Young Cities

Young Cities fosters collaboration between young people and local governments to address the most pressing issues in their communities.

Combining the Strong Cities Network’s capacity building with YouthCAN’s empowerment of young activists, Young Cities is the first project of its kind to bring together young people and policy makers to address local-level issues on a global scale.

While young people are uniquely placed to effect change, they are frequently excluded from local decision-making processes and frustrated by limited opportunities for cooperation. Launched in 2018, Young Cities works in partnership with young people and local governments to enhance youth-led, shared solutions to community challenges such as hate, polarisation, extremism and violence.

In partnership with city leaders, Young Cities supports and amplifies youth-led efforts through training workshops, seed funding and ongoing mentorship, giving young people the tools to develop and implement initiatives that respond to the needs of their communities. Youth activists are connected with key partners amongst local government and civil society that can support their goals, supporting the build-out of local networks and cooperation between youth and other local actors.
Young Cities also works with local government leaders to develop effective policy and programmes that are responsive to the needs of their young citizens. In addition to fostering youth-municipal cooperation, we support local government stakeholders with primary research and global insights to form the basis for future city-level programming.

By working simultaneously with both groups – youth and local government – Young Cities fosters a shared understanding of local youth issues, facilitates new opportunities for cooperation, and ultimately enhances both groups’ capacity to tackle community-level challenges of hate and polarisation.

With the support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Young Cities has operated in six cities in Kenya, Lebanon and Senegal since 2018, and launched in North Macedonia in October 2020.

What have we achieved?

Fostered youth-municipal collaboration and dedicated initiatives in six cities across Kenya, Lebanon and Senegal.
Trained over 230 young people, supporting and engaging diverse youth actors ranging from ex-convicts in the most disadvantaged areas of Dakar, Senegal, to members of local youth councils in Mombasa, Kenya.
Launched 38 change-making initiatives, engaging over 2,500 youth offline and reaching over 1.6 million people online. Initiatives have tackled diverse issues such as gang and violent extremist recruitment, discrimination, stereotyping refugees, fractured youth-police relations, low levels of youth civic engagement, disinformation, trauma and violence. Some of our youth groups have received nationwide media coverage for their innovative work.
Trained over 50 municipal leaders and provided research and policy advice to support local programming and youth participatory governance models.

A Young Cities workshop in Mombasa, Kenya, February, 2020

The Young Cities team mobilises to assist victims of the Beirut blasts, August, 2020

A Young Cities workshop in Cair, North Macedonia
October 2020

Latest Young Cities Publications

Click here for more related ISD Publications

ISD’s Young Cities team

Moustafa Ayad

Executive Director; Africa, the Middle East and Asia (AMEA)

Follow @MoustafaAyad

Moustafa Ayad is the Executive Director for Africa, the Middle East, and Asia (AMEA) at ISD, with more than 15 years worth of experience designing, developing, and deploying multi-faceted counter extremism projects in conflict and post-conflict environments across AMEA. He has experience in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kenya, Senegal, as well the United States, with a range of government and non-governmental partners on violent extremism, conflict resolution and strategic communications. Moustafa’s research on hybrid extremism and the use of social media platforms by extremist groups and their supporters has been featured in the Associated Press, BBC, The Times, VICE, CNN, NPR, Wired, and The Daily Beast.

Eric Rosand

Executive Director, Strong Cities Network

Eric Rosand is the Executive Director of the Strong Cities Network. He has more than two decades of experience working with governments, multilateral organisations, civil society, academics, and the private sector on international counterterrorism and P/CVE issues. This includes more than six years as a senior official at the US State Department where he acted as the international policy director for the White House CVE Summit and led efforts to develop and launch the Global Counterterrorism Forum, its inspired institutions, and the Strong Cities Network. He previously was a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and served as co-director of the Global Center on Cooperative Security, and a lawyer at the US State Department and the US Mission to the United Nations. His writings, including on the role of cities and other local actors in P/CVE have appeared in a wide range of publications such as the American Journal of International Law, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, Global Observatory, Just Security, The Hill, Lawfare, Order from Chaos, Time, and War on the Rocks. He holds a BA in history from Haverford College, a JD from Columbia University School of Law, and an LLM (Hons) in international law from Cambridge University.

Allison Curtis

Deputy Executive Director, Strong Cities Network

Allison Curtis is the Deputy Executive Director of the Strong Cities Network. She joined the Strong Cities in 2022 as Head of Partnerships and Networks. Previous roles have included Senior Manager for Communications & Strategic Planning at the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law (IIJ) in Malta, where she also led the Institute’s Global Central Authorities and Addressing Homegrown Terrorism Initiatives. Allison also served as Policy Analyst for the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) Administrative Unit in The Hague and Senior Policy Officer at the Australian Embassy in Washington, DC, where she worked on the counter-terrorism, national security and legal portfolios. She has degrees in law and journalism, and a Master’s degree in International Relations.

Kelsey Bjornsgaard

Director of Practice, Strong Cities Network

Follow @@KrBjorn

Kelsey Bjornsgaard is the Director of Practice for the Strong Cities Network where she develops training models and resources to enhance locally-led approaches to preventing and countering violent extremism. She works closely with youth, civil society and national and local government actors to identify good practice, build critical capacities and drive cross-sectoral coordination to promote community-based solutions on a global scale. Kelsey leads the delivery of Strong Cities’ youth pillar, Young Cities, and is driving work on National Local Cooperation. Kelsey holds a Master's in International Conflict Studies from King’s College London and a Bachelor's in European Studies from the University of Oklahoma.

Duaa Khalid

Director of Project Operations, Strong Cities Network

Duaa Khalid is the Director of the Strong Cities Network (SCN) Project Operations at ISD, leading on all SCN operational management including grant management, financial management, new business development, compliance, procurement, risk management and resource management. Duaa has 15 years of experience working with non-profit organisations and international charities managing international programs and donor relationships with DFID, EU and USAID, among others. Previously, she worked with Save the Children UK and Marie Stopes International. Duaa holds a BSc Hons in Economics from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE).

David Leenstra

Networks and Membership Coordinator, Strong Cities Network

David Leenstra is the Networks & Membership Coordinator for the Strong Cities Network, supporting day-to-day engagement with member cities and liaising with local governments interested in joining the Network. He is also involved in developing and implementing strategies to improve Strong Cities’ outreach and engagement with members. Prior to joining the Strong Cities Management Unit, David was an ISD Research Associate, contributing to a wide range of research projects focusing on extremism, hate and conspiracy theories online. He has also conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Flanders on right-wing extremist youth movements and research on Islamic State online propaganda, politics and legitimation strategies. He holds Master’s degrees in Conflict Studies & Human Rights from Utrecht University and in International Relations History from the University of Amsterdam.