Global Kids' Online Leadership Program

Global Kids (GK) is an after-school organization that is committed to educating and inspiring urban youth to become successful students as well as global and community leaders. Using interactive and experiential methods to educate youth about critical international and foreign policy issues, GK provides students with opportunities for civic and global engagement. While based in New York City, we work with youth online and institutions all around the world.
To learn more about GK, visit our website.

The Online Leadership Program [OLP] was created in 2000 to bring new media into Global Kids' after school programs, introduce these programs into online communities, and explore how the combination of the two could develop 21st Century Learning Skills. Through programs utilizing video games, virtual worlds, online dialogues, social media & networks, and more, ,youth involved in our programs now have the opportunity to have their voices heard and make a global impact in ways that were previously unimaginable. Our direct youth work then informs the professional development services we offer to individuals, organizations, and their funders.
To learn more, visit the About OLP section.

OLP offers various programs, from gaming programs to virtual world-based programs to capacity building programs for facilitators. OLP has also run numerous programs in the past. Our current programs can be broken down into four sections:

• The Edge Project: The Edge Project expands the capacity of civic and cultural institutions to use new media as innovative educational platforms that engage youth in learning and promote youth civic participation. It is interested in civic and cultural institutions bringing cutting edge digital media into their youth educational programs, and where this programming is a disruptive force challenging the educators and/or the institutional cultural to work on the edge of their comfort level.
• Gaming: Global Kids has acted on its belief that games can be a form of youth media, engaging youth in addressing critical world issues. Through our gaming programs, Global Kids youth leaders worked to create web-based games like Ayiti: The Cost of Life and Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City.
• Social Media: Global Kids has always believed that youth should be more than critical consumers but active producers of digital media. The development of this media has increased the opportunities for Global Kids to develop programs which utilize these media production tools to support youth to broadcast their voices on critical issues.
• Virtual Worlds: As one of the newest of the "new media," immersive 3D virtual worlds are rich social spaces that bring together a range of social media and allow youth to make important connections with each other across borders and cultures. Global Kids is committed to using tools like these to empower our young people...both in the virtual and the real world.

There are several ways you can get involved with OLP and Global Kids. Check out how here.

• Both Global Kids as an organization, and OLP specifically, offer various professional services, including trainings for individuals, entire institutions and youth, as well as technical assistance such as providing curriculum development support, project design and simulcasting events.
• Services OLP offers include: <
  • Games-Based Learning: Since 2002, Global Kids has been a leader in the use of online games to promote global awareness, engaged citizenship, and 21st Century Learning Skills. Through Playing 4 Keeps, Global Kids trains urban youth to think critically about digital games and design games about important social issues.
  • Digital Expressions: Social media sites offer a broad range of free, easy to use, web-based tools for youth to create digital art addressing social and global issues, share their creations and interact with their peers.
  • Virtual Worlds, Real Learning: Since 2005, Global Kids has offered a wide array of consult and training services regarding the use of virtual worlds for education and pro-social applications.
• Services Global Kids offers include:
  • Professional Development for Individuals: Are you an educator interested in integrating service learning, digital media and global issues into your curriculum?
  • Professional Development for Groups: Our various training packages include areas such as service learning, global citizenship, online games-based education, digital media, and creating caring school communities. These services can also be customized to meet the specific needs of a school or organization.
  • Trainings for Youth: Global Kids conducts special trainings for middle and high school students — ranging from a single day session to a year-long series of workshops—that educate participants about global issues and provide them with the knowledge and skills to work more effectively with their peers in areas such as conflict resolution, bias prevention, respect for diversity, and facilitation skills.
  • Technical Assistance & Consulting: Global Kids also offers technical assistance to schools and organizations on projects related to curriculum design, program implementation, and evaluation design, among other activities.
• To download OLP's Professional Development Brochure, click here.
• To download Global Kid's Professional Development for Individuals Brochure, click here and for Global Kid's Professional Development for Groups Brochure, click here.
• To learn more about OLP's Professional Development services, click here and Global Kid's in general, click here.

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