IN A bid to influence and educate the youth, the Bacolod Youth Coalition for Democracy (Bacod) has launched a project dubbed “Local Youth Agenda” at Hulot sang Pamatan-on, Negros First Cyber Centre in Bacolod City Friday, April 8, 2022.Prior to administering the project, the coalition conducted its month-long consultation, alongside partnered organizations, with various sectors from February 18 to March 18 this year.Bacod Networks and Volunteers Head John Dyrick Dormis led the assembly with five youth-led organizations partners, namely, Negrosanon Young Leaders Institute Inc. (NYLI), Youth Empowering Youth (YEY) Initiative Inc., Philippine Youth Network for Interfaith Dialogue (PYNID), Humanist Alliance Philippines International (Hapi), and Youth for Climate Hope (Y4CH).”The main purpose [of the project] is to engage youth sectors to be in action-driven dialogue, especially in time of elections where they can air out their major call to actions or pag-panawagan,” Dormis said during the activity.He said the “Local Youth Agenda” aims to introduce itself to the local youth development councils so that the program projects and activities of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) federation will be more issue-based and action-driven.The consultation process took place on different dates as prepared by the partnered organizations with the goal to discuss the factors that comprise the agendas such as, but not limited to, health, climate justice, and education.Yuval Adera, of University of Negros Occidental Recoletos (UNO-R), who shared insights and recommendations for the edication sector, said because the pandemic [brought] an updrop change, many students are still uncomfortable with the new learning method.”This makes learning difficult for the students,” Adera said, citing the challenges in availing the government subsidies for students like them who rely on government vouchers.Desiree Diel, faculty of Colegio San Agustin-Bacolod, shared her thoughts about the accessibility of public health assistance.She hoped that “the barangay health workers should guide and help teh people in the community in seeking for better help services.”As it eyes to widen their projects, Bacod also highlighted that their next objective is to work with other voter education initiatives through their youth organization networks, particularly during the campaign period. (PR)