Are you willing to learn alongside fellow youth about the cooperative movement worldwide? Are you willing to reflect on your cooperative leadership skills by sharing inspirational reflection spaces with other people like you?
The past years have been great to show that despite distances the world can remain connected; that kilometers are relative and that there are ways to generate bridges that are sustainable, accessible. Inclusive and affordable. But we have all felt too that there is no match when it comes to generating trust, establishing learning spaces and collaboration relations like the face to face. And that is exactly why this program is born.
The concept of a “learning journey” may be foreign for some but familiar for others. The goal is to travel in groups to discover a new local cooperative environment but also generate spaces for learning about the people one is traveling with. This creates not only a rich perspective but also high cultural empathy, multiplies the inspiration, increments multinational understanding and establish across the globe connections for the future.
The pilot of the Youth Leadership Exchange Program is a 10 day learning journey that will have two pilot editions in 2023. The first one will be to the Cooperative Ecosystem of Spain in the second half of April concluding with San Sebastian being the Capital of the Social Economy; and the second will be the Cooperative Ecosystem of the USA in October happening at the same time as the NCBA-CLUSA Impact Conference in Washington, DC.
From the Youth Executive Committee, we are looking for youth that belong to the movement but also that are generally aware and interested about the cooperative movement to join this group of adventurous pioneers. The people selected to join the first expeditions will also be part of the communication of this initiative, have direct impact through sharing their experiences as well as providing feedback to make sure this program evolves to the best of its potential to support the youth’s involvement in the cooperative movement worldwide.
If you are interested please look at the links below and make sure to send your application!