Communities thrive on sharing and learning. #YALILearns offers you the opportunity to build networks in your community with events organized by you or your fellow Network members and tailored to the topics that will make positive change where you live.
In Ghana, Oxford Bonsu, an active YALI Network member, used the YALI Network Online Course “Community Organizing for Action” as the basis for a #YALILearns session that brought together 45 chiefs of the Ashanti region to discuss laws of land use in their region and to explore ways their lands could be used as equity for business investment.
“I was humbled,” Bonsu wrote on the YALI Network face2face page, “when one of the chiefs present pronounced the workshop unprecedented in the history of the traditional council.”
Joyce Ikpaahindi, a YALI Network member in Nigeria, saw the need to develop in her community a stronger sense of how to engage effectively in public service to bring about change. She designed a session around the YALI Network Online Course “Strengthening Public Sector Service.”
“To set up my session,” Ikpaahindi said, “I first needed to find a suitable space to accommodate 21 people. My department at the Federal Ministry of Works was willing to provide the space and equipment needed to host the session.”
Ikpaahindi also enlisted the support of two 2015 Mandela Washington Fellows, Fatu Ogwuche and Benjamin Dankaka, who shared their experiences on the Fellowship program and also their leadership experience in the Nigerian public sector. “Real-life examples and experiences shared by the Fellows proved to be quite popular with the participants,” she said. “A good #YALILearns session should be as practical, engaging and hands-on as possible.”
Both Ikpaahindi and Bonsu created their sessions by combining a relevant YALI Network Online Course with additional discussions and presentations from community leaders. The particulars of the program are up to you, since you know your community best — as long as you bring people together, share ideas, and take away a resolve to create positive change.
Interested in learning more about #YALILearns? Learn how you can facilitate your own session on our #YALILearnspage.