YouthBank International News

<div class="page old_photo"> <article> <header style="background-image:url(/uploads/53c790d35df83.jpg);"> <div class="box"> <div class="intro"> <h1>The YouthBank International Delegation - Who's Who?</h1> </div> </div> </header> <div class="main"> <div class="container"> <img src="/uploads/53a0611ca4076.jpg" style="width: 136px;">  Vernon RINGLAND, YouthBank International CoordinatorVernon Ringland is the YouthBank International Coordinator based at the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland. Previously he worked for a local authority Youth Service in the North-West of England. He has been responsible for developing youth-led grant making (YouthBank) in Northern Ireland since 1999 and, in the last seven years with the Irish Youth Foundation, across the island of Ireland. There are currently 18 operational YouthBanks across the island of Ireland. Vernon’s international YouthBank experience began in 2001 with PRONI, a youth development organization which involved several countries of the Western Balkans region. This work was further developed with a number of European, Central Asian and African Foundations and NGOs. Vernon currently works with an Executive Board of practitioners to develop YouthBank International, a formalized network focused on the development of youth-led grant-making. Previous to this he was a member of the Youth Council for Northern Ireland, the lead body responsible for youth policy development in the country and from 2001- 2006 was a part-time lecturer at the University of Ulster in Community Youth Studies. He holds an MA in Youth Studies from Brunel University, London, and recently completed an Advanced Diploma in Community Planning from the University of Ulster.<img src="/uploads/53a061525e723.jpg" style="width: 113px;"> Adina Cristea, RomaniaIn 2006-2007 Adina Cristea became a YouthBank member in Romania. In 2007-2009 she started coordinating the program and in 2009-2013 she became the coordinator of YouthBank Romania. Since then, the program has been replicated in several other communities in the country and has become a national program. YouthBank is now present in 14 cities.Adina believes that young people have a tremendous potential, creativity and motivation. These, combined with the right framework for their development as individuals, can make a real difference in their lives and in the lives of those around them. Her desire is to be a part of a framework that gives the chance to young people in Romania to discover their potential and their voice. What YouthBank Romania wants is not just to equip young people with abilities and develop their skills, but to help them become beautiful people, concerned with what is happening around them and sensitive to the needs of their communities.<img src="/uploads/53a061bb3fc3f.jpg" style="width: 94px;"> Anastasiya ZHDANOVICH, Russia Anastasiya leads an active life. She is a specialist youth worker and has been volunteering for YouthBank Togliatti for two years, during which time three project competitions for young people were organized. She has held the position of chairperson of the Grants Committee in the past year. Anastasiya meets with people, interview project managers and advise them on their projects. For two years she has represented YouthBank Togliatti and its projects in other cities and has worked towards securing partnerships. She believes YouthBank is a unique opportunity for young people who want to build work experience in an urban community context and who want to be useful to their own city and country. She hopes that YouthBank will continue to develop in even more countries across the world.Andisiwe MAXONGO (Max), South Africa Max is a first year student in Retail Business Management at Cape Peninsula University of Technology in the Western Cape, and is based at the Cape Town Campus. Max is a people person who strives to bring change within her communities and is willing to fight for what is just, right and good for young people of the future. Max believes that young people have a lot to contribute and wants to be part of a movement that is making a positive difference in the world.  <img src="http://beacon.by/uploads/53a061fea8e48.jpg" style="width: 83px;"> Bianca MARCOCI, Romania Bianca lives in Cluj-Napoca. She studies political science at Babes-Bolyai University, one of the largest universities in Romania. She works at the Association for Community Relations as the co-ordinator of a non-formal education program for high school students, called YouthBank. Bianca is responsible for guiding and motivating a mixed and dynamic team of 10 teens willing to make a change for the better. As part of her role, she holds meetings and trainings on youth involvement, philanthropy, motivation, and responsibility. She is responsible for the communication and promotion of the program and for establishing partnerships with other organizations and institutions. What she considers as a success in her work is the visible evolution of the volunteers, who grow from being confused teenagers to fully rounded individuals.<img src="http://beacon.by/uploads/53a0623e08ac1.jpg" style="width: 75px;"> Can ERCEBE Turkey Can is the YouthBank Program’s Co-ordinator in Turkey, based at the Community Volunteers Foundation (Toplum Gönüllüleri Vakfı – TOG). There are 11 operational YouthBanks across Turkey, which are supported by TOG. Can has been working in the field of youth empowerment since 2007. Previously he was responsible for developing youth university clubs, supporting young people in developing ideas to address social issues specific to their projects and helping them to find finances to carry out these projects. Since 2010, he has been working on the development of the YouthBank model, networking and youth-led grant-making practice in the country. Can holds an MA in Youth Sociology and is the editor of the book “YouthBank: Youthwork in the Neighbourhood”. <img src="/uploads/53a06271b7dfd.jpg" style="width: 97px;"> Dzenan SARIC, BosniaDuring his career Dzenan has worked in several international and domestic non-governmental organizations as operational expert. He has experience with CSOs, design, implementation and monitoring of projects in the area of community development, financial sustainability, social entrepreneurship, social inclusion, NGO governance, advocacy and local development. Dzenan has ten years’ experience in community development. He has designed, organized and conducted over 100 trainings addressed to CSOs and public institutions on the topics of: Project Cycle Management, Strategic Planning, Advocacy, Social Entrepreneurship, Management of Volunteers, Mobilization of Local Resources (Community Development) and Business Planning. <img src="/uploads/53a06300a04e5.jpg" style="width: 114px;"> Elvira SAKHABIEVA, Russia Elvira is a psychology graduate from Togliatti State University, Russia, and a volunteer at YouthBank Togliatti from September 2005 to September 2013. She was Grants Manager at YouthBank (a program at the Togliatti Community Foundation) from 2007 to 2010. She held the position of President of YouthBank Togliatti from 20011 to 2013 and has been an adult adviser at Togliatti YouthBank since September 2013. <img src="/uploads/53a063538c825.jpg" style="width: 83px;"> Emir BAŠIĆ, Bosnia and HerzegovinaEmir has been a Program Development Manager at Tuzla Community Foundation since 2007. Emir's scope of work is youth empowerment through different methodologies and tools. With projects focused on young people, such as YouthBank, leadership and youth clubs in the community, Emir and his colleges help young people to become active in their community and to make positive changes in their lives but also in their neighborhoods.Since Emir has graduated in economic studies, he has been very active in promoting entrepreneurship among young people but also in creating conditions for the establishment of social entrepreneurship in connection with the Tuzla Community Foundation. The process “from active young people to social entrepreneurs” is a long-term idea and such an important structure for the community needs time for implementation As a member of different clubs and association Emir has the opportunity to interact with young people and to pass idea of TCF which is “Gift to the community, is a gift to yourself”.    <img src="/uploads/53a0638862af9.jpg" style="width: 76px;"> Gina McKNIGHT, Northern IrelandGina is in her final year of secondary school, studying Business, ICT and Photography. She hopes to become a youth worker and to study youth work at University. She has been involved in Banbridge YouthBank for the last three years. Over this time she has completed an OCN Level 2 in Grant-Making and has also achieved a Millennium Volunteers Award for 200 hours of volunteering. As a member of YouthBank, Gina’s first fundraising activity was a talent competition, ‘Banbridge Has Got Talent’. This was a very successful event in which a number of acts from the local area performed. This event was organised by the Banbridge YouthBank group and raised a considerable amount of money for its grant round. Gina has also been involved in other fundraising events including a bag pack at a local Tesco food store, which raised nearly £1,000!<img src="/uploads/53a063b79fb28.jpg" style="width: 145px;"> Jeremy MAARMAN, South AfricaJeremy has been involved in the community development sector in South Africa since 2004 when he started volunteering at the Victim Empowerment Project at his local police station. He obtained a Community Development Worker (CDW) certification from the University of the Western Cape in 2005 after which time he started working for various government departments. Jeremy was appointed by the national government as a Senior Communications Officer tasked with communicating government services to the communities of the West Coast. After 4 years Jeremy joined the NGO sector as he was drawn to working with people at the grass roots level. He currently works for the West Coast community foundation, just outside Cape Town. As Grants Manager he is tasked with ensuring the effective implementation of the various initiatives of the Foundation as well as fundraising. Jeremy recently launched the YouthBank: West Coast as a pilot project to encourage youth philanthropy in the rural West Coast. <img src="/uploads/53a063d57f610.jpg" style="width: 89px;"> Nilay KUME, TurkeyAfter Nilay graduated from International Relations in 2010, she started to work in the field of civil society. She is currently working for the Community Volunteer Foundation. Her responsibility is to encourage young people to come together and run their own social responsibility projects in different rural areas and support youth associations whilst implementing the YouthBank Program.<img src="/uploads/53a0644406b04.jpg" style="width: 136px;">  Olwethu Gcotyelwa SIZANI, South AfricaOlwethu Sizani currently works as Program Co-ordinator at the Technical Support and Dialogue Platform (TSDP). The TSDP is a flagship project of SGS Consulting, a social enterprise based in Johannesburg, South Africa. TSDP is an organization that provides technical support (organizational development, strategy, program design and other) to organizations in the field of philanthropy and access to social justice for the poor. Olwethu has a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Economic and Statistics and Bachelor of Commerce Honors in Mathematical Statistics from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth. After completing her studies, she spent a year as a volunteer at African Enterprise as a member of their Foxfire team, where she was involved in youth ministry and facilitating life skills in a number of high schools in KwaZulu Natal. She started her career as an intern at the TSDP and has since become Program Coordinator, leading the programmatic focus on youth philanthropy or youth giving in South Attica. </div> </div> </article> </div>

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Issue 3