Founded late 2017, Engage aims to support the development of young Africans in the Nordics by providing career counselling, guidance and leadership development support.
Engage was born from the finding that the African youth in the Nordics was under-represented in higher education and within the employment market. Founding Engage was a response to this situation. By giving these youth role models and support, Engage aims to reduce the rate of unemployment and school drop-out within the African community.
Today, Engage partners with recruitment structures in the Nordics to help the professional reintegration of African Youths.
1. How was the ENGAGE born?
Engage was created late 2017 and was born from the observation that young Africans living in the Nordics were not doing anything. You could not find them at work nor in school. They were just in between. Despite the opportunities, when it comes to their careers or job opportunities, they were left without counsel nor guidance. As youths are nowhere to be seen, we wanted to organise seminars to mentor youth in their careers, schools and partner with local actors, such as the Københavns Kommune to help reinsert them to work. We wanted to counsel the youths to go for higher education, to find role models and encourage their leadership development. Through Engage, we want to push African Youth potential to the fullest.
2. How did you hear about the ADEPT Platform and what did you push to join it?
We attended the DDD7 event and found it very productive and informative. We also met many people, so we thought we could join ADEPT to benefit from their support in terms of Capacity Building and Project Development. Because becoming a member of such an umbrella organisation, as the ADEPT Platform could help us boost the development of our organisation.
3. What are you looking for as part of the ADEPT Platform?
We are expecting to get partners in the diaspora, but also in Africa for further collaboration. We are also expecting to benefit from the ADEPT's technical support in term of capacity development. Finally, we would like to benefit from the ADEPT's pool of consultants and experts to contribute to our events and counselling sessions with the African youths here in the Nordics.
