Brasilia, 25 January 2021 - Youth Centres are places of empowerment where young people can learn about rights and citizenship and get qualified for the market. This is the result of a new opinion polls conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to monitor the use of force in the territories covered by the Programme Opportunities and Rights (POD) in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the study - of qualitative and quantitative nature - was online and involved young people assisted by the Youth Centres, as well as the Military Brigade and the Rio Grande do Sul Civil Police stationed in these locations.
Conducted in September 2020, the qualitative stage heard 46 young people of different profiles, aged 15-24, and who comprise the populations assisted by the Programme Opportunities and Rights (POD) – which is co-financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) - in the six Youth Centres in the cities of Alvorada, Porto Alegre and Viamão.
They expressed their perspectives on public services and public policies on education, health, and security. The initiative shed light on the complexities and richness of the thinking of the peripheral youth of Porto Alegre and the metropolitan region benefiting from the Programme's public policies.
As a result of this qualitative step, an extensive analytical report was prepared, including aspects to be improved in the Programme and other related services and public policies.
The quantitative stage of the study elaborated from the categories identified in the focal groups with young people has so far heard about 500 young people from the six centres in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and about 50 policemen. A difficult element of the study was the difficulty faced by these young people in accessing the Internet and other communication and information technologies - such as smartphones, computers, and tablets.
According to sociologist Sabrina Leal, director of In Loco Pesquisas, responsible for data collection and analysis, the majority perception of the young people is that "the Youth Centres are transforming places both from an individual and collective point of view, responsible for the empowerment of young people, who start to learn more about rights and citizenship, qualify for the job market and transform their relationships with the community".
For the UNODC specialist in Public Security, Criminal Justice and Compliance, Eduardo Pazinato, responsible for monitoring the use of force in these territories, "the conduct of applied research will allow an analysis of the impact caused by police action in the Programme, since one of the main challenges in these territories, following a global trend, is the quality of relationship between the police and the community in general and with young people in particular".
Two publications with the main results of these surveys, among other data from the process of monitoring the use of force in the territories of the Programme Opportunities and Rights since 2015, will be launched in a workshop to be organized in partnership with the state of Rio Grande do Sul at the end of March 2021.
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