Training Adventist youth in empowerment skills to reduce unemployment and enhance Mission in Abidjan, Cote D'ivoire

Abstract

The Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church exists for mission—communicating the “everlasting gospel” of Revelation 14:6-12 as mandated by Christ (Matt 28:19, 20) to the world. The young people with their youthful energies and zeal, who should be at the forefront of this mission enterprise, are disabled by the unemployment problem which denies them the opportunity of living up to their God-given potentials. Though a global problem, the African context with growing youth population and reducing job opportunities may be worse hit by this debilitating problem, which is getting worse with time. Because of the multifaceted nature of the problem, this dissertation designed and implemented a training model—a synergy of mission and livelihood skills that would empower the youth and at the same time unleash their potentials for involvement in the mission of the church.This research used the mixed methodology: qualitative and quantitative. Part of the study of the SDA Church in Cote d’Ivoire and the phenomenon of youth unemployment in Cocody-Philadelphia SDA Church were done qualitatively while the quantitative approach was used for the pre and post-training surveys. The study revealed that the problem of youth unemployment that was regarded as socioeconomic had significant theological and missiological implications. Therefore, the SDA Church should be involved in tackling it to reduce the prevalence among its youth membership. Samples of interventions and models from the different economic strata of the globe were examined; in addition, initiatives by faith-based organizations were studied. The gap which this study discovered was the absence of, or minimal application of the spiritual dimension into these models—which this project seeks to accomplish by adopting a holistic approach. The strategy adopted for this project was the synergy of mission and livelihood skills that may reduce youth unemployment in the SDA Churches in Abidjan and at the same time unleash their potentials for involvement in mission. Contacts with the focus group showed that they are aware of the problem and wanted something to be done about it. The researcher administered the pre-training survey to determine the prevalence of the problem. The result showed that of a sample group of 34 youth who took the survey, about 74% were unemployed which confirmed the focus group position. The intervention was a Training of Trainers (TOT) program whose participants were selected from the churches at Abidjan based on their academic qualification—a minimum of a high school graduate. The package for the training consists of three major modules: inculcation, livelihood skill, and entrepreneurial skills. After the training, participants were given materials that would enable them replicate the program. At a post-training survey, 86% of trainees indicated the ability to replicate the training with minimal or no assistance. With this capacity building training in place, about twenty persons can train in youth empowerment whereas there was none before the training. The youth director of Cote d’Ivoire Conference would galvanize the efforts of these trainees to train youth in the church at Abidjan and beyond. The more youth unemployment is reduced the more mission is enhanced.