Youth Empowerment
Influencing positive behaviour change and equipping young people with the vocational skills, sporting opportunities and community leadership experience they need to build a future for themselves and their communities.
The Challenge
Young people in the semi-arid communities of Machakos County face a particular set of pressures: limited secondary and vocational education options, high unemployment, exposure to drugs and alcohol, and a lack of structured pathways into productive adult life. Without intervention, cycles of poverty, substance abuse and disengagement reproduce themselves across generations. The energy and potential of youth, if not channelled constructively, becomes a source of community instability rather than transformation.
Our Approach
NACODEV's youth development programme recognises that lasting behaviour change requires more than messaging — it requires opportunity. Young people need something to say yes to, not just something to say no to. The programme creates those positive alternatives through vocational training, sports and structured leadership development, embedded within NACODEV's wider Christian community development framework.
Young people are equipped with practical vocational skills that open pathways to self-employment and income generation. Skills training is contextualised to local economic opportunities, ensuring graduates can apply their skills within their own communities rather than being forced to migrate for work.
Organised sporting activities provide young people with constructive outlets for energy, build teamwork and discipline, and create safe social environments that reduce vulnerability to negative peer influence. Sports also serve as an entry point for behaviour change communication around health, drugs and responsible living.
Youth are actively involved in NACODEV's community development activities, building leadership skills and a sense of ownership over community change. Young leaders are mentored to become community advocates for health, environmental stewardship and social cohesion.
Integrated with the health programme's drugs and substance abuse prevention work, NACODEV delivers behaviour change sessions at schools and community gatherings — equipping young people with the knowledge and social skills to make positive choices and influence their peers.
"NACODEV showed us that we have a role to play — not just as beneficiaries but as builders of our own community."
— Youth Participant, Yatta Sub-CountyImpact
The youth development programme has contributed to measurable reductions in substance abuse in targeted communities through integrated prevention and positive alternatives. Young people trained in vocational skills have found pathways to income generation, reducing economic pressure on households. Youth involved in community leadership initiatives have become active participants in NACODEV's self-help group network — becoming the next generation of community change agents who will carry this work forward.