What was Community Xchange?

The vision of the Community Xchange was to develop Active Citizens globally, who could make a positive difference to their and other communities.

We did this by bringing together formal and informal community leaders here and in the UK for reciprocal visits to both countries where these inspiring and committed individuals worked in each other’s societies and learnt from one another.

We ran this project in collaboration with the “Youth Parliament of Pakistan”, an organisation working for social awareness of youth, and being led by a popular Pakistani singer, Abrar-ul-Haq.

We wanted to:

• build active networks and dialogues that did not exist before in communities in Pakistan and the UK
• make large numbers of young people participate in the programme globally so they could become Active Citizens
• deliver benefits to communities by strengthening existing community development initiatives, promote community cohesion and encourage community participation
• increase the effectiveness of community leaders in facilitating learning and positive social action
• promote intercultural dialogue
• strengthen relations between the UK and overseas communities

Brief Background:

In Pakistan - Rawalpindi, Lahore, Multan, Sargodha and Narowal - were the communities involved in the Community Xchange. Three pilot programmes took place in 2008/09, involving young people to become active global citizens, working within their respective communities. Besides Pakistan, we’ve had two exchanges between Luton & Harlow/Jakarta-Indonesia and Thurrock/Mombassa-Kenya.

Who took part?

Volunteers belonged to the participating communities and were passionate to learn more about other communities so they could help.

How Community Xchange happened?

Community Xchange worked with teams of 30 community leaders, with equal numbers coming from the UK and an overseas partner country. Participants worked in host communities for 3 weeks in the UK and 3 weeks in the overseas country, making Community Xchange an innovative initiative offering community leaders an opportunity to develop professionally.

Participants took part in professional development modules, work attachments, shadowing and community events to promote active citizenship among the young people.

The volunteers understood social development, especially in governance issues of both the informal community structures and formal local government structures.

This experience gave them the insights, knowledge and awareness that they could never find easily in a book!

Living with a host home and family in a different country gave the volunteers a real experience of a different culture. It’s real work that helps make a difference to people living in challenging conditions.

How long did the exchange last?

Each leg of the exchange lasted three weeks.

When will it happen again?

We aren’t planning on having another Community Xchange programme any time soon in Pakistan yet.