Grow your own Unya!
United Nations Youth Associations are a great way to teach about the United Nations, and get other youth involved in understanding and sharing the ideals enshrined in the UN Charter. UNYAs are usually youth wings of United Nations Associations (UNAs), which currently exist in around 100 countries worldwide. The organizations provide the fertile ground for youth empowerment, education, networking, and also have social components that combine to be a lot of fun and present excellent development opportunities!
Some of the core aims of UNYAs are to:
- Educate young people and the community about the work of the United Nations;
- Empower young people to get involved in international affairs and civil society;
- Represent the views of young people at a local, national and international level; and,
- Act as forum for young people to network and socialize.
If your country doesn't have an UNYA, you still could get involved with your local United Nations Association, and then create the youth component or UNYA. If your country is one of the few that doesn't have a United Nations Association, then you could always start one up - the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) and its members are committed to developing new UNAs and UNYAs.
UNYAs conduct a variety of activities, some of which are:
- Model United Nations, a mock Security Council for High School students (not unlike a competitive debate);
- Conferences (local, state, national and international) - these often have a Model United Nations component as well as leadership, education and representation;
- Education packages or programmes run for primary and secondary school students, informing other young people about the United Nations and international affairs.;
- Speakers events and panel discussions;
- Social events, movie nights, fundraisers.
Find out more: A guide to carrying out simple and effective UNYA-projects
There are a million other things that an UNYA can do locally! Brainstorm for best results!
If you are looking for new ideas for activities and programmes, review the activities of another UNYA in a different country. For example, the United Nations Youth Association of Australia, one of the world's largest and most active, might be a good starting point. You can contact their members through their web site, as listed below.
One way to grow your own UNYA:
- Get together with other interested people and have a meeting. Discuss how to find other interested members and what types of things the association could do. Draft a constitution (help is available if you're feeling overwhelmed!).
- Advertise for interested people to join - you might be able to convince a newspaper to run a free announcement, you could contact youth groups, young civic groups, schools, universities, and of course your local UNA.
- Convene a meeting of interested people to accept constitute the association and elect a committee. Brainstorm possible activities, programmes and projects that the organisation could be involved with.
- Have regular meetings, make them interesting, and keep them as inclusive as possible - more people attending meetings means more ideas, more members, more success (and more fun!).
- Contact your local UNA and the World Federation of United Nations Associations and regularly keep them up to date on your activities - they might also be able to give you advice or help you out.
Of course you don't have to start one this way - you might just want to get a few friends together and meet once a month to talk about the UN and international issues - that's fine too!
For more information:
World Federation of United Nations Associations Youth (WFUNA-Youth)
United Nations Youth Association of Australia (UNYA)
United Nations Youth and Student Association of Austria (AFA-AT)
United Nations Youth Association of Germany (JUNON)
United Nations Student Association of Japan (UNSAJ)
United Nations Student Association of the Netherlands (SIB)
United Nations Youth Association of New Zealand (UNYANZ)
United Nations Youth Association of The Philippines (UNYAP)
United Nations Youth & Student Association of the United Kingdom (UNYSA-UK)