CYSD is a non-government, non-profit organisation established in 1982.

CYSD works for the development of deprived and marginalised people in the remotest areas of Orissa, one of the most backward states in India. CYSD's approach focuses on Primary Education, Sustainable Livelihood and Participatory Governance. However, it also addresses issues such as disaster management, health and sanitation, child rights, HIV/AIDS prevention and drug addiction rehabilitation, and focuses particularly on women in all areas. By working directly with communities to improve quality of life; sharing skills with partner organisations; and carrying out research and lobbying to influence policy change, CYSD's approach is uniquely holistic. CYSD began by providing training to development organisations and civil society groups. The Development Resource and Training Centre (DRTC) evolved to support this function. Although the organisation has developed considerably since it's inception, training and capacity building remains a focal part of its approach. In fact, three District Resource Centres (DRCs) and four Rural Livelihood Training Centres (RLTCs) were recently set up in rural areas of Orissa in order to further extend the reach of CYSD's training.

Our History
The Beginning and the Journey: The Genesis: In the early '80s rural Odisha was in the grip of dwindling village economy, mounting poverty and widespread illiteracy. The situation was grim and alarming. Voluntary organisations functioning in the State were few and far, still functioning in the traditional approach. In response to the imperatives articulated during the Odisha Voluntary Agencies Meet, while deliberating on development issues, it was found that there was a dire need to extend professional support to NGOs in the State and work together towards infusing professionalism into the NGO operations. Engaging the youth mass, especially the ex-NSS young volunteers in developmental activities was the other objective. Thus emerged CYSD (Centre for Youth and Social Development), as a formal entity, in the year 1982.

Establishing Identity: 1989-1992: During this phase, CYSD carried out its expansion of Training Interventions to focused Programmes on environment, non-formal education, thrift-credit and some aspects of organization development. This phase saw the evolution of the DRTC - Development Resource and Training Centre, as a full-scale resource centre for learning, sharing and capacity building. As an exclusive sub-centre, DRTC broadened its clientele by including Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and Self-Help Groups (SHGs), conducted extensive learning and training events on strategic planning and project formulation, developed capacity building tools and resources, and provided technical assistance to other development players. Further, with a repositioning of organizational vision and development goals, added thrust was placed on building strong peoples organizations for strengthening partnership with local communities. The centre focussed on community workers, building their capacities in areas such as community leadership and bottom-up developmental planning. Strategic emphasis was placed on propagation of meaningful development action based on a critical appraisal of local development needs. CYSD also started programme-based networking with organizations working on common themes. Moreover, as the country started preparations for the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment to pave the way for grassroots democracy, the Centre began to explore the prospects of participatory local selfgovernance.

From the Centre to the Periphery: Making for Impact: 1992-2001 The urge to reach out to the people living in abject poverty in inaccessible and extremely remote tribal areas, with precarious and challenging living conditions, surged in the urgency to review the strategic tenor of the organisation in 1994. The organisation thus decided to shift its focus from the centre to the periphery. The process triggered the first Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) of CYSD in the remote Boipariguda Block of Koraput, called PRAYAS, in 1994, followed by two more ITD Projects in Sundargarh and Keonjhar. These action projects aimed at bringing about community development through direct partnership with the backward tribals, enabling them to create their own institutional means of fulfilling needs and securing entitlements. With this expansion, CYSD strategically refocused its engagements on three mutually reinforcing and complementary thematic concerns - primary education, sustainable livelihood and participatory governance - for alleviating poverty and empowering individuals and communities. It further strategically adopted three interdependent interventions: i) participatory action at the community level; ii) provision of capacity and resource support to intermediary development organisations/ practitioners at the district/ state level; and iii) policy research and advocacy at state/ national level for pro-poor reforms. Institutional Response to Disaster: 1999-2003 The devastating super cyclone of 1999 and a string of disasters in tow, engaged CYSD intensively in relief, reconstruction and disaster preparedness activities in the coastal areas. As local, national and international civil society organisations converged on a long-term response, the centre came forward to coalescent these efforts and opened its facilities to launch one of the largest disaster responses from the civil society segment in recent times to provide overall leadership. The centre has been relentlessly pursuing the agenda of disaster response and preparedness since then. Spreading the Wings: 2004-2012 To reach out to the unreached, the organisation decided to adopt a dual strategy of intensive direct action and extensive capacity building and resource support/ partnership, for replication and multiplication, in 2004. As a result, intensive community level interventions scaled up to 550 villages. Developing partnerships and bringing them together, while building their capacities to undertake concerted action and advocacy, witnessed the setting up of three District Resource Centres (DRCs) and four Rural Livelihood Training Centres (RLTCs) in the three backward zones of Sundargarh, Keonjhar and Koraput, under a mandate to disseminate the key elements of CYSDs interventions. CYSD soon joined hands with a few other organizations to float a Section-25 autonomous micro finance institution called Swayamshree Micro Credit Services (SMCS), for providing flexible financial as well as non-financial services to large numbers of SHG members and federations. Today the institute provides credit support to women entrepreneurs of more than a thousand self-help groups.

With the nation witnessing the birth of a civil society coalition called National Social Watch Coalition (NSWC), to monitor the performance of the key institutions of governance and create pressure on them to be accountable to the needs and aspirations of the citizens, a more responsive focus of the Centre was generated to analyse the Orissa State budget with a view to ascertain the amount spent on social services like primary education and health. CYSD hence fostered strategic alliances with several international global forums such as Social Watch and CIVICUS to strengthen citizenry and civil society action across the world. From a humble beginning 30 years ago, CYSD is now poised to spread its wings even further and embark upon another long spell of eventful journey. Other Key Events: Since 1997, CYSD has conducted and published extensive research studies into a variety of issues concerning poor and tribal people in Orissa, to influence the public and policy makers to initiate change. CYSD's disaster response programme began in 1999 when the super cyclone devastating the coastal districts of Orissa. Since then CYSD has been closely involved in relief and rehabilitation work during the floods in Orissa in 2001, 2003 and 2006, and in Tamil Nadu following the Tsunami. CYSD is an active member of VANI (Voluntary Action Network India) and the Credibility Alliance, with a view to enhancing good governance in the voluntary sector.

VISION A society where communities are able to: Make their own choices Meet their survival needs and aspirations Lead a self-reliant and sustainable life with dignity

MISSION To excel as an enabling institution, with the aim of improving the quality of life of deprived communities through: Participatory action Training and capacity building Research and advocacy initiatives

Strategic Model CYSD works in three mutually reinforcing and complementary thematic areas : Primary Education, Sustainable Livelihood and Participatory Governance, with supporting themes of disaster management, health and sanitation, child rights, HIV/AIDS prevention and drug addiction rehabilitation, and focuses particularly on women in all areas. CYSD approaches these themes through three distinct but interdependent interventions: In poor and remote areas of Orissa, action projects work in participation with communities. The communities own the process of development and they contribute with their resources, labour and commitment. Training and capacity building is undertaken at all levels from community to state level, to share what has been learnt from working with communities with a far wider audience. The four Rural Livelihood Training Centres in our project areas demonstrate new farming techniques directly to farmers from both inside and outside the project communities, and to other organisations for wider replication. The three District Resource Centres conduct extensive training, capacity building and networking initiatives across all three themes with Panchayati Raj Institutions, community groups, partner organisations and government functionaries. The Development Resource and Training Centre operates at state level to run workshops and studies with partner organisations, government departments and civil society organisations. Research and advocacy initiatives are undertaken on issues identified at community, state and national level for initiating pro-poor policies and schemes. The aim of the research and advocacy is to ensure that people are fully aware of their rights, and that what is promised is delivered on the ground.

Elementary Education Beginning with the initiatives to spread the adult literacy programme as a capacity building centre, CYSD gradually undertook the responsibility upon itself to enhance the access and enrolment of children in schools through awareness generation, community mobilization, capacity building of different stakeholders like community-based organizations, statutory committees, teachers and children peer groups; and provision of material support and facilities to the primary schools in difficult tribal areas. The emphasis was then shifted to quality education through initiatives like Early Childhood Education, development of innovative teaching learning materials, teachers training, promotion of rights of children, community-led monitoring, institutional strengthening, and strengthening citizens initiative on education watch for appropriate policy-practice changes.

Sustainable Livelihood CYSD believes in incorporating concrete suggestive action plans to take the agriculture into the targeted growth rate by fulfilling the needs of small and marginal farmers in the State of Odisha. It aims to improve peoples livelihood prospects by increasing food security.

Food Security CYSD has been promoting sustainable agriculture practices and its adoption by the small and marginal holder agricultural farmers of the State by focusing on need based interventions having implication on the policy practice changes through constant engagement with various stakeholders in the power structure. The emphasis of intervention modus operandi has been to develop low cost and sustainable models through intensive engagement at the field locations and their demonstration in Rural Livelihood Training Centers (RLTCs) of CYSD, taking inputs from the agricultural research institutes and other experts and finally influencing the power structure for pro-poor policy practice changes and its wider replication. Entrepreneurship Development: Besides providing means of food security, CYSD also helps the community in the process of income generation by imparting various training programmes to develop entrepreneurial skills amongst women self-help group (SHG) members and the local youth.Micro enterprise of goat, pig, and poultry rearing; bee-keeping; fish and farming; leaf plate making; terracotta and bamboo craft; running grocery and confectionery stalls; rice and pulses processing; mushroom cultivation; vegetable vending; pickle

making; and oil expelling are promoted with groups linked to financial institutions to access credit facilities to start their enterprises. Improved Access to Resources and Market: CYSD has been empowering people by increasing their knowledge base, by capacitating them through skill-building, and by facilitating access to resources. CYSDs approach to promote and strengthen Peoples Institutions, undertake micro-level planning, strengthening capacities, facilitating support, and a pro-poor advocacy, converges with the mainstream development programmes. Participatory Governance: CYSDs Participatory Governance focuses on increasing accountability of the institutions of governance towards people in general and marginalized section in particular. CYSD believes that community empowerment and social development are best achieved through greater citizen participation in the grassroots democratic process. Child Rights: Disrupted migrating families, accumulated family debts passed from one generation to the next, lack of educational facilities, ineffective government policies and many other factors combine to make children extremely vulnerable in the project locations. Disrupted migrating families, accumulated family debts passed from one generation to the next, lack of educational facilities, ineffective government policies and many other factors combine to make children extremely vulnerable in the project locations. Many children still work to contribute to the livelihoods of their families and communities. In remote areas, the majority of children remain unregistered, which may cause difficulties for them throughout their lives. CYSD aims to help children to acquire useful skills, and develop their ability to make independent choices. At the same time, awareness is raised amongst adults from all levels of the community on the rights of children. Disaster Response: CYSDs understanding of Disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources, is a result of the conditions of vulnerability present, and the insufficient capacity or measures to reduce or cope with the potential negative consequences. In making efforts to facilitate the process of building disaster resilience of vulnerable communities in their access to entitlements before, during and after major disasters in Orissa, CYSDs disaster response programme intervenes at four phases of providing relief, restoration, reconstruction, rehabilitation and preparedness to reduce disaster risks and vulnerability through shared understanding and coordinated action. It develops appropriate disaster and mitigation

strategies, and strengthens multi-stakeholder partnerships for emergency response and sustainable rehabilitation. Gender Equality Acknowledging the enormous gender equity gap in Odisha, CYSD has taken a number of measures both within the organisation and in its programmes to rectify this imbalance. Conceding the "gender Gap" all over the State, particularly in operational Districts, CYSD works strategically towards mainstreaming gender across the organization as well as in all its theme activities. CYSD has developed a Gender Policy, which is the main instrument for mainstreaming gender concerns within the organization. The Gender Task Force is responsible for ensuring the proper implementation of the Gender Policy within CYSD. Health & Sanitation: The health status of the communities in remote areas of Odisha where CYSD works is extremely poor, marked by high infant and maternal mortality rate, low immunisation coverage, a high prevalence of malnutrition among children, and a high incidence of malaria. A substantial number of these villages suffer from scarcity of safe drinking water. Sanitation facilities are generally limited or non-existent therefore unhygienic living conditions are commonplace and compound the overall health problem. CYSD undertakes a range of preventative and curative activities in the project locations. CYSD provides for increase in household access to micro health insurance services available through mainstream agencies. It engages itself in building capacities of Community Health Volunteers (CHVs), provides village level training programmes to adolescent girls, conducts health check-up camps, screening camps and awareness programmes, and provides practical exposure to TBAs, and strengthens the Kalyan Samities. Continuous interaction with line departments to address the health related issues of the villages has been a regular practice of the project. HIV/AIDS CYSD intervenes with this global emergency systematically through Solidarity Group Action, exercises Behavior Change Communication, mitigates stigma and discrimination through well designed training modules, sensitizes Institutional Service Providers to bring about the necessary change, builds communication Networks for sharing experiences, ensures Linkages with various schemes, and takes up Advocacy Action on emergency issues.

Sustainable development interventions at the individual, community and national level, needs to address health as a major focus area for the socio-economic development of any country. HIV/AIDS has emerged as the greatest threat to the health of human beings and prospects of development of the nation.