History of the Jordan Youth Forum 
 
 2000 
 
The Jordan Youth Forum 2000 on "Youth Concerns" took place under the Patronage of HM Queen Rania Abdullah May 1-3, organized by Konrad Adenauer Foundation and Al-Urdun Al-Jadid Research Centre at Queen Zein Al-Sharaf Compound.

Originally planned as a sort of Youth Parliament, Jordanian Youth Forum 2000 included a real representative sample of socially active youth (50 % male-50 % female and including youth from NGOs from all the governorates). In preparation of the Forum and in order to include the problems of more than the 100 chosen youth activists, each of them had to interview at least 10 youth in their community on major Youth concerns in (questionnaire). From this survey the 10 main problem areas were identified and dealt with in a participatory 3-day workshop (1-3.May 2000): Family, Participation in Public Life, Communication & Information Technology, Education, Employment, Marriage, Youth and Leisure Time, Gender and Social Relations, Democracy, Jordanian Youth’s Cultural Identity.

 
 2001 

The Jordanian Youth Forum 2001 (June 2001) on Youth, Participation and the Internet was again organized by Konrad Adenauer Foundation and Al-Urdun Al-Jadid Research Centre but planned by a group of volunteers working in the IT-sector or in social initiatives with the intention of making Jordan a better place for youth. Combining two of the most important topics "Participation and IT", youth aimed to increase youth participation and finding ways how to use the internet to create new networking communication among youth and facilitate solutions for their problems. Throughout the Forum the participatory approach ensured democratic and constructive interaction and decision-making.
Since 2001, the e-group created by the participants jordanyouth@yahoogroups.com followed up on the project ideas, organizing field visits to the remote underprivileged areas and discussing online and offline all kinds of initiatives, and how to realize their goals.

 
 2002 

In 2002, the youth committee held weekly meetings with a determination to carry on with "Jordan Youth Forum." In August 10th, 2002, the first Youth-in-Action Marketplace was organised at the Al-Hussein Cultural Centre with the participation of over 36 local & international organization who presented their programs for youth to an audience interested in volunteer work.

In October 2002, over 120 participants from around Jordan participated in a 3-day open space workshop Jordan Youth Forum 2002, on "Increasing Youth Participation" As outcome of this forum six youth projects were planned and participants were committed to carry on the implementation of these projects:

Increase political, cultural and social awareness
Fight youth unemployment
A youth association to coordinate youth projects
Jordan Youth Website
Increase youth voluntary work
Talk "Hakee"

 
 2003 

18.2.2003 The Jordan Youth Committee were honoured with the UNDP 2002 Volunteers Award Focusing on a strategic plan and networking, the youth forum committee organized "Jordan Youth Forum goes South" accompanied by a Marketplace in Aqaba in April 2003 to encourage Jordanian Youth of the South to get involved. Hosted by Aqaba Special Economic Zone (ASEZA) and supported by Konrad Adenauer Foundation Jordan the event brought together over 150 participants.

- By June 2003 www.jordanyouth.org was officially launched, a free-of-charge youth portal that is intended to document youth activities and provide Jordanian youth with online tools for dialogue and interaction, current website members are over 1000 user.

Jordanian Youth participated in a series of training subsidized training seminars during the months of July & August 2003, with topics that covered: "Creative Thinking" to "Proposal Writing" & "Fund Raising".

- September 2003 witnessed the Fourth Youth Forum, hosted at Al-Hussein Cultural Centre and sponsored by Jordan Telecom. Over 120 young Jordanians learned how to use the newly launched website and acquired many new skills in a forum entitled: "Youth Connect".

 
 2004 

On 29.Feb.2004 former participants of JYC were successful in registering the National Forum for Youth and Culture/NFYC as a voluntary non-profit organisation with the Ministry of Culture.

In 2004, three forums were held: in the North Youth Rights with the JUST University, and in the South Petra Youth Forum, in addition to the annual Jordan Youth Forum under the title Youth Dreams 2010 where youth worked on 10 different strategic projects they would like to achieve by 2010. At the end of the year a mini-conference entitled Youth in Business encouraged youth to take the initiative in their personal lives.

 2005 

Planned for 2005: the website which will be upgraded with a new look, we will hold three regional forums in the North, South and Middle to encourage youth from governorates to join. For sure we will have our 6th Annual Jordan Youth Forum , several trainings, and participate in many local and international events.