Yalla Change 2020 Stages – Active Civic Participation Training
In partnership with the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), SDF launched the 4th season of Yalla Change season, and it still seeks to create new spaces to build the capacity of youth and develop their skills.
This season, 61 participants joined from all governorates of Gaza and various university academic majors. They have passion and interest to work with the local society and lead the community change via the intensive 7-day training on Active Civic Participation for 126 training hours.
From Youth to Youth
The new addition to this season was enhancing the role of previous members of the program to provide them with more effective tasks. This year, six trainers from the previous Yalla Change seasons were involved in leading the training, in addition to participating in Train of Trainers (TOT) within the 4th season activities. This aspect strengthened their skills in designing and managing training programs and then reflected in leading this year’s training.
Training Topics
The training program included a set of interactive activities and techniques to enhance the effectiveness of the training. Additionally, it included a wide range of skills and knowledge related mainly to promoting the effective participation of youth; among these courses, there was creative thinking skills, teamwork techniques and effective communication, knowledge of human rights and gender concepts, advocacy and accountability concepts and strengthening practical abilities in using advocacy tools and campaigns and community initiatives.
Involving previous members was an outstanding gesture to welcome, get to know and build relations with the new members of season 4.
Rola Herz, one of the new members said, “Yalla Change training allowed me to know my rights, which I was ignorant of most of them, and establish a wide base of knowledge about good citizenship, leading advocacy campaigns and planning and implementing community initiatives to reach the desired goal”
In the same context, Mohammed Albana added, “Yalla Cheng was a turning point in my way of thinking, and it strengthened my research and knowledge of youth issues and provided me with important topics. it also enabled me to know my rights as a young man and know about human rights and gender, besides providing a suitable environment for me to express my opinions.
Theater of Idea – Story of Initiatives and Advocacy
The training included a wonderful space to present the ideas of the participants where the technique of “Theater of Ideas” was followed at the end of the training to present some ideas about intervention at the level of initiatives and advocacy activities. The participants worked in groups to present their ideas before their peers, work team and trainers. Moreover, the technique itself embodied the skills and knowledge acquired during the training.
Yara Alzenai, from Yalla Change work team, said, “Active Civic Participation training is one of the most important and influential training on the youth sector because it focuses on a set of major concepts like good citizenship, advocacy and leadership. It also targeted understanding the context of human rights and a group of life skills that contribute greatly to Improving the actual participation of youth towards promoting the reality of the Palestinian society and pushing them towards actual steps with their peers to work directly with the community. Therefore, Civic Participation training was a vital stage in the work of the program along with the other components of Yalla Change”
It is worth mention that the next phase of Yalla Change 4 is launching community initiatives and advocacy campaigns that are mainly associated with the youth’s right to political engagement and increase their representation in the local bodies and decision-making position.