Education

Co-operation Ireland believe that it is important to give our young people an opportunity to meet, learn about the traditions and cultures of other young people living on the island of Ireland if we are to create a more peaceful respectful stable society. In Northern Ireland in particular many children are separated from their peers at a very young age, as early as 4 years. Often they go through their formative years without having the opportunity to meet someone their own age who is from a different religion or cultural background. Over the years Co-operation Ireland has developed numerous programmes based around education and the education system, all of which aim to improve relations between our young people and communities. Co-operation Ireland has two main education based projects – Civic-Link and Arts Link.

Civic-Link

Civic-Link is a unique action learning and exchange programme for and about young people from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This initiative has been running successfully since 1999 and allows young people from the two parts of the island to work collaboratively on projects based around citizenship and civic responsibility.

The current Civic-Link Programme has recently been reviewed and it has been adapted to provide an alternative model based around human rights.  While Civic-Link has always aspired to empower young people to contribute positively to their future society, the Civic-Link Human Rights project adds a deeper dimension in providing a language for policy engagement and cross cultural dialogue based around human rights values and law.

In the academic year 2011-2012, 30 schools and youth groups are participating in the Civic-Link and Civic-Link Human Rights Programmes For further informaiton, please visit the Civic-Link website