About ConnectED
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The Alcatel-Lucent Foundation has forged a partnership with World Education, Inc. to implement ConnectEd, the global signature program of the Foundation. ConnectEd is designed to address factors limiting the work and life options of disadvantaged youth, with an emphasis on girls and women. The program better prepares 13,500 young people from marginalized communities in Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Egypt, France and India for the world of work. ConnectEd began in April 2011 and will continue through March 2014.
Today, in many countries around the world, too many young people are reaching early adulthood without the right skills for our changing world. ConnectEd hopes to make a difference in the lives of thousands of young people, to help them equip themselves with skills to gain secure employment and livelihoods, reduce their vulnerability and put an end to the current cycle of disadvantage. To reach these goals, ConnectEd utilizes a range of interventions, including scholarships, life skills development courses, school re-entry classes, job skills training, work placement and ‘youth civic voice’ actions.
The ConnectEd program has a special focus on the use of technology to transform the learning, work and life outcomes of its youth. Another important element of this initiative is the active participation of Alcatel-Lucent employees in ConnectEd activities, using their expertise to help with activity implementation and serving as role-models, mentors and advisors to youth participants in all countries.
ConnectEd Australia
In Australia, ConnectEd has partnered with YWCA New South Wales to reach young people in the Sydney Metropolitan, Western Sydney, Shoalhaven, and Northern Rivers regions of New South Wales. Communities targeted by ConnectEd have higher levels of youth unemployment and lower levels of income compared to the national average, welfare dependencies, high levels of alcohol, drug and gambling abuse, high levels of domestic violence and a high proportion of early school drop outs. YWCA New South Wales provides services to help young people continue their education and to increase their employability prospects. Through ConnectEd, participants have access to a range of accredited vocational training, work experience and work placement opportunities. They engage in activities to build their confidence and knowledge of basic Information Communications Technology (ICT) skills and internet safety awareness. Participants also learn relevant skills for the workplace, including online research skills, basic Microsoft Office skills and the effective use of online resources. In addition, ConnectEd provides opportunities to develop civic engagement skills to enable young people to make a difference in their communities.
In a total, over three years at least 600 youth will participate in ConnectEd in Australia, approximately 50% of whom are girls.
Employee Engagement
The participation of Alcatel-Lucent Australia employees is a crucial feature of ConnectEd in Australia. Employees are influencing the lives of the young people in ConnectEd through mentoring, coaching on work experience or workplace training opportunities, sharing of experiences and teaching of practical skills, leading career workshops and panels, running financial literacy workshops, and participating in the YWCA New South Wales’ “Breakfast Buddies” program, which emphasizes the importance of exercise and nutrition. Alcatel-Lucent employees also participate in YWCA New South Wale’s major fundraising event, the “Mother of All Balls”, to help raise proceeds to support the organization’s mentoring program.
Partners
YWCA New South Wales has been in operation for 130 years and supports vulnerable people across the region when they need it most, regardless of their background. YWCA New South Wales’ approach combines early intervention and education programs with practical support at critical times, and contributes to its overall mission of developing resilient connected people engaged with their community.
Learn more about YWCA NSW at http://www.ywcansw.com.au/
Contacts
Costa Demos, Corporate Partnership Manager
YWCA NSW
costad@yscansw.com.au
Melissa Golledge, Marketing and Communications Manager
Alcatel-Lucent Australia
melissa.golledge@alcatel-luccent.com
ConnectEd Brazil
In Brazil, ConnectEd has partnered with Instituto Aliança com o Adolescente to reach youth through ConnectEd in Ceará State and metropolitan Rio de Janeiro. Youth increasingly make up the largest segment of the population in Brazil and formal employment markets are not yet expanding to absorb such increases. ConnectEd’s target youth come from low-income families, are between the ages of 18-24, and are graduates or students in their last year of high school/middle school; in addition, they do not participate in other professional training programs and have limited or no access to job training.
Under ConnectEd, Instituto Aliança provides disadvantaged youth with access to a range of vocational training, work immersion experience and work placement opportunities. Components of ConnectEd in Brazil include the development of key life skills, career planning and promotion of citizenship through civic action projects. This is followed by interventions leading to the placement of students in the formal job market. Throughout, there is a strong emphasis on Information Communication Technology (ICT) to ensure that youth have relevant skills to enter the workforce.
In Ceará State, ConnectEd operates in nine schools, in partnership with the State Department of Education. In Rio de Janeiro, the program operates in a community center called the Centro Pastoral do Menor. In total, over three years, at least 2,800 disadvantaged youth in Brazil will participate in ConnectEd.
Employee Engagement
In Brazil, Alcatel-Lucent employees influence the lives of youth in ConnectEd through mentoring, career development workshops and life skills training. Alcatel-Lucent will also give ConnectEd youth the chance to visit the Alcatel-Lucent office to shadow employees and to participate in workplace immersion.
Partners
Instituto Aliança com o Adolescente is a Brazilian NGO dedicated to promoting links between youth, vocational education and sustainable development in Brazil. Instituto Aliança develops youth-centered programs that promote the personal, social and professional development of youth, primarily in Bahia, Pernambuco and Ceará, as well as in Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro. One of Aliança’s goals is to increase youth access to training and employability skills and to develop opportunities for disadvantaged youth to become small entrepreneurs as well as active leaders in their communities.
Learn more about Instituto Aliança com o Adolescente at http://www.institutoalianca.org.br/
Contacts
Adenil Vieira, Director
Instituto Aliança com o Adolescente
adenil@institutoalianca.org.br
Gabriela Antunes Cano, ConnectEd Volunteer Coordinator
Alcatel-Lucent Brazil
gabriela_antunes.cano@alcatel-lucent.com
ConnectEd Cambodia
In Cambodia, ConnectEd targets youth in Prey Veng province, which has the highest poverty levels in the country, low education rates and high rates of unsafe migration, trafficking and child labor. ConnectEd also works in partnership with the Happy School in Phnom Penh to reach migrant youth who are not in school and who suffer from discrimination, poor housing, extreme poverty, unstable family life and exclusion from social services.
Under ConnectEd, World Education assists youth who are out-of-school to enter into a quality education program, and offers services to children in-school to enable them to remain in school longer and to gain skills to transition successfully into the work force. World Education provides scholarships to in-school children at-risk of failing or dropping out of schools in the most disadvantaged areas of Prey Veng province. For out-of-school youth, ConnectEd provides basic literacy, numeracy and continuing education courses, as well as school re-entry classes.
Activities and courses for youth include employment awareness and job-related skills, including financial literacy, basic enterprise skills, health and personal safety knowledge. The introduction of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to rural Cambodian youth and urban migrants is also a major component of ConnectEd in Cambodia. Both teachers and youth are trained in ICT skills, so that these technologies can enhance the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom.
In total, over three years, 2,000 disadvantaged youth will participate in the ConnectEd program in Cambodia, with at least 60% of these to be girls.
Employee Engagement
In Cambodia, the participation of Alcatel-Lucent employees is crucial to impact the life trajectories of the vulnerable youth in ConnectEd. These youth, especially girls in rural areas of the Prey Veng, lack role-models and exposure to other life options. Through ConnectEd, employees impact youth by providing assistance with computer labs and ICT training, curriculum development, English teaching assistance, mentoring, tutoring, “adoption” of a youth group, and facilitation of career workshop panels. In addition, Alcatel-Lucent employees share their own life experiences to girls in Prey Veng who will migrate into the city for work.
Partners
The Happy School in Phnom Penh, Cambodia supports and provides free educational access currently to 64 of the poorest children living in the urban area of Phsar Deoum Thkov. To achieve this goal, Happy School provides nonformal education programs to 64 students from Grade 1 through 6, and also includes extracurricular activities such as: English language, art, drawing, sports, and vocational training. The school makes efforts to integrate students back into government schools.
Contacts
Sok Kim Sroeung, ConnectEd Cambodia Director
World Education Cambodia
skimsroeung@worlded.org.kh
Sovanny Theam, Executive Assistant
Alcatel-Lucent Cambodia
theam.sovanny@alcatel-lucent.com
ConnectEd China
In China, ConnectEd works with disadvantaged migrant communities in the outskirts of Beijing and Shanghai. The children living in these communities are at an educational and social disadvantage as they are often excluded from the formal school system and other government services, and have a range of health and psychosocial needs. ConnectEd also reaches children in the rural province of Henan whose parents have migrated in search of work. These children are often left behind in their hometowns without proper guidance and protection, and suffer from abuse, poor physical health, and the psychological impact of lengthy separation from their parents.
Under ConnectEd, World Education has partnered with a number of local organizations to offer out-of-school migrant youth quality education and skills training programs and to assist schools to help migration-affected children remain in school longer and gain skills to transition successfully into the work force.
As many of the disadvantaged youth ConnectEd serves remain excluded from the digital world, the program has a strong focus on increasing access to and training for both students and teachers in Information Communication Technology (ICT) skills. These technologies enhance the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom and also provide youth with the skills they need to succeed in the job market.
Over three years, 3,000 youth will benefit from ConnectEd in China.
Employee Engagement
In China, Alcatel-Lucent/ASB employees engage with the ConnectEd program through assistance with computer labs and ICT training, mentoring, providing assistance to newly arrived migrant youth, interview simulations, and cofacilitating various classes and activities. In Shanghai in particular, employees are able to “Adopt a School” and assist with ICT training to migrant school teachers, and take ConnectEd youth on various one-day field trips around the city.
Partners
In China, World Education partners with a number of NGOs and migrant schools to implement ConnectEd. HandsOn Shanghai is a Shanghai-based international NGO funded by a group of young international professionals in 2004, which focuses on promoting volunteerism through coordinating charitable programs for individuals, corporate and college student volunteers in areas of education, children’s health, elderly care, facility improvement and environmental protection.
Working Ants is a Beijing-based organization that provides technical assistance to grassroots NGOs and individuals in program bookkeeping and auditing services. It also assists coordinating and implementing programs in areas of student life skills and job preparation training for in-school children and out-of-school youth in the Beijing area. The Practical Skills Training Center for Rural Women promotes the advancement and personal development of migrant female youth and women in Changping District of Beijing. The center was founded in response to increasing numbers of rural women entering Beijing to seek work and provides opportunities to participate in a variety of training and education classes. The center caters mainly to migrant females who are identified through the Department of Labor and the Women’s Federation throughout China. Selection criteria prioritize those migrant women and female youth from the western, rural, remote, poor and ethnic minority areas of the country, as well as populations affected by natural disaster. Young female school dropouts are another key target group. In the past ten years, the center has trained students in courses such as computers, hairdressing and beauty treatment, restaurant service, domestic service and early childhood education, all free of charge.
Contacts
Sandy Chou, ConnectEd China Program Manager
World Education
sandychou912@163.com
Lin Guiyang, Director, Corporate Social Responsibility
Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell Co., Ltd.
guiyang.lin@alcatel-sbell.com.cn
ConnectEd France
In France, World Education has partnered with CPCV, a French NGO, to implement ConnectEd in Les Yvelines, which is located to the west of Paris and is the department where the headquarters of Alcatel-Lucent France are located. CPCV has an extensive track record in working with disadvantaged youth in urban areas, particularly in seven departments and Paris that make the Ile de France Region.
The ‘zones urbaines sensibles’ (ZUS) in which CPCV works in the Ile de France Region have large numbers of marginalized youth, many of whom are from immigrant families. In France, the rate of unemployment for youth aged 14-25 was 25% at the end of 2010, with unemployment rates for youth in the ZUS at levels as high as 40%. An estimated 160,000 youth leave school in France each year without finishing their studies, only further exacerbating the youth unemployment situation.
CPCV programs are notable for their high placement rates for youth in employment post training, as well as for an approach to youth employment training that focuses on a range of personal development, educational and social issues, and not just on training for a specific occupation. Through our partnership with CPCV we have every confidence that ConnectEd France can bring positive changes to the lives of the disadvantaged youth we will be serving in these areas.
Employee Engagement
In France, Alcatel-Lucent employees will be given opportunities to volunteer in the ConnectEd program by providing assistance with CPCV’s newly expanded ICT component of its curricula. In addition, ConnectEd youth can visit Alcatel- Lucent offices to gain exposure to a real workplace and shadow employees.
Partners
CPCV Ile de France is a French non-governmental organization specialized in working with marginalized communities. It was founded in the 1940s as an organization engaged in social and economic reintegration following the Second World War and has emerged six decades later as a major local force in employment training for marginalized youth, particularly young women and immigrants from North and West Africa. CPCV Ile de France maintains training centers in several locations in Val d’Oise, Ile de France, and les Yvelines in an effort to offer training for socially and economically disadvantaged youth from a wide range of cultural, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. Current training programs focus on three areas: technical employment preparation and placement, health aide training, and social worker training. All trainees participate in class training based on life skills, French language (both oral and written communication), math and science, and specific occupation related training. Each trainee is placed in practical work settings, where they are followed closely by CPCV trainers and staff. Participants in CPCV training programs are certified upon successful completion of their training programs. CPVC is well-known for its engagement with a wide range of businesses and employers as well as for its track record in trainee placement in appropriate work settings.
Contacts
David Kahler, ConnectEd Senior Advisor
World Education, Inc.
david_kahler@worlded.org
Soizick Lamande D’Aloia, Director of Communications
Alcatel-Lucent France
soizick.lamande@alcatel-lucent.com
ConnectEd India
In India, ConnectEd focuses primarily on girls from the slum areas in New Delhi (Tughlakabad) and Noida, Uttar Pradesh (Harola and Jhundpura) that are made up of predominantly poor, minority and dalit migrants. Here adult illiteracy is the norm, water and sanitation conditions are very poor, and access to quality education and health services limited. In fact, data from these areas suggest that only 4% of youth are in high school.
Committed to turning this situation around, World Education has partnered with local NGO Action Beyond Help And Support (ABHAS) to reach youth in these areas through ConnectEd. Under ConnectEd, ABHAS provides services to these youth to ensure that those who are out-of-school are able to enter into a quality education program and that children who are in-school are able to remain in school longer and eventually transition successfully into the work force.
Program interventions include academic coaching, counseling and scholarships to keep youth in school, and life skills and Information Communication Technology (ICT) classes that help youth secure decent work opportunities.
In total, over three years, at least 4,000 disadvantaged youth in India will participate in ConnectEd.
Employee Engagement
Alcatel-Lucent employees in India impact ConnectEd youth in a variety of ways. Volunteer options include working with youth to organize campaigns in their community, providing English assistance (virtually or in-person), facilitating career workshops, facilitating youth groups, and being a mentor for young women.
Partners
Action Beyond Help And Support (ABHAS), has been a local partner of World Education since 2006. Since their founding in 2003, ABHAS has provided for the educational needs of working poor and migrants in the slum areas of New Delhi and Noida. Each year ABHAS reaches out to more than 1,200 children, mostly girls, to ensure that those who are out-of-school are able to enter into a quality education program and that children in schools are able to remain in school longer and eventually transition successfully into the work force.
Read more about ABHAS at http://www.abhasindia.org/
Contacts
Madhavi Samson, Founder Director
Action Beyond Help And Support
abhas2006@gmail.com
Jesmit Kaur Sabharwal, ConnectEd India Volunteer Coordinator
Alcatel-Lucent India Ltd.
jesmit_kaur.sabharwal@alcatel-lucent.com
