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 Vozz: Democratic and Political Participation of Youth in Salvadoran Municipal

Elections

On March 11, 2012, Salvadorans head to the polls to vote for mayoral elections, but who will be voting? Although 30 percent of the

population is considered to be young, or ages 15-29, only 30 percent of these youth in El Salvador exercised their right to vote last

elections. How might this change if young Salvadorans were engaged on civic issues, and empowered with the journalism skills toreport their view of the upcoming election from a very local perspective?

Vozz is a youth-driven election project which empowers young Salvadorans with the information and training they need to be citizen

reporters throughout the pre- and post-election period in El Salvador. Named by youth in crime-ridden Guatemala City, Vozz

captures the spirit and voice ±voz ± of young people to share election stories from 20 municipalities throughout the country, creating

lasting ties of civic engagement. Participants will upload reports via mobile phone, the web, and video reports via YouTube.

Why: El Salvador is in a unique position to open true political participation to young people for the first time. In 2011, El Salvador 

passed its first every youth law, with a $700 million dollar budget to implement new programs to tackle unemployment, poverty,

violence, and political participation. Participating in local elections is not only a gateway to further civic engagement, but also

reporting on elections offers an opportunity for the voices of youth which are rarely heard to help shape the national dialogue.

Workplan: In the 10 weeks leading up to the election, the Vozz team will focus on education and training, citizen first-hand reporting,

interactive events for conversation-building, and collaboration with the local municipalities. Through training of trainers in 20

municipalities, Vozz will support groups of young people, ages 16-24, to report before, during and after the elections in their 

communities. A three-day event training will take place in Late February at the University of Central America (UCA). In addition,

reporters will cover a local youth forum in the municipality of Santiago Texacuangos, where candidates will present their platforms

on issues important to young people.

Technology: Working with youth across the country, it is important to provide a space to share and discuss information across

geographic boundaries. Building from HablaCentro¶s existing software, Vozz will include a central platform which will integrate with

social media (Twitter, Facebook and YouTube), provide for multi-media postings ± text, audio, photo and video ± via phone and

internet, and allow participants to share their reporting in multiple languages. Additionally, the platform will incorporate interactiveand gaming aspects.

Team: Spearheaded by Ashoka Fellow Kara Andrade, HablaCentro has assembled a strong coalition of partners. Kara is working

with local bilingual reporter Danielle Mackey, and local NGO CEIBA El Salvador. As part of a human rights commission on a national

youth network, CIPJES, CEIBA actively participated in the creation of the Youth Policy (P olitica de Juventud, passed March 2011)

and the Youth Law ( Ley de Juventud, passed November 2011). CEIBA works with violence prevention programs in the municipality

of Santiago Texacuangos, organizing youth in programs including sports, service projects, art programs, and disaster risk reduction.

HablaCentro will work with Digital Democracy to develop curriculum and conduct training of trainers. Other contacts include youth

organizations focused on political and civic engagement in the country. The deadline for submitting application is February 13, 2012.

If you have any questionsplease contact me at kara@hablaguate.com or for more information, visit www.vozz.com.gt .