Programme for week commencing 1st May, 2014

The other week at the Rotary International in Britain & Ireland Conference in Birmingham many attendees were inspired by the Young Citizens Award and the talk from a girl Malala Yousafzia who stood her ground about her passion to learn in Pakistan.

• So how do we as Rotary build on the need to help support the inspirations and passions of young people?
• How do we build our youth programmes, for example Rota Kids, Interact, Rotaract, Youth Exchange and RYLA (Rotary Young Leaders Award)?

Does online Rotary/Rotaract provide an opportunity to connect younger people into something that can help them create networks that can turn their passions and ideals into something tangible and can Rotary be the support and backing to enable, empower and encourage them to ‘Go for it’?

Is it time for Rotary itself as an organisation to show its passion, inspiration and expectations that young people are the generation to take forward the Service above Self that communities of our world need even more today.

The Global Youth Wellbeing Index gathers and connects youth-related data to assess and compare the state of young people’s wellbeing around the world. The Index is designed to facilitate both thought and action by elevating youth needs and opportunities and young people’s participation on national and global agendas. It also provides public and private sector decision-makers an easier way to understand the big picture, guide actions and investments and drive progress over time. The Index ranks 30 high- to low-income countries in five regions that represent nearly 70 percent of the world’s youth.

The Global Youth Wellbeing Index from CSIS on Vimeo.

As Click 4 Action eRotary, we want to build on the work we have already undertaken in our first two years, with Young People and Youth Service a key priority in our activities. We’ve developed:

• Interact at Uplands School Swindon;
• We are working in partnership with Uplands Educational Trust;
• We have raised the awareness of Children and Young People affected by Autism;
• Our support of the Scrumrun
• Christmas Shoe Boxes
• We have a young writer competition and work in partnership with the Worcestershire Lit Fest to encourage great creativity;
• We have run a Peace Photographic Competition in our Rotaract Hub;

All this is thanks to all our members involved in our current youth activities.

Now we look to help develop more work with younger people, as we prepare our plans for 2014/15

We welcome James Lovatt to our eRotary; here is a young man with so much enthusiasm and passion, as during his year as Chair of Rotaract in Great Britain and Ireland he has tried to take Rotaract and Rotary’s partnership forward during 2013/14. James in July will become our lead to help develop our Rotaract Hub and is our joint webmaster.

Pa Modou from Gambia has agreed to be our Youth Officer for 2014/15, he has so much experience in working with young people in Gambia and his youth band Humanity Starz, hopefully will be helping to produce some special music for Christmas.

Lyubomir from Bulgaria, works for the Foundation for Social Change and Inclusion with young people on the House of Opportunities programme for young people leaving care. He will be assisting both Pa and James with our youth programmes. All our members of Click 4 Action eRotary are enthused to build our Youth Programmes including possibly another Interact Club, as we respond to developing greater connections to involve younger people in building a peaceful and more understanding world.