Youth Mun Madrid: Young people with a global vision and transforming leadership

“Youth Mun Madrid” is a non-formal education project for a global citizenship and sustainable development aimed at adolescent girls from Madrid and the Canary Islands.

During the 2017/2018 academic year, a pilot project was started in which 64 young people from Madrid participated. Given the great reception it has had and the good development of this, we want to continue the project during the 2018-2019 academic year to continue promoting the global citizenship of the young people who are already participating and give the opportunity to more teenagers to be part of this project of social participation and community development.

The project, which targets adolescent women as a way to encourage their participation in institutional settings, is designed as a two-year process. During the 2018/2019 academic year, the program for those who begin their first year of training will coexist with the program for young people who continue with the second year’s training after their experience in the pilot project last year.

The process begins with the acquisition of a global and intercultural vision as a means for the empowerment of young people converted into active agents of change in their environment.

The first-year girls attend training sessions aimed at participating in MUN models (Model United Nations). Through these, young women know the 2030 agenda; learn to address current challenges of the international agenda with a critical spirit and from the defense of human rights. In addition, adolescents participate in two international MUN models as delegates from a country. This experience gives them the opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of different countries and to interact with young people from other parts of the world, seeking dialogue and consensus to promote a more just and cohesive society.

With this theoretical-practical training received, the participants are trained to assume the role of organizers of a MUN day at the local level, participating in the design, coordination, monitoring, and evaluation of it.

Second-year participants, in addition to continuing to receive specific training and participating in international MUN models, learn to mainstream the global vision acquired during the first year to achieve active social participation that favors community development. To do this, the young people will participate in a day of awareness that encourages them to undertake local initiatives in accordance with the SDGs and create working groups in the Youth Associations to identify the social realities of their environment and find ways of active participation.