Y Care International (YCI)

Mission

Y Care International is the YMCA’s international relief and development agency. Y Care works in partnership with YMCAs and other local partners across the developing world to respond to the needs of the most disadvantaged young people.

Disaster Reduction Goal

Young people and their communities are protected from the impacts of disasters.

Policies and Programmes in DRR

YCI Strategic Plan for Thematic Area of Disaster Risk Reduction and Humanitarian Response 2011-2016.

Activities in Hyogo Framework 1
Making disaster risk reduction a policy priority, institutional strengthening

- Member of DRR working group in the UK.
- Institutional strengthening of the YMCA movement in disaster risk reduction.
- Projects with a focus on community participation (particularly young people).

Activities in Hyogo Framework 2
Risk assessment and early warning systems

- Vulnerability and capacity assessments carried out alongside projects in risk-prone areas.

Activities in Hyogo Framework 3
Education, information and public awareness

- Projects including public awareness raising of disaster risks and disaster risk reduction led by young people. Projects including training and learning on DRR.
- Annual research into issues surrounding young people and DRR. Youth volunteerism and DRR in urban slums of Freetown, Sierra Leone was the first of this series (in Documents & Publications section of PreventionWeb).

Activities in Hyogo Framework 4
Reducing underlying risk factors

- Rural livelihoods projects including food security for resilience for young people.

Activities in Hyogo Framework 5
Preparedness for effective response

- Supporting the YMCA movement to strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response using the Disaster Preparedness Planning Guide and Toolkit (in Documents & Publications section of PreventionWeb) to develop Disaster Preparedness Plans.
- Emphasis of all DRR activities and projects on youth volunteerism and participation.
- Supporting YMCAs to follow the YMCA International Emergency Coordination Protocol and use the Emergency Response Templates to develop emergency response appeals and activities.

Other activities

- Cross-cutting: capacity building of YMCA movement to implement community-based DRR activities and projects with consideration for gender and cultural issues.

Disaster Risk Reduction Focal Point(s)

Lizz Harrison, Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergencies Advisor

Websites

http://www.ycareinternational.org/