IDEJEN implements its activities through local Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), as well as an increasing number of Centre d’Education Familiales (CEFs), which are evening education programs run by Haiti’s Ministry of Education. Strengthening the capacity of CBOs is essential to helping them better serve the out-of-school youth population.

Specifically, IDEJEN is:

• helping CBOs properly manage their funds, with the right managerial and financial structures;
• training educators and youth workers to motivate young people to learn basic educational, technical, and livelihood skills. Educators and youth workers also learn how to provide IDEJEN youth with appropriate mentorship and coaching as they transition to employment, small business development, and/or further education.

The project currently works with approximately 60 CBOs; about 70% have worked with IDEJEN in earlier phases of the project.

Increased Capacity of Youth Training Centers

Each CBO runs one to three Youth Training Centers. This helps reinforce the CBOs’ capacity to manage multiple youth cohorts and attract continuing recognition as nonformal education and vocational training centers. Each CBO/CEF is responsible for recruiting an average of 50 new youth per year into each Youth Training Center, reaching a total of 10,200 youth over the expansion. This figure, combined with the previous and current youth graduates, will bring the total to 13,050 youth trained by September 30, 2010.

CBOs/CEFs are provided with:

• ongoing support and relevant organizational and technical training;
• refreshment of existing knowledge and training in new programmatic areas (HIV/AIDS prevention, transition of youth to further schooling);
• In addition to formal training, each CBO/CEF is supported by weekly visits from a dedicated IDEJEN CBO Support/Field Agent.

Increased Capacity of Youth Career Centers

IDEJEN has eight Youth Career Centers that implement the livelihood accompaniment phase. These Career Centers are run by regional Chambers of Commerce and Professional Associations. These organizations were chosen because of their connection to local and regional business communities. Staff in Career Centers receive training in the areas of:

• Career Center management (finance, outreach, program, etc.);
• youth development and support strategies;
• job opportunity development (linkages and partnerships);
• youth entrepreneurship techniques.

 As with the CBOs/CEFs, each Career Center receives weekly visits from a dedicated IDEJEN Field Agent.

Sustainability and Income-Generating Activities of the Youth Centers

Each CBO running a Youth Center is required by IDEJEN to submit a sustainability strategy along with its proposal for funding. During the pilot phase, this often took the form of an Income-Generating Activity that the Youth Center ran in parallel with the youth training. IDEJEN provided training, technical support, and mentorship to the Youth Centers for the start-up of their Income-Generating Activities.

Currently, IDEJEN is tailoring its strategy to support those centers that have the strongest potential to succeed and become increasingly self-sustainable organizations. IDEJEN is assisting them in the development of business plans and is facilitating the acquisition of necessary materials and marketing plans in order to promote community-based enterprises.

Other CBOs may wish to become increasingly self-sustainable by tapping into more traditional and international sources of funding (grants, partnership agreements, etc). IDEJEN continues to provide them training and support in areas such as proposal development, while helping to strengthen their financial management capacity. These CBOs are working towards gaining accreditation by Haiti’s Technical and Vocational Training Institution (INFP). This accreditation will help open doors for acquiring more sustainable funding from public and private institutions.