Open Society tackles youth unemployment

Youth unemployment is one of the most enduring problems society faces: today nearly one in five people under 25 are jobless. Facing an incredibly competitive job market, even work experience is difficult to find. A situation has been created where hundreds of thousands of educated and skilled young people looking to enter work find themselves unemployed, damaging their confidence and causing their skills to stagnate.

Rather than waiting for the job market to improve, Open Society, a community of 18-25 year olds, prefer to create their own enterprise and find their own solutions. Working together, Open Society members create and deliver independent projects, developing their skills and experience in the process.

If someone has a project they'd like to pursue, Open Society has the manpower, skills and infrastructure to help bring it to life. If someone's looking to gain first-hand work experience and develop their CV, Open Society has a diverse range of projects that they can become a part of.

Open Society is looking to tackle the problem of youth unemployment head-on with Slumpwise, their first project. Focusing on relevant youth issues, Slumpwise combines an interview video channel, an online magazine and a live two-hour Q&A session with a panel of 15 selected experts to generate discussion and positive action. The topic of the first Slumpwise online event is 'Creative Solutions To Youth Under Employment'.

The message of Slumpwise is that the options available to a young person out of work or under employed are changing. Innovative entrepreneurs are achieving success, often very young. A new breed of recruitment companies is transforming the graduate job hunt. Shared work spaces and collaborative networks are developing, encouraging people to improve their skills and experience by working together. Increasingly for young people, you don't have to have a job to be working; under employment, once a problem, is becoming an opportunity. Slumpwise will demonstrate just how this is happening.

Rob and Dom from 'Escape the City' says, "Young people often suffer proportionally more than other age-groups at times like these and an initiative like Slumpwise that supports them in doing something different should be applauded."

Open Society's projects vary greatly in scale and type: there is a traveling multi-arts event, an online publication showcasing talented young writers focusing on local news, a summer film festival. The thing that connects them is that they're all thought up and carried out by 18-25 year olds sharing skills, ideas, contacts and resources.

The philosophy of Open Society is best exemplified by their initiative, Opportunity Maps. By searching their local communities and speaking with local business owners, positive relationships have been forged between the young project teams and members of the community: the project teams gain experience working with local shops and businesses, and the shops and businesses benefit from the help of enterprising and skilled young people.

Opportunity Maps are about realizing the opportunities that are on our doorstep, and creating enterprise and work where before there appeared to be none. This is central to Open Society's mission: helping young people to gain work experience and develop their skills by working together.

Find out more about Open Society at www.open-society.co.uk and join the Slumpwise debate on Saturday 12th June 2-4pm at www.slumpwise.co.uk.