IACD appoints its first youth representative to be part of the association’s UN team.

Last year, the Board agreed that it wanted to engage the association more with the concerns of young people. Many of our members work with young people and help support community education and organisation around young people’s issues and concerns. To assist with this, we have decided to appoint two young members as IACD youth reps at the UN. These appointments last for one year. Our first 2018 young representative will be Alyssa Faulkner.

Alyssa is from Scotland and is currently doing a Community Learning and Development degree at the University of Dundee. She has done voluntary work at various organisations  including Young Scot and Hot Chocolate trust, BBC Scotland and Diabetes Scotland, all around discrimination and community development. She is not afraid to challenge views when she doesn’t agree with them. As she wrote in her application – ‘I am a big supporter of collaborative working, as I understand that everyone has different skillsets, and therefore networking is a fantastic opportunity for this…..I am passionate about the subject I am studying, which is not only going to be my future career, but a big industry in the future!’

 

Our youth repos will be supported and mentored by Board member Tony Kimbowa, who works at the UN. As an introduction to the UN, it is hoped that they will be able to attend the upcoming UN Youth Assembly.  The Youth Assembly provides  a kind of orientation into entire UN System and the Youth and an opportunity for them to highlight IACD’s work. https://www.youthassembly.nyc/apply/

IACD youth reps will have full access to attend relevant meetings at the UN and be able to report on them. This could be in New York or Geneva, since our accreditation is valid in for both locations. There are key events that ​attract huge media coverage such as the UN General Assembly,the High Level Political Forum, ECOSOC all in NYC and the Human Rights Council in Geneva.