Naseej- Community Youth Development Initiative (CYDI) was designed to strengthen and support the new concepts in Youth Development field, especially Positive Youth Development (PYD) and Community Youth Development (CYD). We believe that these concepts in youth development work will broaden the horizon for new nontraditional approaches. Youth development is not limited to youth centers and does not seek changing the programs only, but rather it is an overall methodology towards both Positive Youth Development and local communities.

Therefore, Naseej team believes that “Youth people grow up in communities, not programs. Efforts to promote positive development must be focused on the overall context in which that development occurs”. Naseej is a regional program funded by Ford Foundation and managed by Save the Children in collaboration with a regional Advisory Committee (RAC) that consists of a number of development practitioners from the Arab World. Naseej has five different components / main activities. Although the sub grants component is limited to five Arab counties: Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine and Yemen, other activities impact the entire Arab World.

Naseej in the Arabic Language is the “action of weaving” and was chosen to reflect the Program’s spirit which aims at reinforcing and strengthening actions and influencing individuals and groups as well as relationships within societies. Naseej reflects on the fabric of the Arab societies which is multi-cultural, multi-colored that is able to bring positive change being not only connected but also intertwined.