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Today 120 youths gathered at the Biltmore for the launch of the first social innovation challenge. The Inter-American Development Bank along with Compete Caribbean, and the Government of Canada partnered to pilot this new initiative in Belize. The main idea is to engage youth to come up with solution-oriented proposals for problems they face. 3 of the winning proposals will get funding, training and mentorship. We stopped by for the launch and found out more about the competition.

Sylvia Dohnert - Private Sector Lead Specialist, IDB
"So this event called “Change dah story is a social innovation methodology which seeks to use an innovative process to come up with business solutions that affect youth in this case, vulnerable youth and we have gathered today with a numerous group of entrepreneurs, people who work with youth, the youth themselves, public sector agencies and they will go through a process where they are going to working in teams to develop business propositions around 4 problems and these are the problems of parenting, employment, education and recreation, any of the 4, each team for one of the 4 and at the end they will get a chance to pitch their solution and received feedback on their  solution. Today is not the end, today marks the start of a 3 year, I’m sorry, 3 month period where people can, anybody resident in Belize, or any Belizean resident anywhere in the world can apply through and you will record the link later, they can propose an idea that solves one of these 4 issues related to vulnerable youth. This is really like a training of how to think about your idea in order to apply. At the end of the 3 month process we will choose 15 ideas and those teams will go through a two day booth camp and after the two day booth camp, they will do pitches and we will choose 3 ideas that will get US $10,000 in support for incubation and seed capital to put their idea into practice."

Cassandra Rogers - Country Rep, IDB
"The idea is to really attract creative problem solvers in Belize that can develop innovative ideas and business modules that once they are implemented will actually work to improve the future of youth in Belize particularly as it relates to crime and violence and the idea is for them to change their story and allow such youth at risk to be able to be better integrated and function more effectively in society and contribute more significantly to the social and economic development of Belize. Belize was selected quite frankly because in our experience there has been a lot of creativity and enthusiasm in Belize and you can see it, we have had 120 registrants for this particular event."

Courtney Weatherburne
"So tell us about this event from the youth perspective, why is it important for Belizean youth to participate in this initiative?"

Kris Miller - CARICOM Youth Ambassador, DYS
"It is important because you are getting a first-hand experience of what we think can be the solution to the problem. I mean most of the time it is the person who spearhead usually think of the answer and they implement the process, now it is getting from us what we think should be the solution."

The deadline for submissions is December 1st. To find out more about the competition and how to apply visit www.iadb.org/changedahstory. The launch coincides with the celebration of IDB’s 60th anniversary.