Global Youth Connect

GYC's programs provide young leaders (ages 14-35) from a wide range of ethnic, national, economic and religious backgrounds with opportunities to learn more about human rights and enhance their ability to take action on pressing human rights issues.

Using the Human Rights framework enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GYC aims to:

--> Increase understanding among youth of both the theoretical and practical context of the human rights framework

--> Build the skills, knowledge and confidence of youth to raise awareness, take action and work collaboratively on projects to promote and defend human rights;

--> Facilitate meaningful dialogue, enable critical thinking and analysis of complex issues and encourage joint problem solving to address shared human rights concerns;

--> Foster personal and emotional growth by testing boundaries and limitations, reflecting critically on our own lives and cultures, exploring how the choices we make affect others;

--> Build strong personal connections and community among youth activists;

--> Provide positive outlets and opportunities for youth to work to promote human rights; and

-->Create, inspire and nurture both new and existing youth-led projects aimed at promoting and protecting human rights.

In 3-4 weeks, our programs weave together a three-tiered approach. First, our delegates get experiential development training through an interactive cross-cultural human rights education workshop. Second, the delegates engage in site visits with key stakeholders in local human rights efforts, including with members of government, international and local NGOs, and members of the community. Third, delegates get on-the-ground experience volunteering with local human rights organizations and doing human rights work.

Throughout all three components of the program, our delegates develop skills critical to grassroots organizing, conflict transformation, human rights activism and leadership, and technical support for on-going organizing efforts. They also become more deeply integrated into an international community of youth activists who are actively promoting and protecting human rights, as well as educating and inspiring the next generation to work for peaceful change.

Additionally, GYC embraces the concept of a learning community and uses this in our delegations. A "Learning Community" is an experiential educational process. Participants work together to develop common frameworks of understanding, enhance their substantive knowledge of human rights, strengthen their leadership skills, build supportive peer relationships, and develop collaborative projects to address issues of peace, justice and human rights. The term Learning Community comes from the popular education movement and refers to a group of learners who work together to create knowledge through shared dialogue, reflection and action. We add the term “action" because it reminds us that we have a responsibility to act on what has been learned.

Our programs serve a global community of youth and young adults, ages 14-35. We support youth who are already established leaders in their community and who are looking for ways to strengthen their skills, expand their understanding, deepen the impact of social justice projects and build a network of supportive allies.

We collaborate with local organizations in each host country to exponentially increase our impact. We do not do this work alone. By working alongside organizations in Rwanda, Colombia, Bosnia and South Africa, our delegates plug into existing organizations that can push forward the human rights work once our delegates depart.

We also serve youth who are at an earlier stage in their activism to enable them to better understand how to use their unique talents to advance human rights. As a global organization with programs in a variety of countries around the world, the youth we work with come from all backgrounds – from the poorest communities to the wealthiest, from the “developed" world to the “underdeveloped" world, and from a wide range of ethnic, national, and religious backgrounds.

Global Youth Connect has run successful delegations for years in Rwanda and Bosnia.

In 2015, it launched its first ever delegation to Colombia which was a success and is now a staple destination within GYC's portfolio. In 2018, GYC launched its first program in South Africa and the organization continues to prioritize programming in this country. GYC is also looking to expand, controllably and strategically, into new markets where we can continue to forge mutually beneficial collaborations.

We are looking to also be more strategic with finding funding to offer scholarships for people who want to go on a GYC program, have something to contribute to a GYC program but who do not have the means to afford the program fee. We are looking to make our delegations more reflective of the communities we are a part of and that is still a work in progress.