One World Week

One World Week enables young people to learn about local and global justice issues, empowering them to take action for positive change.

About One World Week

Every November, youth organisations across Ireland celebrate One World Week with NYCI. One World Week is a week-long event of awareness raising, education & meaningful action.

One World Week enables young people, and those who work with young people, to connect the lives of youth to the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as upskilling on new methodologies in Global Youth Work and Development Education.

The Festival is Open!

We are hosting four events for the 2023 One World Week Festival – check out all events below and sign up:

Testing the Water: Sharing Stories of Water

We know that climate change has radically changed people’s access to clean drinking water on a global scale. We invite a panel of voices in to share stories of water, to make connections with local and global stories of water, and to look at shared responses to these common issues.

A Youth Worker Quest: Thinking, Talking, and Doing Youth Work

Come on a journey with us to explore relationship and connection with our globalised world. For this event, youth workers will take on the role of journey makers, striding out into the unknown to explore youth work practices, tools and methods with the aim of bringing about a change in the world.

Young People’s Committee: Dear Poverty

The Young People’s Committee are launching a new resource called, ‘Dear Poverty’, taking a deep dive into the topic of SDG 1 through case studies and spoken word.

Youth Summit: Making Connections

Building connections with one another while exploring and discovering links to the wider world on a personal, local, national and global level. Join young people from across Ireland for a celebration of yourself and your peers. This year’s youth summit invites you to explore how you and your community can work together to make the world a place where people are encouraged and celebrated for being who they are. 

Get involved!

Book your Free Training for Young People and Youth Workers
Check Out the new ‘Globalisation – The Youth and The Truth’ Resource Pack

One World Week Resources

Previous One World Week Themes

This One World Week focuses on Globalisation and our relationship and connection to a globalised world. Relationships and connection are core principles of youth work and in working with young people. It is these everyday interactions, conversations, stories, that define the culture of a group and organisation. Understanding the relationship and connections we have with global issues and global movements is also important in the development of young people and working with groups of young people.

One of the many challenges within communities and people around the world has been the dynamics of individual choices and collective decision making. It has been a moment where power inequalities have become more apparent in creating further injustice and inequality across the planet. The power of the individual mindset remains at the forefront of society with social media, consumerism, and mass media feeding our fears that is fracturing and dividing young people throughout the world.

In order to make change we need to understand the balance of and shift in power at all levels in our society. One World Week 2020 looks at tackling the theme of power. Understanding power is at the core of youth work in supporting young people’s development as they navigate through their lives and society. One of the main core values of youth work is empowerment. The road to empowerment for a young person can be a challenging, emotional, and a testing experience for both the young person and youth worker.

Young people across the planet have become instrumental and a leading voice in taking action against Climate Change and for Climate Justice. Young people want progress and want a say on how we treat our environment, to protect the future of the planet and ultimately the human race itself.

It is important to recognise that in this Climate Emergency (which Ireland declared in May 2019), we take into consideration and act on what is happening around us but also what is happening in developing nations – countries in the ‘global south’ who find themselves in the most vulnerable positions caught up in systems and conditions and issues not of their making against which they have little or no power to change.

Contact our Team

We would be delighted to hear from you to explore further involvement in One World Week or any other global citizenship education activity.

E: aaron@nyci.ie

Funded by:

One World Week is funded by Irish Aid, Concern Worldwide, and Trócaire.
Concern