Youth and adults from Romania and Moldova recently spent a week in Vadu lui Voda, Moldova, participating in the Community Schools Academy as part of the Youth Civic Engagement and Dialogue [3] (YCED) program. Participants learned about team-building across ethnic lines, project design and management, advocacy, civic engagement, and leadership skills. Following the Community Schools Academy, participants returned to their home communities to mobilize their peers to improve their schools and communities.
YCED is a program of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor [4] of the U.S. Department of State. YCED is implemented by IREX in partnership with Romani CRISS [5], an NGO that works to defend and promote the rights of Roma throughout Romania.