Inaugural “Young Professionals Corps” Ends Well

On April 15th, PSYDEH completed our inaugural collaboration with the Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare and their program “Jovenes Construyendo el Futuro” (Youth Building the Future).

The program’s objective is to link people between 18 and 29 years of age with university degrees but no current studies or jobs with companies, institutions, businesses, and civil society organizations where they can make an impact while developing or strengthening work habits and technical skills to increase their employability. The Secretary of Labor, Luisa Maria Alcalde Lujan, reported that, in this first year of the program, more than 500 civil society organizations had more than 10 thousand vacancies available to young professionals.

To use the resources offered by the new AMLO administration, PSYDEH agreed to stand up a new program we call the “Young Professionals Corps” for three young people from Hidalgo with the goal of training them on skills and competencies needed for human rights-based, community development:

• Luciano de Jesús Martínez, Bachelor of Psychology, Siglo XXI University, Pachuca, Hidalgo
• Marlen Santos Blancas, Bachelor of Law, Universidad Tollancingo, Tulancingo, Hidalgo
• Yarazet Moreno Borjas, Bachelor of Arts in Gerontology, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, Pachuca, Hidalgo.

Jesus, Marlen, and Yarazet were invited to focus in different work areas, e.g. digital communications, public and international relations, and fieldwork, making meaningful contributions in our first comprehensive impact evaluation, university outreach. They also helped with our 2019 INE project including the 5th regional forum of indigenous women, as well as novel storytelling and embroidery initiatives. And they represented PSYDEH at the 2019 National Leadership Meeting: Youth: Breaking Barriers to Transcend and brought back learning to share with our staff.

PSYDEH designed the program to be a win-win collaboration.

For Corps members, all three young professionals used their PSYDEH experience to find current paid work in line with their ideals and profession. All three had their first professional experience working across professional sectors and cultures as can be seen in this short video, having left with personal contacts in the field and members of our global team. Some even continue to help women with myriad tasks, e.g., Marlen advises a woman on a legal issue!

For PSYDEH, our already diverse staff was enriched by their unique perspectives and skills as young Hidalgans from different professional fields. For example, Yarazet was instrumental in helping us to create myriad bilingual digital communications tools, including this website. They also helped us create the elements we need to improve in future collaboration: the terms of reference format for each professional, a virtuous communication process between the Tulancingo-based young people and our CDMX team, a performance evaluation system, and online post-experience questionnaire.

With Cohort TWO in 2020-2021 (if the government funds the program), we again welcome young professionals to our Tulancingo office. We also are open to young people joining our virtual, multinational team based out of our CDMX office. Together, Mexicans and foreigners will work hand-in-hand with a single objective: “To strengthen indigenous women leaders for sustainable development in their communities in the Otomi-Tepehua region of the state of Hidalgo.”