The Emerging Leaders Training Program, developed and held by our French partner Place Network, has ended.

The training was a learning  journey aimed at developing newcomer leadership, with a strong ambition to penetrate strategic networks and influence the fields of civil society and public leadership in Europe.

50 participants, called catalysts, joint the program, from Afghanistan, Syria, Sierra Leone, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Burundi, Senegal, Guinea, Portugal, Mali, Egypt, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Mozambique, United States, Italy, Ethiopia, Morocco, Benin, Tunisia, Gambia, Belgium, Pakistan, El Salvador, Slovenian, India, Macedonia, Ukraine, Jordan, Iran, Serbia and Montenegro.

During 8 months, from October 2022 to May 2023, the catalysts of Emerging Leaders, through immersive, role-play based learning, nurtured their sense of initiative to make their mark in their future work and have an impact on the challenges that touch us all. They improved their skills in: communication and goal-setting, persuasion and body intelligence, strategic thinking & negotiation, collaboration and management, digital campaigning and social media literacy. 

During this period, they connected with each other, forming a community ready to support one another as well as clarify their professional goals through coaching sessions. 

The Emerging Leaders programs foresees the chance, for the participants, to join an internship in a public entity, located where they live, starting from September 2023, in order to put into action the things that they learned.

One of the main take-aways from this experience was that the fellowship is one of the rare spaces for newcomers to gain confidence in themselves, improve their skills and find peers that also want to make a change in Europe. Despite the challenges of different realities in Europe, the cohort came to grow together and understand each other better. This is the result of PLACE Network adapting the format, so it would speak to everyone and their different contexts. One goal to keep in mind is to keep this community alive for the future.