When youth come together, great things happen

Dreaming big is the first step to achieving your goals. Empowering youth to dream big gives them the courage to believe in themselves, in order to become active members of their societies.

Youth RESOLVE 2 (YR2), a project funded by the European Union, aims to empower youth towards becoming leading actors in their communities.

For the last six years, Joey, 26, has been a member of the Sin el Fil youth committee funded by the sponsorship programme at World Vision and later with Youth RESOLVE 1. What started as a small group of youth setting aside their differences and aiming to make a difference in their community became a strategic committee with plans targeting a larger population group. Before, the committee used to work on small-scale and micro-ideas, but now, with YR2, the committee had the ability to dream bigger and achieve more. Through local context and needs assessments, the youth noticed specific necessities in their area, “We saw that there is a high number of unemployment, especially within the youth, and that is when we got the idea of the workshop”, Joey says. The Sin el Fil Youth Committee will give the opportunity for 25 youth to attend a cooking workshop and offer them cooking kits, in the hope that this initiative will help them build new skills and open the road to more work opportunities in the future.

In addition, the committee came up with an idea to develop a market place “a town inside our town”, as Joey describes it, for small local businesses interested in selling their products. “Youth who have an idea or a product to sell and cannot afford to rent a shop will be able to sell their goods at this market, rent-free”, he declares. To ensure the sustainability of their project after YR2 ends, the committee is looking into ways to involve the municipality and collaborate with them in the long term, he adds, “I have a feeling that this project will be a great success and other areas in Lebanon will adopt it as well”.

Amina, 21, a member of the Aly Youth Committee, considers this town as her second home, “We arrived from Syria when I was nine; I lived here most of my life, and it feels like home. I love the people, and all my friends are here now”, she says. Despite her shy personality, Amina liked the idea of joining the committee. Thanks to the interpersonal and communications skills training, Amina felt like she got to know herself better. “I love to be involved in social activities, we had lots of training, I feel more confident now, and I am not afraid to engage with others anymore”, she says

The Aley Youth Committee decided to install solar systems for four schools in the area as part of their Quick Impact Project, “We assessed the needs and we decided that schools need our support so they can open properly for students”, she says.

This project gives Amina a sense of belonging, “I like how we are all working together and we have the same mission which is finding sustainable solutions to problems and challenges our community is facing”, Amina states.

Amina adds that this project helped her realize the importance and the impact youth can have in society, “I used to think that nothing we say matters and adults are the responsible ones”.

According to Amina, youth should take chances and seek opportunities, because everything always works out in the end.

Youth RESOLVE 2 is a project that is allowing youth to dream big and is supporting them to achieve what they aspire to, through extensive training on communications, inter-personal, advocacy, fundraising and more; this project is equipping youth committees with the tools to become efficient adults