MONTEVIDEO – Government youth agencies from Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, along with the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the Gurises Unidos (Kids United) group unveiled a digital platform on Wednesday designed to train social workers assisting young people in vulnerable situations.

Gonzalo Salles, director of Uruguayan non-governmental organization Gurises Unidos, told EFE that the platform, which will become operational later this year, aims to “improve interventions by social workers and to enhance public policy outcomes.”

The ECO platform was introduced on the first day of “Social Actors and Youth Social Inclusion,” an international conference at Montevideo’s Sala Zitarrosa theater.

“This great regional seminar discusses the relevancy and importance of social interventions, the links created between the social worker and the individual youth, in order to give the social workers tools to attain better outcomes in public policies,” Salle said.

Juan Jose Taccone, IADB representative in Uruguay, told EFE that the Washington-based multilateral financial institution supported the project through a Regional Public Goods Program grant.

“We have seen an erosion in the region of traditional belonging in our societies,” Taccone said. “First and foremost, in the family as the main area of belonging as an individual and, secondly, in the schools.”