Brighton: Great to be here, Spiffy! The UN Sustainable Development Network was established to mobilize global scientific and technological expertise in order to promote practical solutions for sustainable development, including the implementation of the Paris agreement. UN SDSN Youth, an official youth wing of the UN SDSN, provides unparalleled opportunities to global youth through training, business incubation, global citizenship, and partnership necessary to accelerate youth solutions for sustainable development. We take young people through a tried-and-tested pathway of understanding the SDGs in relation to the challenges their communities face, while empowering them with the key competencies to co-create local solutions to the sustainable development goals.
Charly: It’s great to meet you too, Spiffy! Thanks for having me. To answer your question - not all young people have access to the same opportunities, be that educational, work-related, or wider experiences. This is often related to the income of a family or an area, but it can really hold a young person back. They may not be given the same opportunities to learn. They also might not know people who can help them achieve what they want to. Combined with this, society and individuals hold unfair beliefs about what people can achieve based on their gender. Girls and young women are often told that they have to look and act a particular way, and that there are only certain jobs that they can do. This is not true; nor is it fair! We match girls with professional women from lots of different jobs to show them that it is possible!
Javier: Glad to be with you, Spiffy! We're looking to address loneliness among adults across the country. Since the pandemic, young adults have experienced loneliness at worse levels due to the change in our society's work style from in-person to remote. As young adults enter the real world, they're losing out on their largest social network after graduating which is their coworkers.
