Wow! Another Journey of Understanding complete and what a journey it has been! So many inspirational young people from across the globe with such varied and wonderful stories and life experiences to share. It really has been a genuinely rich and vibrant programme and we hope this zeal and enthusiasm continue far, far beyond this last week in SUNNY Wales.

Challenge to Change

In relation to post-programme work, participants took a new thematic approach to their long-term vision for life as a Young Leader Encompass and after much deliberation and a lengthy democratic process, they came to the theme title, ‘Challenge to Change’. This theme was born from the idea that participants would first challenge themselves, overcoming their personal hurdles and thereon making a positive change and contribution to their respective communities and the world at large.

Personal Challenges

Some of the personal challenges that participants have highlighted in their own words are as follows;

• “Not to believe everything, but to research to make more informed opinions.”
• “Work on improving relationships with people of different backgrounds to gain an understanding of their views.”
• “Embrace my culture and ethnicity to learn about my personal history.”
• “Work on being more patient in certain situations.”
• “Be more informed about happenings around the world.”
• “Challenge media perceptions with more informed, first hand accounts of global events.”
• “Develop an appreciation for the wider world”
• “Be more open-minded.”
• “Learn the Arabic language.”
• “Develop my critical thinking.”

Changes

Further to and beyond the personal challenges, participates planned some excellent projects to further the work and ethos of Encompass and all that they leant on their Journey. Here are some of their ideas;

• “Work with the Syracuse Women’s Leadership Initiative to get more interfaith speakers on campus.”
• “Deliver workshops/ sessions around conflict resolution in schools.”
• “Work with refugees in Syracuse to make transition better.”
• “Actively work to connect university students with the city.”
• “Create interfaith events and interactions.”
• “Conduct a social experiment – Filmed Q&A in my local city centre.”
• “Volunteer in a multicultural school.”
• “Community cohesion football tournament.”
• “Homeless tea and lunch drop-ins.”

At Encompass we are striving to work hard to empower young people to not only be, but too make the positive change they hope to see in society. Our work would not be possible without the generous donations of our supporters. Please help us to continue our work to make this world a more cohesive and peaceful place to be, by donating today.

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