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The Building Bridges initiative aims to bring together young people and communities as a whole on both a cross community and cross-border basis to encourage reconciliation.
Learning and Educating Together (LET) brings 12-13 year olds together for outdoor, cultural and learning pursuits. Click here for more information.
Knowledge through Enterprise for Youth (KEY) works with 14-16 years old to develop their business skills. Click here for more information.
Wider Horizons provides job training and work experience opportunities for 18-28 year olds from deprived backgrounds in both communities and from both sides of the border. Click here for more information.
The Community Bridges Programme focuses on interface areas and aims to bring about reconciliation between divided communities. Click here for more information.
Learning and Educating Together (LET)
LET aims to break the cycle of poor educational achievement and unemployment by bringing together children aged 12 and 13 from the nationalist and unionist communities of Northern Ireland and the border counties through a series of camps where they take part in a range of skills-building exercises.
Over a total of nine days, students participate in a range of outdoor pursuits from canoeing to archery, which help build confidence and demonstrate the benefits of teamwork.
They also learn about the importance of good communication, personal finance and budgeting, business planning and the impact of business on the environment. Interactive workshops, role-playing and practical simulations bring the world of business to life and promote entrepreneurship as a tangible and realisable goal. The LET Programme catered for 300 young people in each of the years 2005 and 2006.
The Programme is highly rated by participants – in response to a recent survey 96% of participants said they would recommend it to their friends. The outcomes of the project are also promising - 84% of participants said that they had friends from a different religious background after they completed the course (compared to 60% at the start), and 81% commented at the end of the programme they would be happy to address a group of people of their own age (compared to 59% at the start).
For more information on the LET programme, please contact:
Northern Ireland:
Young Enterprise Northern Ireland
Grove House
145-149 Donegal Pass
Belfast
BT7 1DT
Tel: (028) 9032 7003
Fax : (028) 9032 6995
www.yeni.co.uk
Ireland:
Junior Achievement Ireland
8 Longford Place
Monkstown
Co. Dublin
Tel: (00 353 1) 23 66 644
Fax : (00 353 1) 280 3758
www.juniorachievement.ie
Knowledge through Enterprise for Youth (KEY)
Knowledge through Enterprise for Youth (KEY) provides school pupils between the ages of 14 and 16 with what is often their only opportunity to mix with young people from other traditions and backgrounds, bringing them together at residential camps in counties Down, Donegal and Fermanagh.
At these camps, participants are taught key business skills and the importance of working productively in teams. As a result, young people from differing traditions are able to develop a greater understanding and tolerance for other traditions, and firm friendships are often formed.
Each year, Young Entrepreneurs of the Year are chosen from the KEY participants and they are rewarded with a trip to Canada, to participate in the Canadian Junior Achievement Conference.
Since it started in 1999, more than 4,000 young people have graduated from the Programme and it remains highly popular with participants. In a recent survey, 97% of participants said KEY was either excellent or very good.
The programme has also proven beneficial to participants. Upon completion of the course, 93% of participants said they agreed or strongly agreed there is a link between doing well at school and getting a good job, and the percentage of participants agreeing or strongly agreeing with the statement “I know what I want from life” increased from 69% at the start of the course, to 82% at its conclusion.
For more information on the KEY programme, please contact:
Northern Ireland:
Young Enterprise Northern Ireland
Grove House
145-149 Donegal Pass
Belfast
BT7 1DT
Tel: (028) 9032 7003
Fax : (028) 9032 6995
www.yeni.co.uk
Ireland:
Junior Achievement Ireland
8 Longford Place
Monkstown
Co. Dublin
Tel: (00 353 1) 23 66 644
Fax : (00 353 1) 280 3758
www.juniorachievement.ie
The Wider Horizons Programme is a peace and reconciliation focused initiative that targets socially and economically disadvantaged young people between the ages of 18 and 28. It seeks to provide vocational training, personal development and work experience opportunities for participants at home and abroad.
A Wider Horizons project group typically involves 21 participants drawn equally from the nationalist and unionist traditions in Northern Ireland and from the Southern border counties.
Each project normally lasts 20 weeks and is divided into three stages. The first is a pre-departure phase that includes training in vocational skills, mutual understanding, conflict resolution, team building and personal development.
Stage two includes work experience in an overseas location where the groups continue to address mutual understanding and personal development issues.
The third stage involves completing vocational qualifications and developing job search skills so that they can make applications for employment or further training/education courses.
Since it began in 1986, a total of 15,000 young people have completed the Wider Horizons Programme. In 2006, for instance, 540 participants joined the programme and undertook work placements in areas such as IT, Business Administration, Hospitality and Tourism, Caring, Retail, and Peace and Reconciliation, in destinations such as Canada, the US, Europe and South Africa.
For more information on the Wider Horizons Programme, please contact:
Northern Ireland:
International Fund for Ireland
(Department for Employment and Learning)
39-49 Adelaide Street
Belfast
BT2 8FD
Tel: (028) 9025 7769
Fax: (028) 9025 7817
www.delni.gov.uk
Ireland:
International Fund for Ireland
(FAS)
27-33 Upper Baggot Street
Dublin 4
Tel: (00 3531) 6070520
Fax: (00 3531) 6070606
www.fas.ie
The Community Bridges Programme is at the forefront of the work of the International Fund for Ireland in developing community relations, reconciliation and international links.
The Community Bridges Programme exists to support:-
Priority is given to applications from organisations:-
Preference is given to proposals:-
An expression of interest form for potential applicants is available by clicking here.
For more information on the Community Bridges programme, please contact:
Community Relations Council
Glendinning House
Murray Street
Belfast
BT1 6DN
Tel: (028) 9022 7500
Fax: (028) 9022 7551
www.community-relations.org.uk/
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