• Would you like to empower your students as responsible and contributing citizens?
• Would you like your students to develop their academic, social and personal skills through improving their community?
• Would you like to give your teachers new ways to excite their students and help them understand the relevance of what they are learning?
• Do you feel that community service should be an important component of school reform in your country?

If the answer is YES to any of the above, then please read on:

The Learning to CARE Institute is a primary component of The Arab Initiative to Foster a Culture of Volunteering, providing up to nine country teams with training in the Learning to CARE Program as an important means to encourage volunteering in the region.

In July 2010, the Institute trained teams from seven Arab countries: Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen.

The 2011 LTC Institute will be held October 15-20 in Brummana, Lebanon. Participating country teams will be provided with the necessary training and support to serve as trainers in their respective countries to help schools and other educational institutions develop programs of volunteering and community service.

Faculty: The primary trainers for the Institute are Mrs. Safaa El-Makkaoui (LTC Program Coordinator) and Dr. Patricia Nabti (author of the book Learning to CARE), who both have extensive experience as teachers, trainers and consultants in volunteering, and specialists in developing school service programs.

Place: The Learning to CARE Institute 2011 will take place at Le Crillon Hotel in Brummana,in the Metn region of Lebanon.

Program: The training program will include a week of intensive interactive training. Participants will:

• Gain knowledge about how to develop effective school service programs,
• Develop presentation and train-the-trainer skills
• Learn about available resources
• Become part of the LTC Program network

Scholarship: Thanks to the generous contribution of the Arab Thought Foundation (ATF), partial and full scholarships are available for a limited number of country teams from Arab countries having limited financial capacities, but who have demonstrated the commitment and ability to fulfill the objectives of the program. Funds are not available to fulfill the post-workshop commitments of country teams in their own countries.

What is the benefit to individual participants? First and foremost, participants will get the chance to work on a project that will blaze new trails and serve your school, your community, your country, and the region as a whole.
In addition, personal benefits to all recruits include:

• The development of new skills and knowledge that you can apply to your school, your youth group, and your own children (or those of family and friends)
• A copy of the book Learning to CARE in either Arabic or English and other resources
• Enrichment of your CV
• The opportunity to meet, train, work with, and impact other educators and youth leaders from throughout Arab World

To Apply: To fill in an application to participate in the Learning to CARE Institute, click here.