14th Transatlantic Forum

July 15-19, 2009, Toronto/Wasan Island
"Social Cohesion in the City: Diversity. Integration. Education."

The 14th Transatlantic Forum focused on “Social Cohesion in the City: Diversity. Integration. Education.” and took place in Toronto and on Wasan Island – a beautiful island owned by the Breuninger Foundation (www.wasan-island.de).

In contrast to previous Young Leaders Forums, this year‘s forum took a very practical approach to the conference topic. The conference topic was addressed and examined not only through panel discussions, but also through field trips to local good practice organizations that worked towards improving social cohesion in Toronto. In addition, the participants met in workshops to deal with four selected projects for promoting social cohesion.

There are nonprofit organizations and initiatives that address the social challenges of our times in an exemplary manner. However, they sometimes lack operational resources to do their work even more effectively. For this reason, this year’s forum seeked to support four selected initiatives – not primarily financially, but by sharing our expertise, know-how and networks. Together with selected Young Leader participants, the aim is to help in the further development of these organizations and projects and to find new creative solutions.

The four projects were: “One Square Kilometer of Education”, “Future@School”, “Fairdo.net”, and “Roots of Empathy”.

The BMW Foundation aims to foster a cross-sectoral transfer of the competencies and experiences that the participants bring to the table. This way, everybody will also have the opportunity to strengthen their personal cross-sectoral, intercultural and counselling leadership skills.

Contact: Nikola Heckmann, BMW Stiftung Herbert Quandt