One World Week is a week of youth-led awareness raising, education and action that takes place throughout Ireland during the third week in November every year.
During March/April, youth groups around Ireland vote on the theme that they would like to explore for One World Week 2012. This year’s theme ‘Bouncing Back’ looks at the concept of resilience and how we are affected by the global systems we live within. ‘Bouncing Back’ encourages youth groups to look at the factors contributing to young people feeling stressed, such as alcohol, drugs, bullying, crime, depression and suicide. It also encourages young people to investigate coping strategies they could adopt, examine resilience in young people and highlight examples of young people taking positive action locally and globally in relation to these issues.
During One World Week young people learn about local and global justice issues and take action to bring about change. Youth groups all over the country do activities from the education pack. Some organise public events, quizzes and debates, invite guest speakers or have intercultural evenings. Many groups publicly display the work they have done in preparation for One World Week, or lead other people in doing a public action.
NYCI has developed a resource to explore the topic with young people (Bouncing Back and Beyond: https://www.youthdeved.ie/bouncingback ) and offers training to youth workers and others working with young people to explore the theme and the associated activity resource. Mini-grants are also made available to groups for activities taking place around One World Week. The focus of these activities is a central action. This year the action is called ‘Steps Towards a Fairer World’ and asks young people to think about, ask others and vision the ‘World We Want’. To learn more about the idea behind our central action for 2012, watch the excellent animation from Dóchas on the ‘World We Want‘.
The World We Want from Dochas on Vimeo.
Central events in Cork and Dublin are held for youth groups to showcase what they have done. One World Week starts with the Cork central event on Saturday 10 November. On Saturday 17 November, youth groups in Dublin bring the week to a close by showcasing their work on the topic ‘Bouncing Back and Beyond’
In encouraging youth workers to take action with young people through global justice, NYCI’s development education programme is hosting an exciting new training on taking action for global justice in youth work, as part of a project during the Irish Presidency of the EU in 2013. A one-day training on Wednesday 14 November (during One World Week) kicks off the project in Dublin city centre. Contact us to register deved@nyci.ie.
Follow us on Twitter to keep updated on One World Week 2012 @nycinews and use #oww12 to stay informed!