We have selected 25 people based in Scotland who have a passion for community development to take part in InterAction; our transformational leadership programme for participants from Scotland, Jordan and Egypt.

We aim to develop future community leaders to become agents for positive social change.

InterAction is distinct from other leadership training in that it inspires individuals to identify themselves as leaders and equips them with the tools to engage constructively and enable them to remove the barriers to positive social change within their communities.

This exciting new programme will be an innovative journey that brings participants in Scotland together with their peers in Jordan and Egypt to share learning, good practice and encourage debates that inspire people to action.

The InterAction programme focuses on community development - particularly in relation to youth, social inclusion and positive social change. One of the strengths of InterAction is that participants come from diverse backgrounds, both culturally and professionally. We aspire to attract applications from many sectors such as education, voluntary sector and local government.

This is a pilot year for InterAction between Scotland, Jordan and Egypt and we aim to roll out to other countries in the Arab region over the next two years. However we have been running InterAction programmes since 2003 in Sub-Saharan Africa. To date over 3,000 participants from 19 countries have completed the course.

Benefits of taking part in InterAction

Being involved with InterAction can have a number of lasting and positive benefits including:

			Enhance your capacities to take ownership and make creative choices
			facilitate a process which allows you to think differently and act powerfully
			connect you with existing opportunities to create more prospects of positive social change
			link you into country and international networks to share best practice
			strengthen your links and connections with people in the Arab region.

A previous participant said; ‘I have met and interacted with some remarkable human beings around the globe. We have helped each other in our work and this has enriched the communities we are part of’.

The benefits for organisations can include:

			recognising that InterAction participants are doing better jobs
			leadership development of staff with no participant fees during this pilot year'
			InterAction participants help organisations function more effectively and in more collaborative ways.

The programme will run between November 2008 and April 2009 and consist of four residential modules, each three days long, including an International Networking Event, to be held in Jordan.

Programme dates are as follows:

			Selection Event: 23 September 2008
			Module 1: 12-14 November 2008
			Intercultural Networking Event: 19-21 January 2009
			Module 2: 16-18 February 2009
			Module 3: 16-18 March 2009.

The networking event will bring together participants from all three countries to learn from each other and provide opportunities to build mutually beneficial networks to support intercultural dialogue between community organisations and across country borders.

For more information telephone Alison Jeffrey on +44 (0) 131 524 5738 or e-mail scotland-interaction@britishcouncil.org.