Education For Citizenship

Civic Leadership Programme for Young People in Interface Areas of Derry/Londonderry

This project engages young people from interface areas in active citizenship projects aimed at developing their capacity to play an active role in promoting positive changes within their communities and in a wider context. In these communities young people are portrayed as lacking motivation and the skills needed to transform their situation. The project focuses on the civic potential and contribution of young people to their communities.

This project complements local, national and European government initiatives on promoting the participation of young people, and will build bridges between communities as the young people address together issues of common concern. Engaging young people in projects tackling issues that affect them provides the groundwork and the gateway to take it a step further and encourage a mutual interdependence where both communities gain from a collaborative approach to effecting change.

Aims

•To involve young people from marginalized interface areas in capacity building projects to provide them with the confidence and skills to effect change in their community on issues of concern.
•To impact on how the community sees young people and how young people see themselves.
•To start the process of developing interface areas by focusing on the contribution of young people to the building of more vibrant and democratic communities.
•Over the course of the project, around 18 of the young participants will undergo accredited training as 'coaches', supporting the other young people through a process of identifying their issue, selecting a problem related to that issue, and carrying out a campaign or project related to that problem that makes the issue public. The accreditation will be through the George Williams College (YMCA London) by long distance learning and the coaches will qualify as Youth and Community Workers after 2 years.
•To support cross-community collaboration with the 'other' side of the interface around issues of common concern.
•To provide action research information, including models of good practice that will inform the development of collaborative work between interface areas.

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