Director’s Cut – Celebrating Collaborations, Dreams Unlimited - April 2010

Dream A Dream has always believed that Partnerships are the mainstay for successful and high-impact social change interventions. Exploring and bringing collaborative partners into Dream A Dream has ensured that we are continuously evolving and learning organization. One such exciting partnership in 2010 has been the collaboration with Partnership for Youth Empowerment (PYE Global), an international training organization. This collaboration grew out of conversations between Charlie Murphy, founder of PYE Global & Ashoka Fellow and me. Both the programs share common values in regards to empowering young people, the role of creativity in developing life skills, and engaging large numbers of adult mentors and volunteers in working with youth. PYE Global works with organizations and communities globally to develop exceptional program leaders and deliver transformative youth programs through a creative, cross-generational learning model called the “Creative Community”. PYE Global’s Creative Community model integrates best practices from group dynamics, experiential learning and motivational techniques with methods that engage the creative development of each individual. In addition to training program leaders, PYE Global provides technical support in program design and implementation.The goals of the Dream A Dream/PYE Global Training initiative are to:

• 1) Train staff and volunteers in the principals and practices of creativity-based youth engagement and effective group facilitation.
• 2) Provide next level professional development for a core group of  program leaders who will then design and lead Dream A Dream youth programs and volunteer training.
• 3) Enhance current Dream A Dream programs with new creativity-based practices and program elements.
• 4) Assist Dream A Dream in developing a signature Dream A Dream camp experience, an in-depth, creative approach to developing life skills.
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The first element of the partnership has just concluded with a 17-day engagement with the PYE Global Team which included an intensive 4-day training program for the staff, a workshop for all our Partner NGOs and a camp experience lead by our staff using the Creative Community Model proposed by PYE Global. The experience has being nothing short of transformatory and has laid the foundation for a long-term mutually beneficial partnership. Thank you, With Dreams, Vishal Talreja Co-founder & Director | Ashoka Fellow Dream A Dream | www.dreamadream.org