Testing parts of the Youth Peer Volunteer Model in Kiribati

We don’t always get things right the first time. Usually, we have to try a few times to make it work. This is what a prototype is – a simple test of a proposed model we can run at low cost and low risk. It’s a way of developing, testing, and improving an idea before inviting wider participation.  

In Kiribati, we developed a youth peer-to-peer volunteering model designed to bring young people with different skills together to share those skills with other young people in the community. We didn’t know how much support the young people would need, so we tested it out by running a prototype.

In May 2023, volunteers from YPEER joined volunteers from Tungaru Youth Agriculture (TYA) to run an activity with young people from the Angaieta community in Tarawa, Kiribati – in a small, low-cost test run. This activity helped the program to understand how much support the volunteers might need, what challenges in collaboration there might be for volunteers with different skills, and any further training volunteers may require.

From this test, we clarified the support and training volunteers would need so the knowledge could be applied to the model design in preparation for handover to Y-PEER and any other Kiribati organisations interested in implementing.