We couldn’t be more proud of our Uniting Communities Young Leaders and Ambassadors who graduated from this fantastic programme at a gala reception in PwC‘s Belfast HQ on Wednesday night (March 22).

Uniting Communities Young Leaders and Ambassadors is a cross community good relations programme designed to fundamentally develop long term change in our young people.

It offers young people a chance to develop their leadership and ambassadorial skills to become agents of social change within their communities, through sport and creative activities.

Participants graduated the programme with an OCN Uniting Communities through Leadership Level 2 Award qualification, and their certificates were presented on Wednesday night (March 22) in front of their families and guests at an event hosted by programme supporters PWC.

We at Co-operation Ireland lead the delivery of this dynamic and inspiring programme with the Department for Communities as part of the Together: Building United Communities (TBUC) strategy.

Speaking on Wednesday night, programme participant Mohamed Ahmed from East Africa Youth NI said the programme played a huge role in helping their members.

“I would like to thank Co-operation Ireland for giving me this opportunity. For young people from East Africa Youth NI, I reckon this is the first programme for people coming from Africa.

“Taking part in the TBUC programme…..from day one, the ambassadors and especially Ryan and Colm, they have been flexible and adaptable when engaging our young leaders, especially the ones who went through the OCN qualification without English as their first language. I want to thank them for their effort.

Marc Varela from Lurgan said they gained a great deal from taking part.

“I got to meet a lot of different people from all these different backgrounds, so it was very interesting to see all the differences and the similarities we all share, as well as all the projects we worked at with the community.

“I think being a Young Leader and Ambassador is a role that’s worthwhile and something I want to try and approach. As someone who is very impactful and interacts with the new generation it’s a role that is essential.”

Marc would recommend the programme.

“Absolutely, not only is it lots of fun but you learn a lot of things and you get something out of it – you get an actual qualification as well so it’s a great programme.”