YMCA LEBANON

- Main Office

Good Governance

Initially, the YMCA introduced key concepts relating to citizenship, democracy, active participation and respect of diversity in its camping and leadership programs. Ovre time, the scope of interventions has expanded to include specific projects tackling key themes and issues, including:

Youth participation in public affairs
The relation of the media, youth and civil society organizations
Women empowerment
Democracy building at community level and in schools
Freedom of expression
Transparency
Rights and duties
Cooperatives support and capacity building
Leadership training
Citizenship building
Financial accountability especially within the civil society sector

The annual YMCA Leadership Training Camp is held on the premises. It is designed to promote civic thinking and to attract prospective youth to becoming young leaders. The camp trains young volunteers on camp management, leadership and counseling skills, and overall camp management. This staple activity has been ongoing since 1963. More than 6,000 young volunteers, camp directors and counselors have graduated since the initiation of the program. Many of those have assumed advanced positions in the private and public sectors.
Other projects through support from the USAID, AMIDEAST and various donors that provide governance support and capacity building to civil society organizations, agricultural cooperatives and promote working children rights.

Policy Innovation for Leadership Learning and Reform project (“PILLAR”)

Funding Agency	US Department of State - Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI)
Duration	2006-2012
Beneficiaries	Youth across Lebanonn
Description	Among its various activities, PILLAR focused on the training youth leaders and young journalists. Their writing and journalism “know-how” was fine-tuned by experts and in collaboration with An-Nahar Newspaper, one of the most renowned newspapers in the Middle East. They were afforded the chance to present solid writing for publication in a weekly supplement, as part of the An-Nahar newspaper. They were invited to address local level issues and challenges – diversify the issues and the writing. The young journalists were given the opportunity to write thought-provoking pieces and a chance to get their names recognized – as several did.

Civic Empowerment Project

Funding Agency	British Department Fund for International Development (DFID) through Y-Care International UK
Duration	TBD
Beneficiaries	Youth across Lebanonn
Description	The project was designed to empower youth in different rural clusters of the country. They set-up a network of committees throughout the country. The committees were locally elected and their aim was to implement, on a local level, sustainable, development projects.