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Syrian Youth for Tolerance Program

IREX works with members of the exiled Union of Free Syrian Students (UFSS) and other Syrian youth groups to train them on leadership, advocacy, civic engagement, and conflict mitigation skills so that they can lead peaceful civil society efforts that address community needs and be examples for their peers.

The Syrian Youth for Tolerance program mobilizes Syrian youth activist leaders and empowers them with resources and skills to prepare them better for a post-Assad period. Empowered this way, they will play a dynamic role during the transition to democracy by positively engaging their Syrian peers in advocacy of civic and democratic values. With the appropriate skills and capacity, a vibrant youth-led civil society can then engage Syrian citizens in mitigating conflict, increased communication, and increased civic and political awareness during and after elections.

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Description.

 

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Program Goals, Outcomes,and Activity 

Program Goal: Syrian youth civil society leaders contribute to a smooth and democratic transition in Syria

Objective: Syrian youth leaders engage their peers and community members to address their needs 

Outcome 1: Syrian youth have leadership skills

Activities:

  • [cherry_icon icon=”icon: fa fa-crosshairs” align=”none”]Conduct a needs assessment to determine the capacity of Syrian youth participants and their leadership, conflict mitigation, and communication knowledge and skills.
  • [cherry_icon icon=”icon: fa fa-crosshairs” align=”none”]Through the needs assessment, identify Syrian youth from UFSS and other youth groups who will be potential participants and conflict mitigation leaders for the Syrian Youth for Tolerance program.
  • [cherry_icon icon=”icon: fa fa-crosshairs” align=”none”]Design a program curriculum and a series of trainings to fit specific needs of the youth identified during the needs assessment.
  • [cherry_icon icon=”icon: fa fa-crosshairs” align=”none”]Organize and conduct trainings for identified Syrian youth from conflict-prone regions that focus on leadership skills, conflict mitigation, communication, vision and strategy, teamwork, and facilitation.
  • [cherry_icon icon=”icon: fa fa-crosshairs” align=”none”]Organize mid-program and end of program workshops for participating youth where they can share knowledge and lessons learned on conflict mitigation techniques, build a support network of like-minded youth, and participate in final workshops on leadership and ways to continue to engage in their communities as peace builders.

 

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Outcome 2: Syrian youth engage peers and community members to identify community needs

Activities:

  • [cherry_icon icon=”icon: fa fa-crosshairs” align=”none”]Hold workshops for youth on how to perform needs assessments and provide training and tools to conduct community mapping exercises in their own communities.
  • [cherry_icon icon=”icon: fa fa-crosshairs” align=”none”]Support youth to organize participatory meetings with community members to collaboratively identify needs using the conflict mitigation, facilitation, leadership, and community mapping skills gained through the abovementioned training.
  • [cherry_icon icon=”icon: fa fa-crosshairs” align=”none”]Assist youth with creating and prioritizing lists of communities’ needs identified during outreach meetings.

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Outcome 3: Syrian youth design and implement participatory community-based projects

Activities:

  • [cherry_icon icon=”icon: fa fa-crosshairs” align=”none”]Organize and conduct workshops for participating Syrian youth on project design, implementation, and consensus-building.
  • [cherry_icon icon=”icon: fa fa-crosshairs” align=”none”]Participating Syrian youth submit project proposals for two streams of funding – rapid response grants or conflict mitigation grants. The rapid response grants will support activities that meet immediate needs in Syrian communities and the conflict mitigation grants will fund initiatives that build consensus and address long-term community needs.
  • [cherry_icon icon=”icon: fa fa-crosshairs” align=”none”]A selection committee chooses to award approximately 25 grant awards totaling $21,250. The breakdown of rapid response versus conflict mitigation grants will be determined by the youth-led community outreach events.
  • [cherry_icon icon=”icon: fa fa-crosshairs” align=”none”]Youth grant recipients implement rapid response or conflict mitigation projects with the support and one-on-one coaching from Syrian Youth for Tolerance staff.

 

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IRFAD proposed research methodology for conducting the final evaluation of the Syrian Youth for Tolerance program. The work proceeds in four phases, as described below:

Phase 1: preparation phase 1: PreparationIn this phase IRFAD prepared data-gathering tools for use in field research. Data derived from three sources: 1) Project documents shared by IREX2) Interviews, focus groups, and data-gathering conducted with project beneficiaries and IREX staff during final retreats3) Interview with IREX staff in Washington 4) Interview with DRL representative.

Phase 2: Field Research
After IREX approval of questionnaires and discussion prompts, data-gathering instruments had been translated into Arabic where appropriate and transmitted to field researchers. A total of three field researchers engaged in this project, based respectively in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey.

During each final retreat, IRFAD field researchers conducted the following data-gathering activities, During each final retreat, IRFAD field researchers conducted the following data-gathering activities, 1) Interview with IREX staff member.2) Focus-group discussion with a larger group of project beneficiaries.3) Time permitting, individual follow-up interviews with a small number of project beneficiaries to discuss discussion prompts in more detail. 4) Light data-gathering on community projects using a questionnaire for beneficiaries.

In addition, IRFAD senior researchers conducted one interview (in person) with a member of IREX in Washington and one interview with a DRL representative in Washington.

Phase 3: Analysis and Reporting
IRFAD’s senior researchers analyzed data generated in the fieldwork phase and of relevant project documents provided by IREX. The analysis was largely qualitative in nature with light quantitative comparisons between responses

Phase 4: Follow Up and Final Reporting
The final report transmitted to IREX for review and comment. Comments were incorporated into a final version of the document, which was sent electronically to IREX.
This final phase completed by January 7, 2013.

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