The Team Kerala is a volunteer force formed with the aim of preparing youth volunteers to deal with natural disasters. As the first phase of formation of Team Kerala, a voluntary service force formed by the Kerala State Youth Welfare Board in the Local Self-Government institutions. The project of selecting captains at Panchayat/Municipality/ Corporation levels and imparting training to them has been completed. Training was given to 1,034 captains from all the districts of the State. In collaboration with Police, Fire and Rescue, Forest, Excise and Health Departments, training was provided in the areas of disaster management, first aid, sports training, personality development and palliative care. Besides the captains selected from Panchayat, Municipality and/Corporation, 2800 members were also selected from 14 Districts and trained. Uniform, shoes and cap are also prepared and given to them.25 nos. of Team Kerala members were participated in Republic Day parade in Kollam, Ernakulam and Thrissur districts on January 26, 2023. Passing out parade of 2131 volunteers of Team Kerala was inaugurated by Hon. Chief Minister of Kerala on 23rd February 2023 at University Stadium Trivandrum. Team Kerala has also conducted rallies such as crowd rally and cycle/bike rally against drugs with slogan ‘No To Drugs’ and also conducted Kala Jatha against drugs and campaign for IT professionals. Team Kerala is working with the objectives of bringing youth’s own voluntary service force to the grass root level, getting youth interested in volunteering, making them socially responsible, helping the local youth in relief operations in the event of calamities, epidemics and other emergency situation. The work of this force becomes an asset to our State. Team Kerala is able to utilize the human resources of the youth for social good and thereby inculcate in them the sense of dedication and willingness to sacrifice. About 60,000 youths will become the beneficiaries of this scheme and all sections of the society.
The worst floods in the history of Kerala were in August 2018. The courage and unity shown by the Malayalees in facing this catastrophe is an example to the world. The unity and secularism of Kerala has strengthened us in facing this tragedy. We were able to unite with the same mindset of caste, religion and gender. As per the decision of the 7th Board of Directors of Kerala State Youth Welfare Board dated 25-09-2018, a Voluntary Force named Kerala Voluntary Youth Action Force has been formed with the objective of making Kerala its own Voluntary Service Force by uniting the youth who have become helpless in the tragedy. The goal was to prepare a team of volunteers who could engage in urgently important activities such as disaster management, relief work, waste disposal, palliative care, and awareness work. Through this, it was possible to collect information on young people interested in the field of volunteerism and to equip the volunteer force members by training them in various areas of interest. Resources and services from various government departments were utilized for this. One lakh young men and women between the ages of 18 and 30 who have registered online / manually are now members of this force.
State level inauguration of Online Enrollment of Voluntary Youth Action Force on 28th September 2018 at Govt. In the model school, Hon. Kerala Assembly Speaker Shri.P. Sree Ramakrishnan performed. The venerable Mayor Shri.V.K. Prasanth was the first member to register and since then has been campaigning extensively in all districts and more than one lakh youths have joined the Youth Action Force. Movie stars Prithviraj, Asif Ali, Manju Warrier and Samyuktha Menon were part of the campaign. A vehicle campaign called Drive a thon was launched on November 29, 2018 from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram on December 18, 2018 to promote the Kerala Voluntary Youth Action Force.Drive a thon reached out to selected colleges and public places in all the districts of Kerala with artistic programs such as Humanitarian Songs and Flash Mob.During the function held on 19th December 2018 at Nishagandhi Auditorium, Thiruvananthapuram, Hon. Chief Minister also officially announced the formation of the Kerala Voluntary Youth Action Force of 10,000,000 people.
A three-day training program was organized in Munnar on 23rd, 24th and 25th February 2019 for one thousand selected members of the Voluntary Youth Action Force from all districts. In addition, 100 youths were trained in Fire & Rescue on February 18, 19 and 20, 2019 at the Kerala Fire & Rescue Services Academy, Thrissur District. On March 2, 2019, their passing out parade was conducted by training young men between the ages of 18 and 25 from the districts to lead this volunteer force.The second phase of training of Voluntary Youth Action Force was organized from 28th to 31st May 2019 at Devikulam, Idukki District. About 300 selected youths between the ages of 18 and 25 from different districts participated in the training. As part of the training, the participants were trained in two phases in various fields such as karate training, trekking training, mountaineering, disaster management and primary care to build their self-confidence and self-confidence. Subsequently, the Youth Welfare Board will take steps to implement such training.