A youth-serving organization based in the City of San Fernando was formally launched at the Giant Lantern and Tourism Information Center. With the goal to activate fellow Fernandino youth, Youth Activating Youth (YAY) aims to bring out the innate potential of fellow Fernandino youth and aspire to support their journey in being leaders of our communities.
“You see, I remember back during my Dad’s time, especially after the Pinatubo eruption and the floodings thereafter, there was an active community of individuals who helped San Fernando go back to its feet. Generations after, including mine, seem to have not been as involved. Come the pandemic, who else is there to renew that spirit but the youth,” said Zab Jimenez, YAY! President and Managing Director.
During the press presentation, YAY revealed its vision as “a Fernandino organization supporting fellow Fernandino youth to become better citizens, together.”
Relatively, the Youth group declared, “I am empowered and I want to contribute as I am proud to be Fernandino,” their mission.
Department of Interior and Local Government’s Jason Veran who is a Local Government Operations Officer served as the event’s Guest of Honor and Speaker.
Veran said that through YAY, not only the youth are being activated but the communities and various sectors as well.
The organization also presented their four pillars namely Education and Life Skills Training, Health and Wellbeing Development, Fernandino Culture and Youth Engagement and Mobilization.
Setting them apart from existing youth groups, YAY endeavors to implement data-driven and evidence-based programs, projects, and workshops through research, surveys, and data gathering from key informants in the Fernandino youth space.
From its inauguration, YAY announced upcoming projects such as youth leadership workshops, Kulturang Kalesa and Barangay Del Pilar Youth day.
The organization is composed of committee directors for Administration and Development namely Celina Dayrit, Director for Internal Affairs for Administrative Development, Dr. Michelle Reyes, Director for Recruitment and Harold Gomez, Director for Finance.
For the Marketing & Communications committee, Bettina Jimenez is the Director for Communications(Media and Advocacy); while, under the Public Relations and Private Partnerships committee, Gustav Henson is the Director for Public Relations and Chan Alvarez is the Director for Private Partnerships.
YAY’s Assistant Directors are Lyra Punsalan, Gerald Gloton and Katrina Jimenez.
YAY! is a youth serving civic organization in the City of San Fernando composed of young professionals who volunteer their time, skills and talents to develop long-term, data anchored and sustainable programs for the youth in the areas of education, culture, health and youth participation. The group aims to re-ignite and activate community service among the youth to share themselves to give back to their hometown and contribute to the improvement of the community.
