Latin America & the Caribbean
We’ve worked with more than 70 local organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean to help them harness their passion for sustainable youth development projects that measurably change the lives of underserved youth. The first member of IYF’s global partner network joined from Ecuador in 1991, just a year after our founding. Flagship initiatives New Employment Opportunities (NEO) and entra21 have connected more than 100,000 young people with employability training and jobs and created critical alliances among government ministries, businesses, and youth organizations. A great example of how IYF builds local capacity to meet global standards of excellence, our innovative new assessment tool for NEO is helping us evaluate more than 200 service providers, who receive tailored coaching and improvement plans from our regional experts. Together, we’re reshaping how young people in Latin America and the Caribbean envision and can access a brighter future.
Antigua & Barbuda
Initiatives
In alignment with our global dedication to the economic and social integration of underserved youth, our work in Antigua and Barbuda focused on helping young people, and particularly young men, succeed.
Argentina
Initiatives
Starting in 2002, we built alliances and supporting scalable solutions for youth leadership and workforce readiness in Argentina.
Belize
Initiative
In Belize, we focused on connecting low-income youth with employability skills and training.
Brazil
Initiatives
Having worked here with more than a dozen international donors since 2000, we established ourselves as an experienced and trusted partner for positive youth development, particularly youth employability, in Brazil.
Chile
Initiatives
Together with our partners, we took an innovative approach to addressing the challenges faced by young people in Chile.
Colombia
Initiatives
We implemented three of our major initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean—New Employment Opportunities (NEO), entra21, and Obra—in Colombia.
Costa Rica
Initiative
As part of our YouthActionNet® Global Network, Costa Rica celebrates and fosters social innovation.
Dominican Republic
Initiatives
Our initiatives here have helped young people get jobs and live healthy lives, and we’ve strengthened how local organizations serve them.
Ecuador
Initiative
Through our award-wining entra21 employability initiative, we equipped “hard to hire” youth here with the right training to meet employer needs in the food service and hospitality industries.
El Salvador
Initiatives
Our work in El Salvador has supported the inclusion of marginalized youth and offered young people an alternative to violence and gangs.
Grenada
Initiatives
Through our Caribbean Youth Empowerment Program (CYEP), we offered marginalized young people in Grenada a holistic way of securing work and regaining hope.
Guatemala
Initiatives
We chose Guatemala as one of three regional hubs for our Obra initiative, which focused on building multi-sector partnerships to increase support for youth at risk and make youth a policy priority.
Honduras
Initiatives
In Honduras, our game-changing employability initiative entra21 connected underserved young people with in-demand vocational and life skills to secure jobs.
Jamaica
Initiatives
Through programs such as Obra and the Caribbean Youth Empowerment Program (CYEP), we built multi-sector alliances in Jamaica.
Mexico
Initiatives
Through extensive experience and research, we are delivering solutions that connect disadvantaged young men and women in Mexico with in-demand skills and jobs and offer alternatives to dangerous activity.
Nicaragua
Initiatives
Here in Nicaragua, we helped connect youth who are considered harder to hire with the skills to succeed in the jobs employers are looking to fill.
Panama
Initiatives
For more than a decade, our initiatives New Employment Opportunities (NEO), entra21, and EquipYouth prepared youth in Panama with the skills to secure jobs in growth sectors.
Paraguay
Initiatives
Through New Employment Opportunities (NEO), we worked across sectors to create an alliance of Paraguayan organizations and build local capacity to serve youth with employability training and services.
Peru
Initiatives
Every major initiative we’ve led in Latin America has included Peru.
Saint Lucia
Initiatives
Here in Saint Lucia, we provided market-relevant training for youth at risk through our Caribbean Youth Empowerment Program (CYEP), Planning for Life, and Obra initiatives.
Uruguay
Initiatives
To address the skills gap here in Uruguay, we focused on helping young people build in-demand technical and life skills.
Venezuela
Initiatives
We started our work in Venezuela in 2001, through entra21.