The Bermuda Youth Development Learning Community

The Youth Development Learning Community (YDLC) is a collection of youth-serving organisations invested in inspiring and cultivating youth and young adults to reach their full potential. The goal of the YDLC is to collaborate in order to

  • Provide peer to peer learning and capacity building, and
  • Raise the youth development standards in Bermuda by improving access to and standards of youth services.

What is a Learning Community

A learning community is a group of individuals who work within a shared domain and share a concern or a passion for something they do and desire to learn how to do it better by engaging in a process of ongoing, collective learning. Over time, members/collaborators develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems—in short a shared practice.

Why join?

These are some of the desired benefits identified by the original group of youth development agencies that formed the YDLC.

  • Create and sustain better and deeper understanding of what youth development organisations exist and what they do
  • Discover opportunities to collaborate and identify joint projects
  • Ability to share common themes coming up with youth and update on programmes offered; provide space for individual case problem solving; Sharing how to best partner with different schools/service partners
  • Provide space to identify gaps in services for youth, and collectively problem solve to find creative ways to fill gaps
  • Improve ability to make referrals to one another
  • Potential to develop better understanding of how youth development organisations are measuring outcomes and impact, and potentially develop shared measurements and metrics
  • Engage in discussions around programme design and evaluation for youth development and supporting each other in “upping our game”
  • Assist in identifying and coordinating relevant training
  • Agree on standards of practice for youth serving professionals
  • Space to discuss other ways to support one another, such as creating online support group (Facebook) and sharing of relevant international resources

Who is the YDLC?

  • BIOS
  • Bermuda Zoological Society
  • Big Brothers Big Sisters
  • Bermuda Football Coaches Association
  • Bermuda Sloop Foundation
  • Duke of Edinburgh
  • Endeavor Commuity Sailing
  • Mirrors Programme
  • Pride Bermuda
  • Family Center
  • Raleigh Bermuda (Chair, Dany Pen)