HOW TO BUILD COMMUNITY
This program is funded by the Mennonite Central Committee and is designed around cultivating a shared community and sense of identity among youth currently residing in Duhok, whether from displaced or host communities. The project is designed to help young people develop skills to build community with their neighbors, engage community members in discussions on social issues, build trust among groups from diverse backgrounds, and implement activities designed to promote social change.
UPCYCLING CENTER FOR COMMUNITY ACTIVISM
This program is supported by ACT Church of Sweden to create a safe space for youth activists to plan, design, and implement community initiatives around key issues of concern to them, including environmentalism, promotion of art and literacy, gender equity, community understanding of mental health, and more. The project works with a team of volunteers and activists who work to create opportunities for young people to participate in social change. Volunteers come from displaced and host communities and from a wide array of backgrounds and work to share their experiences and identify community-level problems to engage with and find peaceful and creative solutions for. Phase 3 of this project, beginning in 2023, is focused on broadening meaningful engagement with diverse communities, as well as encouraging self-organizing skills and supporting capacity building of volunteers for more impactful community initiatives.
Bridging the Gap: Rizgari Education Project
With support from the Sisters of Saint Francis Ministry Fund, this project aims to improve access to secondary education for the Gypsies, Romani, and Traveler (GRT) communities in Rizgari, a village in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region (KRI). By prioritizing education, Youth Speak seeks to empower the youth of Rizgari and open doors to better employment opportunities, thereby helping to break the cycle of poverty. Providing education will not only equip students with the skills they need for the future but also promote long-term socio-economic development and reduce negative coping mechanisms such as early marriage within this marginalized community.
Strengthening Internal Capacities of AVP Network in Iraq
This program is supported and funded by Act Church of Sweden. Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) Network of Iraq and Kurdistan has been active in Iraq since 2014, expanding considerably into its current form in 2016. The group, consisting of more than 40 facilitators located primarily in Duhok, with smaller groups of facilitators in Mosul, Sinjar, Erbil, and Sulaymaniyah, conducts 3-day workshops designed as experiential programs devoted to the non-violent resolution of conflict by the transformation of power relationships. AVP is a deeply personal and experiential program that encourages participants to explore and express how they engage in violence and non-violence, personally and socially. AVP workshops create a learning environment where participants understand and begin to change their relationship to conflict and therefore to other people.