Junior Chamber International (JCI) is an organisation whose mission is ‘To Provide Development Opportunities for Young Active Citizens to Empower them to Create Positive Change’ that means that in everything that we do we seek to improve young citizens, our members and yes, ourselves too.

You might have attended a training or two, and feel like we did give you a development opportunity. That however is the tip of the iceberg.

The real development opportunity comes, when you decide to take the responsibility to learn and practice skills which you might not be able to tackle in your workplace. Things which make you better, yet do not feature on your academic curricula, things like public speaking, debating, emotional intelligence, networking, teamwork and leadership amongst others.

All these skills as you can imagine are not ones you can learn and practice by yourself, in front of a mirror. You can’t really practice leadership, unless you have a team to lead, you can’t be a good team player if you don’t work in a team, you can’t be a good public speaker if there’s nobody on the other side who can give you constructive feedback. JCI is an organisation which will help you foster the development of such skills.

Being part of a team within JCI, does not necessarily mean being part of the National Board, as an organisation we love it when our members take initiative. Yes, I would like you to propose your own project, or join a team with a specific interest. However in doing so, we would like you to think “What is in it for me?” It is essential that in any task you undertake within JCI you see how this task or project will help you improve, be it your skills or as a holistic individual.

“What projects?” you may ask. JCI is a partner with the United Nations, and we have indeed given our support to the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. That means that our projects should look back to our community, to identify problems and places where we can make a difference! We then bring together different sectors of society through collaboration to help resolve these problems.

Having explained the overarching concepts of our organisation, I would like to call you to Be Better™ within the next year and be an active part of the change we want to bring to these islands.

Below is a list of teams we are trying to set in operation for the coming year to help give some inspiration.

• Committee for Business Interests 
  • Business Training Events
  • Entrepreneurship Skill Development
  • Promoting good business practices
• Committee for Social & Community Interests 
  • Sustainability
  • Clean-ups & Zero Waste
  • Psychology, Nutrition and wholistic well-being
  • Peace
• Members & Skill Development
  • Are you getting the opportunities you are looking for?
  • How do we deliver this to our members?
• Finance Committee
  • Understand organisational Finances
  • Give an oversight and feedback to organisation members
• International Opportunities
  • Identifying opportunities for members
  • Giving youths opportunities to explore the world
• EU Funding & Erasmus Projects
  • Assistance with identifying funding opportunities 

If you’d like to have a chat to see how you can grow through JCI send an email on [email protected] and I’ll be more than happy to meet up and discuss how JCI can aid your personal development.