Youth Leadership Exchange Program
This is a project meant for youth interested in participating in tailor-made study trips by participating in an exchange program providing the opportunity to get to know and visit cooperative organizations and members of ICA worldwide.
Under the auspice of the International Cooperative Alliance Youth Committee: www.globalyouth.coop
CONCEPT IDEATED by: ICA G20 C20 Working Group President Howard Brodsky and facilitator Danila Curcio, Head of International Institutional Relations.
As the world is demanding more and more socially concerned businesses, the cooperative model stands out as a significant solution to many of the inequalities happening in our world. A major initiative must be to bring more youth into leadership positions to be a catalyst for growth and formation of new cooperatives. The Youth Leadership Exchange Program has potential for connecting and leveraging young adults’ interest and understanding in the strength of cooperatives in different countries.
This program would set up an exchange program from different countries to explore the range and depth of cooperatives for youth on an international scale. The exchange would enlighten youth on the impact and various dimensions of cooperatives, and the role they play in different countries around the world. It would highlight the relationship between cooperatives, businesses, and government.
The program would strengthen knowledge in young students and recent graduates and encourage their role in being future leaders in cooperatives.
An example program might include travel to Rome, Bologna, and Brussels, shadowing the Italian Cooperative Alliance Youth Committee, and spending time learning about the sustainability, medicine/health, gender equality and agricultural cooperative sectors in these regions. Young participants could document their experiences on social media, as a marketing opportunity to garner interest in cooperatives among youth. While the initial program focus is on the United States and Spain, this program has the capability to expand to all 120 countries under the auspices of the International Cooperative Alliance.
The idea is to give the possibility to young people from all over the world who are interested in learning more about the different cooperative movements present in 102 countries, as many as ICA worldwide members, to be able to have an international “tailor-made working field experience” by both learning through dedicated and customized meetings with cooperative representatives from the host country, as well visiting local cooperatives in order to have a “hands on” experience.
This project resembles the EU project called “Erasmus Project” according to which students from EU countries can undertake a period of study in a university of other EU member countries. This Erasmus Project is subsidized by the European Union with a scholarship. In this program, we are inspired by the EU Erasmus project, hence promoting scholarships programs within national cooperative organizations, in order to support all youth who want to learn more about cooperatives.
Nowadays, given the difficult times, due to war, conflicts, spread of disease, climate disasters, and social disparities, the Youth International Cooperative Leadership Exchange Program can represent a meaningful experience in order to be able to introduce the younger generations to an inclusive business model, that puts the development and well-being of people first by visiting different cooperative organizations. This project will provide cultural exchanges, improve relationships, and foster the promotion of the ICA Youth Committee.