Youth meeting in Arab Thought Foundation on Community Participation (July 18, 2011)

The Arab Thought Foundation in collaboration with TakingITGlobal and the Bibliotheca Alexandria organized an open meeting entitled "let’s dream". The meeting gathered more than twenty young individuals who are actively contributing to social entrepreneurship projects. It aimed to allow participants to exchange knowledge and experience about the issue of "Community Participation", while being in line with the vision of the Arab Thought Foundation that is active in supporting ambitious young scientific talents, building young leaderships, as well as consolidating the concept of partnership among youth and inciting them to contribute positively to the development of their communities. This meeting was held on the occasion of the third phase of the joint program entitled: "Dialogue and Mutual Understanding – Carry out Effective Work". The twenty young individuals discussed, over the period of three hours, their perceptions of the "Dream Project" and means of implementation, as well as leadership skills they need to invest their abilities as community leaders. They introduced business strategies on both personal and institutional levels to overcome these challenges and they presented as well two successful models of pioneering experiences in the field of social entrepreneurship that were selected out of 42 development projects from all over the Arab World to be implemented by end of 2011.

Youth meeting in Arab Thought Foundation to promote dialogue values (July 26, 2011)

Within the framework of sustainable activities carried out by Youth Ambassadors of Arab Thought Foundation, a youth meeting was organized in July 2011, at the headquarters of the Arab Thought Foundation in Beirut, on the initiative of the ambassadors of Lebanese youth Salyne El Samarany and Ilhami Khaled. This meeting aimed at starting discussions among youth groups involved in youth social work and volunteering and social entrepreneurship projects, in order to launch the project of promoting the values of local, regional and global dialogue. The discussions focused on the "dialogue" as a headline, divided into three headings: Dialogue between religions, gender, and generations. Given the importance of the subject for young individuals under the emergent events on the local and Arab level, the meeting lasted for more than four hours and was characterized by the extraordinary enthusiasm and interaction among participants. Ideas were raised based on the role of youth in starting an effective dialogue in Lebanon. The session was concluded by the presentation of discussion outcomes, which led to a number of points and methods that promote dialogue between concerned parties.

Arab Thought Foundation sponsors the session "Youth Policies in Lebanon and Arab Countries" (October 22, 2011)

Under the auspices of the Arab Thought Foundation, and with the organization of the United Nations Association of youth (UNYA) in Lebanon, a panel session was held under the title "Youth Policies in Lebanon and Arab countries." This session gathered thirty young individuals from the Arab World within the framework of the "Marathon of dialogue" organized by UNYA from the 14th till the 31st of October 2011. It assembled, in all its sessions, around 140 young individuals from the Arab World to discuss the development of a national youth strategy in Lebanon. The debate sessions discussed youth policies and their relation with education, employment, immigration, health, family in addition to other issues that tackle the Arab youth reality. Moreover, the youth policies in Lebanon and Arab countries were included as an approach to compare youth and citizenship, the representation of youth in the Lebanese government, the identity concept, leadership and youth public health, based on a study issued by the World Bank in 2007. The suggestions and ideas were collected in a brochure that will be distributed to parties interested in youth issues and will be published on the website of UNYA informyouth.unyaleb.org