Youth in Action

The Asfar University Programme ran between January 2013 to April 2014, and encouraged the inclusion of young people, students and graduates from a range of different backgrounds – educational, cultural and socio-economic – with the objective to develop their key creative and entrepreneurial skills in research, writing, publishing, social media and education, through their active participation in investigating Democracy, EU Citizenship and key themes in relation to the Middle East.

Check out our video, made by participants on Vimeo:

Asfar University Programme

32 young people participated in the programme, taking part in a number of workshops delivered by Asfar, at key UK Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) locations, including SOAS and Birmingham University’s Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. Participants developed their inter-cultural understanding, skills and explored citizenship, and promoted the development of participants’ own volunteering or social change projects.

Participants explored:

• Political and civic responsibilities and EU Citizenship
• Cross-cultures and cultural awareness
• Comparative Middle Eastern cultures

Skills developed, included:

• Communication and inter-personal skills
• Project management
• CV building and Interview techniques
• Social change and volunteering project design
• Proposal writing and fundraising skills

With key emphasis on developing participants’ existing skills and learning new ones in a non-formal learning setting, the Asfar University programme included cultural awareness, political and civic responsibilities, fundraising and project management.

The Asfar University programme also improveed young people’s employability, confidence in society and their interaction with wider communities and cultures.

Workshops focused on the following areas:

• Europe vs. the Middle East
• Skills development and Employability
• Volunteering and social change project

The project aimed to engage with young people, who would and would not traditionally participate in Politics, Democracy and EU Citizenship projects, especially students who were not studying Political subjects or at Universities with a strong youth political ethos, as well as enabling greater exploration of inter-cultural themes amongst those from traditionally non-political backgrounds. The programme also encourages inter-action between participants from different Universities and Higher Education Institutes.