Young Cities is a global programme that connects young people with local governments, building trust and creating opportunities to challenge hate, polarisation, disinformation and extremism.
find out moreWe have worked in 18 cities across Kenya, Lebanon, Jordan, Pakistan, Belgium, Australia, North Macedonia and Senegal, connecting young activists to municipal decision-makers. Our goal is to create and enhance youth-led solutions to community challenges.
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Our programme ensures that solutions to hate, polarisation and extremism are locally led, driven by youth and the communities themselves. In Skopje, North Macedonia, team Takat was committed to securing the buy-in from the Roma community to produce their film, “Dance in this Chaos”, which was centred on the discrimination faced by Roma people, and filmed in a Roma neighbourhood in Skopje.
They involved local Roma perspectives and talent in the production of the movie, and fostered a jovial environment of collaboration between the Roma community, the production team, and the municipality. Who provided permissions and closed roads to enable filming to take place. Their film eventually went on to win the Grand Prix at the Romano Film Festival, dedicated to highlighting and preserving Romani culture.
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At Young Cities we pride ourselves in fostering deep and lasting relationships between programme participants to encourage less siloed and more collaborative youth-led peacebuilding. Recently, youth teams We Can and Unity, from Gostivar, North Macedonia demonstrated how important and impactful collaborative approaches can be: the two teams decided to merge into a single team for their 2022 Young Cities Ambassador grant, combining their skills and experience to conduct research and trainings to counter discrimination and polarisation in highschools in Gostivar.
They furthermore took their findings a step further, leveraging them as a framework for discussion at broader community dialogue events, which were attended by over 150 people. Participants of the event included North Macedonia’s Minister for Education, members of parliament, as well as municipal officials – making it one of the first high-level events ever organised by youth in Gostivar!
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The Young Cities programme is always tailored to meet the needs of the communities in which we work and the challenges we face. This results in different pioneering capacity-building approaches being modelled and implemented across different contexts. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Young Cities adapted its approach so that the programme could be delivered in Pakistan and Australia. This meant that training modules had to be delivered entirely online – via live webinars and a bespoke eLearning course. The courses were tailored to the students themselves: giving them the chance to participate in the programme at times and in ways that suited them during a difficult and otherwise isolating period for many.
Drawing upon the lessons and best practices from our remote and online-only delivery models, and fusing them with those from our in-person model, Young Cities has designed its first hybridised capacity-building programme – the Youth Leadership Fellowship – which launched in Lahore and Karachi in January 2023. The Academy combines eLearning modules, live webinars and remote working with in-person intensive trainings and teambuilding, workshops with experts and local CSOs, showcase events and policy-dialogue sessions with local government. Stay tuned for more.
Addressing the barriers and apathy among youth to engage in local politics in Pakistan and specifically in Karachi, a city with a complicated history of division and politics.
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Talented young creatives from Lyari, Karachi harnessing the power of film to change negative perceptions of their community.
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Strengthening civic engagement and awareness among Karachi's young students through an innovative capacity-building programme.
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The Strong Cities Network's approach to capacity building prioritises learning-by-doing, contextualising theory through practical application so that participants are not merely introduced to critical capacities but can also apply them in ways that benefit their community directly and create a solid foundation from which they can advance their role as…
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The Youth Policy and Engagement Forum (referred to as the Forum) was a platform for policy-driven dialogue between local and central government institutions and 17 Young Cities Ambassadors – young people who have completed Young Cities’ training programme and successfully delivered an initiative in their community through its small grants…
downloadYoung Cities is a global, pioneering capacity-building programme that connects young people to local governments, enabling the development of shared solutions to the challenges of hate, polarisation, and extremism around the world. Our work builds mutual trust and creates opportunities to address the most pressing issues facing the communities in…
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If you would like to find out more about our impact, or would like to discuss future opportunities, we would love to hear from you.
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