The International Institute of Debate

IIDebate Understanding: IIDebate in a few words: The International Institute of Debate is a non-profit, whose mission is to develop the next generation of civic leaders, activists and change agents. It aims to accomplish that by giving young people the opportunity to actively participate in the political process. By opening up spaces for democratic education and youth participation in schools and government, we strive to prioritize the needs of low-income youth and under-resourced schools and regions. In 2013, IIDebate began as a small pilot program with an all-volunteer staff running different debate competitions and empowerment projects in four different Tunisian Regions. Two years later, IIDebate has grown this strategy of real-life democracy education into five robust “Action Civics" programs that serve 120 high school students engaging teachers and decision makers into our process. Our main program areas –led by youth policymaking, and youth community problem solving – teach young people civic knowledge and leadership skills while transforming their attitudes about political participation. These programs focus on helping young people achieve success in their academic and professional as well as their social lives. Since IIDebate opened its doors, nearly 3000 students have participated in our programs, more than 1000 hours of training have been delivered. Our alumni are becoming more active community leaders. They admit the success of our hands-on approach to developing constantly active, civic and professional leaders. We are proud to now be one of the strongest and most innovative youth development and civic education organizations in the city, with lasting impacts on the personal and civic development of Tunisian youth and on how the local schools and government incorporate young people into their decision-making processes. IIDebate: What do we do? Our activities are divided into 3 main parts: ¥ Delivering trainings IIDebate provides training in the field of communication and debate to engage youth and improve their skills in critical thinking and make them more active in their communities. The process that we go through is: Designing a training session A whole team is working on designing the training curriculums according to the needs; experts, consultants and international partners help us to produce those curriculums. We have been working with Chicago Debate League and Mikva Challenge for more than 3 months to improve our training design and we are inspired by the activities they practice in order to implement it in the Tunisian and international contexts. Conducting a training session IIDebate organises trainings for Civil society, Institutions, Companies and Youth Groups upon request, in a wide range of themes ranging from debate, to communication kills, to public speaking and project creation and pitching . IIDebate trainings are delivered through a network of well-experienced trainers in different fields who are all certified from international organizations. IIDebate trainers do more than just train, they are also involved in the design of the training materials and ensure a vigilant follow up with the trainees to measure the impact of the sessions. Conducting workshops Depending on our partner's needs and under request, we organize workshops under request. Organizing conferences and public debates IIDebate organizes different conferences and public debates in partnership with civil society organizations and with our main partners. We show our dedication and involvement to the development of the youth in addition to our corporate partners through assisting them in showcasing their projects and initiatives. Through these conferences, participants are able to acquire a deep knowledge on how to improve their communication skills and to overcome their fears of public speaking. A conference is a great way for people with a common interest to get together and exchange the most cutting-edge ideas in their field. IIDebate organizes conferences on a regular basis in different fields such as academia, industry, multi-level marketing groups, and religious groups, to name a few. Serving as a consultant According to the requirement, some companies and international organizations request experts in communication and conflict management to deliver trainings, help in the design of a customized training or even to take advice on how to improve the competences of their employees, trainers and sales department. ¥ Initiating competitions/challenges IIDebate uses the Policy Debate format and the Open Debate format, where we use competition and challenge as the main tool to engage youth into participating with us. Those challenges are usually organized in partnership with different international organizations that help us to deliver successful projects. Those formats, we believe help push the participants to think about the problems in their communities, conduct research on those issues, and come up with solutions through creative methods such as videos and articles or even by sharing their ideas/success stories with the public, who will in return vote and support them to improve and implement their projects. Since IIDebate is part of many networks such as Young Arab Voices, African Youth Panel, Tunisian American Alumni Network and UNESCO “NET MED YOUTH”, those competitions were very successful. In the past two years, we earned the support of different partners and organizations to promote the activities and the projects, and also to engage youth to be a part of civil society organizations and clubs. ¥ Creating projects/programs What distinguishes IIDebate from other debate organizations is our focus on inspiring, helping and pushing youth not only to debate and discuss world issues but also to give them the chance to execute their initiatives on the ground and make a positive impact in their communities. Through our curriculums as well, we engage participants in our programs through debate sessions to present and defend thier researched solutions to each other in order to come up with conclusive resolutions and initiatives. Initiatives that we assist and help evolve into programs and projects. We concentrated on several issues related to this field like: ¥ Pedagogy ¥ Access to quality education ¥ Inequality ¥ Women right ¥ Access to information ¥ Transparency In addition, through our curriculums, we make participants in our program reflect on world issues and make a thorough research about its reality in their communities. Then, we give them the chance through debate sessions to convince each other about solutions and suggestions based on their research to tackle that specific issue. In the end, they come up with programs and invent projects that they can implement all around the country and we follow up with them to find funding to execute those projects. This method helps the community to be more active and to believe that the system should go from down to up, citizens to government and not only the other way around. It also helps to create a positive change and make all citizens care and rely on themselves to change any issue ,they are living, to a solution.