth, to a rapid rise between infancy and early school years, to a gradual decline to adult levels between middle childhood and the end of adolescence. Imitation using so-called mirror neurons of the cortex of the brain is one way by which baby and parents communicate. Touching, listening, kissing… all types of interactions, contacts with the baby, healthy or even unhealthy, can produce specific responses of hormone secretion in the baby, which will affect its brain structure and neural transmission systems. Behavior “per se” can be a significant factor affecting brain development. Inappropriate maternal or paternal care of children has been shown to have a detrimental influence on the development of children’s affective behavior and cognitive ability.
During the first years of life, connections among neurons are forming for the processes of learning and memory. Approximately 70 % of the total number of synapses, which are the connections among neurons, are formed from 0 to 6 years. An additional 20% of synapses form between the ages of 10 and 15.
The main message that we should transmit to our young people is to appreciate the effects of both internal and external environmental stimuli on the plasticity of the brain, which thereby profoundly affects subsequent behavior. Currently, some programs that convey such information to young people are: Brain Awareness Week (National Museum of Health and Medicine, USA), Semana del Cerebro (UNESCO, Getafe-Madrid, Spain), E4P (Education for Peace, Switzerland).
I want to emphasize that as a priority, we need to introduce, in the UNGA agenda, the following statement: good care during gestation and the early post-natal period can promote healthy development of relationships and social behavior and help to reduce anti-social behavior. Through simple and inexpensive educational programs we may contribute to sustainable peace by demonstrating to children and young people the importance of their early brain developmental period.
If we would pay more attention to this critical period of human brain development, we could most likely significantly reduce anti-social behavior, thereby benefitting society. Thus, this issue is in direct support of the goals of the 2030 UNGA agenda, that is, better care for women and children including their empowerment at the local, national, and global levels.
In conclusion, I would like to answer the question “Why Brain and Peace Education?”. Let me answer it with the following quote from the preamble of the UNESCO Constitution:
“Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed”
Ms. Kit Miller has a Masters in Social Innovation and Sustainability from Goddard College. She served as the director of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Rochester, New York since 2009. Prior to that, she worked as the director/celebrator of Bay Area Nonviolent Communication in Oakland, California. Ms. Miller has been learning about nonviolence and organizing on its behalf for the past 26 years. She draws on Gandhian and Kingian nonviolence, as well as Nonviolent Communication and permaculture, for direction and daily practice. Ms. Miller sees herself as an educator/practitioner hybrid. In addition to using the Institute itself as a learning laboratory for principled nonviolence, she teaches and works on community projects related to restorative justice, sustainability, and antiracism in Rochester and elsewhere. She also has taught hundreds of groups worldwide and has spoken at the United Nations twice (in 2017 and 2018) sharing nonviolence with youth in the 21st century.
Event Title: Advancing Youth through Social and Economic Empowerment
Date: September 25, 2019
SPEECH
Importance of non-violence education and culture of peace for social empowerment of youth
The community is the native climate of the human spirit and face to face uses our whole brain to understand, empathize and learn from each other. Learning, connection, grieving, problem-solving and mourning are things we do in circles with children, youth and adults. Urgent need for training in conflict transformation to support the challenges that will arise regarding population change and resource use. Systemic thinking tools can be taught to people of all ages to understand how systems work and learn how the best people and groups can interact and impact systemic change. Understanding events through the lens of systemic thinking offers opportunities for perspective and intelligent action, rather than reactivity, fear or despair.
Mr. Nick Hatzoglou has a Post Graduate Certificate in Event Management from Victoria University. He is the Head of Community Projects with Football Victoria and has overall responsibility for the Indigenous, Multicultural, LGBTI+, and Disability projects. He ensures football clubs are safe, welcoming, and better reflective of all Australians. He is Australian-born with Greek heritage and has a passion for cultural diversity and sport. Mr. Hatzoglou combines experience gained within the multicultural sector, local government, Australian Football League, and Cricket Australia with his appreciation of the positive role sport plays in a vibrant contemporary Australia. He acknowledges the role sport contributes to nurturing community interaction, social harmony, and believes football can facilitate an essential role in developing people’s understanding of each other at a local, national, and international level. Previously, Nick has played a significant role in developing the Sunshine Heights Cricket Club, the most culturally diverse cricket club in the world), the AFL Peace Team, which brings together Palestinians and Israeli’s into one team, Sunshine Heights Western Tigers Football Club, and created the AFL Multicultural Program from scratch.
Event Title: Advancing Youth through Social and Economic Empowerment
Date: September 25, 2019
SPEECH
The role of sports for the social and personal development of youth
The question posed for me to address was The role of sports for the social and personal development of youth. I would like to approach this question by distilling the many learnings I have embraced in my personal and professional life. Having made all the mistakes, I find myself in a great position to pass on some advice and wisdom.
This will be summarised in 6 key areas
Promoting Wellbeing & Confidence
The importance of Mentoring
Sport can be a level playing field
Youth – leading projects
Promote a Growth Mindset
More Indigenous Engagement and respect
Promoting Wellbeing & Confidence
Sport helps with self-confidence, especially early on in life. It’s always easy to integrate into new environments using sport as the common interest. Sport when successful, improves relationships and makes people happier This is especially relevant for our youth. Sport can create opportunities and get you to the other side of the world. Football is a great gateway to navigating other cultures and countries.
The importance of Mentoring
Everyone should have a mentor/s. In a world where people hang out in virtual communities or are less engaged in a person to person sense, it is even more vital to have that important other you can share ideas with, ask questions and explore life skills.
My strong recommendation is for youth to have older mentors and older people to have youthful mentors. In this way everyone can learn from each other and foster creativity and build tool kits for life’s opportunities and challenges.
As Michael Mandalis said so powerfully upon receiving his recent Football Victoria Hall of Fame Award
“ I look around me and what do I see – Amazing people, amazing football players, I walked in here and I said yeah, It’s very important that we keep in touch, keeping in touch with the old and embrace the new and the new to embrace the old.
Sport can be a level playing field
In a world that’s increasingly unfair – with more disparity in distribution of income, sport seems to be one of a few things that gives everyone a level(ish) playing field. It can lift the poor and humble the rich.
In Australia, we have made giant strides in sport that better engages with under-represented groups such as Females, LGBTI+, Indigenous and Multicultural cohorts. Our sport, football can play a massive role in bridging the gap and we are on a positive pathway with this led by young people.
Youth – leading projects
We see Government inertia on many issues and a growing expectation from consumers to fill the void. Youth can make a stand as they are on climate change. Just last Friday in my hometown of Melbourne, young people were leading a march to bring more attention to climate change – Lets let our youth lead campaigns, invest in them and guide their journey.
Promote a Growth Mindset
We must promote a Growth mindset to our youth, where they can embrace challenges, build resilience, have pathways to mastery, learn and apply criticism and find lessons from others that lead to their success
More Indigenous Engagement and respect
In a world where your number of likes on a picture can determine your status – Instagram has removed the counter amid concerns it was creating pressure on users,
it’s time to connect with our Indigenous communities, these collectivists societies in my opinion hold the key to a more wholesome and resilient lifestyle. As my friend Craig Foster strongly advocates, Indigenous Australia will make a positive compelling impact on Australian Football if we can turn our collective attention to engaging them (both male and female) into our sport- allow them to take risks and boost our cultural intelligence and meaningful engagement of Indigenous People. Our youth can lead this engagement and break the cycle of despair and welfare
I want to finish by saying that getting young people active in sport is only the start. The real measure of our success lies in harnessing the power of sport and play to enhance wellbeing, to boost achievement and to help young people develop the life skills, and the toolkit which will help them to thrive, be happy and healthy.
At Football Victoria during this last year, we have built on the work of previous teams in developing and running successful programmes, continued to innovate new products and pioneered new ways of working to transform young people’s lives for the better.
Examples of how we have worked to enhance the social and personal development of youth are:
Created and promoted new core organisational values for our staff– Integrity, Inclusion, Respect, Unity and leadership.
Promoting Go Football– We still come across (too) many sports bodies, clubs and coaches at grassroots level who only see the world through the lens of ‘sport’, ‘winning’ and ‘performance’. They think that the whole world should support and play the real, traditional versions of their sport that they have been practising and training for ages. New social forms of football where the emphasis is on fun – Walking Football, Social Sevens, Fun Football, Soccer Mums and All Abilities programs provide welcoming environments for that critical mass of less talented and able participants that just want to play and have fun.
Indigenous Football– Employed an Indigenous young man to lead our football forays into better engagement with Indigenous young people. Building capacity and creating employment outcomes
Empowering African Australian communities – engaged with young people to capacity build them so they can play a leading role within their communities to feel better prepared for life through football, including further accreditation as coaches and referees and employment
Over the past 12 months, research continued to paint a concerning picture of young people’s wellbeing. Young people were increasingly likely to be obese, to be struggling with their mental health or feeling isolated and lonely.
We found that too many young people are:
Inactive– 82.5% of young people are not meeting CMO guidelines of more than 60 minutes of activity every day
Stressed– 92% of 15 to 16-year-olds suffer from exam stress
Lonely– 45% of young people aged 10-15 years old reported they felt lonely either some of the time or often
Lacking confidence– one in five girls told us that they lack confidence
Overweight– one in three children are overweight or obese by the final year of primary school
Unhappy– 27% of children aged 10-15 rated their happiness as low or medium
Struggling with mental health– one in eight young people aged 5-19 has at least one mental health disorder
Lacking opportunity– 760,000 young people in the UK aged 24-years-old (10.9%) are not in education, employment or training.
Meanwhile, evidence shows these issues are magnified for girls, young people from BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) communities and young people facing disadvantage.
Alyson Neel serves as Policy and Advocacy Strategist for the UN Foundation’s Global Policy team, with journalism, policy design, and advocacy experience in Turkey, the United States, and most recently Myanmar. Neel has worked to shed light on and address many manifestations of gender inequity, including gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and the gender wage gap, with The Washington Post, UN Women, and the Offices of Louisiana Senator “JP” Morrell and U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin. Neel recently returned to New York after spending 18 months in Yangon, Myanmar, where she supported a local women’s organization and authored a bilingual children’s book, Girl Power in Myanmar, about women rocking their communities across the country. Neel holds an MPA from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, and a BA in political communication from Louisiana State University.
Event Title: Advancing Youth through Social and Economic Empowerment
Date: September 25, 2019
SPEECH
UNA-USA Youth member participation in human rights mechanisms and UN Summits
Empowerment may be the first piece, and we are seeing more of this, but those in power actually release some of their power to allow young people at the table to be another. In the implementation and reporting of the Sustainable Development Goals, we know that multi-stakeholder participation remains a challenge. The good practices of VNR, VLR and 2019 opportunities will also be useful for implementing change. The United Nations Fund works specifically to empower young people through the Girl Up campaign and the UNA-USA grassroots network.
