Traveling Seminar of International Youth Movements

The first traveling seminar will take place in Brazil, and will bring groups of 5 to 25 people to visit with youth organisations and movements that are partners of the Global Youth Action Network .

The objective of the traveling seminars are to:

• showcase youth organisations and their movements;
• bring attention to marginalised people and their often ignored challenges;
• facilitate greater understanding among traditionally separated peoples; and
• celebrate the diversity of the global youth movement.

Visitors will have the opportunity to interact with a variety of local organisations, such as: community building initiatives; sports, arts and lesisure groups with a social cause; public health and sexuality projects; social and environmental mobilisation, education and development groups; youth with disabilities; youth research centres; and youth grant-making foundations. GYAN chooses the groups to visit based on: their history with GYAN; security of seminar participants; quality of projects in their implementation and social impact; innovative practices; cultural, ethnic, religious, and racial identity and diversity; quality of interaction with seminar participants; and real youth leadership. Visitors will have the opportunity to visit the headquarters and project sites of a diverse selection of youth organisations, learn about their work, and connect with young people themselves to talk about activism from the local to the global level. GYAN trip leaders will provide translation, facilitate dialogue, and supply background and supplementary information to put the work of the organisations in its historical and global context.

GYAN strives for diversity in the background, country, religion, politics, and culture of the tour participants. Beyond exchanging knowledge with the groups they visit, it is hoped tha the participants will also learn from each other. Tour groups, ranging in size from five to twenty-five may include youth leaders, volunteers, business leaders, academics, activists, public servants, philanthropists, and social entrepreneurs. Each tour will be approximately half international participants and half English-speaking Brazilians. According to the project website, the tour will be of interest to philanthropists looking for meaningful projects to support and people interested in youth and social movements. It is an opportunity for young leaders that want to witness new kinds of youth organising, journalists that want meet new groups and find new stories, and academics and scholars who want to research the diversity of youth activism Social entrepreneurs that want to share experiences. It is also an opportunity for embers of social movements and non-profit professionals network and expand their knowledge of youth organising.

To promote participant diversity, some scholarships are available. A portion of tour fees goes towards these scholarships.

Youth