Yellow Flag programme launches Value Youth Leadership Toolkit

During the month of November, the academic term is well underway and all around the country Youth Diversity Committees from 37 post-primary Yellow Flag schools are holding their committee meetings where they will create an inclusion and anti-racist action plan for 2023-24 school year. Some Diversity Committees will be well established in our schools, now on their renewal cycle for their Yellow Flag status, while others will be embarking on the journey for the first time and will host their first committee meetings this month.

For the first time ever, the Yellow Flag programme will now hold the power of the youth at its heart as it amplifies youth voices on Diversity Committees in all our schools with this brand-new Value Youth Leadership Toolkit! Developed by young minds, to support our Inclusion and Anti-Racism Youth Ambassadors, this toolkit is all about empowerment, participation, and fostering intercultural communities through a Global Citizenship Education lens.

With the welcomed aid from our funders at World Wise Global Schools, Community Foundation Ireland and funds from County Councils in Cavan, Monaghan and Cork; this toolkit will provide Yellow Flag lead teachers with the tools to support young people who are new to Diversity Committees to actively engage their leadership skills so they can take up their role as youth ambassadors with success; while also empowering existing youth diversity committee members to further develop their leadership knowledge and skills so they can become Yellow Flag peer educators and mentors for their schools.

We wish to express a huge thanks to all of our young authors Abby, Amelia, Billie-Jean, Carly, Esther, Gabriella, Kelvin, Michelle, Sarah and Zayan – from a range of Yellow Flag schools: Bailieborough Community School and Virginia College in Cavan; Inver College, Carrickmacross, Monaghan and St. Aidan’s Community College in Cork. Together with our amazing facilitators Elaine Mahon and Janice McGarry they worked tirelessly online over a number of weeks from their schools this year to create our toolkit.

For all our Yellow Flag schools this will be act as your go-to resource for honing those leadership skills and making a real impact. To all our Diversity Committee youth members, you can now unleash your potential and be a driving force for inclusivity and change in your school. We hope our toolkit will aid all of our Diversity Committees youth members to engage their school communities where diversity isn’t just celebrated, but embraced as a catalyst for growth and understanding.

Visit our resource page to view the ‘Value Youth Leadership Toolkit’ here

We’re excited to see how our current, new and renewal schools will engage with the toolkit. We look forward to hearing more as you all progress through your Yellow Flag year. Watch this ‘Leaders of Change’ space!

All the best,

Sian, Karen and Jenny from the Yellow Flag Team