FAQ

Voices of Youth is a global community for young people to learn about development issues (such as Environment, Education, Human Rights, etc) and to express their opinions. Voices of Youth seeks to create a space that will help young people develop into active global citizens equipped to communicate and collaborate effectively to make a positive difference in their countries and communities. On VOY, young people will gain knowledge and awareness of the key thematic issues affecting young people around the world, enabling them to have an open and honest dialogue about the world in which they live.

The Voices of Youth is an initiative of the Youth Section in the Division of Communication at UNICEF Headquarters in New York. Though built by and maintained by UNICEF, the VOY is not intended to be a platform for UNICEF’s agenda. It is a place for youth to express their opinions on development issues that matter to them.

While many of the themes on the site (Health, Education, Human Rights) are issues that are part of UNICEF’s mandate, the opinions of our writers and our readers are not to be taken as the official view of UNICEF on the subject. For more information about UNICEF’s work, please visit www.unicef.org.

Our site is targeted to people between the ages of 13 and 24, as some content may be unsuitable for younger children. The majority of our users are young people and represent over 200 countries.

Anyone aged 13-24 can post articles, poems, drawings and illustrations, and videos. Our Editors review everything before publishing it to the site. If there is a problem with your post, our Editor will get in touch with you. Our Editors reserve the right to edit your post for grammar and content, though content edits are typically minimal. Unless you receive an email stating that there is a problem with your post, it is most likely in the queue and should be published soon.

We encourage educators to use VOY as a way to connect their students to youth from around the globe. Voices of Youth forges cross-cultural interactions between adolescent students from different countries, helping them develop their communications skills, define and articulate their position on global advocacy issues, and in the process become active and engaged global citizens. Participating on VOY can also help students hone their writing and reading comprehension skills. Educators can work with their students using VOY in several ways: read and comment on posts, write original posts as individuals or as a group, create short films to post or take photographs to share with the VOY community.

Yes, we welcome partnerships with other youth-focused websites, communities and organizations. Please email us at [email protected] for more information on how you can partner with Voices of Youth.