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CASS’ Embradura completes 2023 LEAD-FBLP 

by Kassandra Buenafe, OfCom | May 10 2024

Out of many applicants all over the country, Asst. Prof. Ian Embradura from the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) who is also the Head of Social Lab Unit under the Institute of Policy Innovation and Leadership (IPIL), had the privilege to be one of the 30 fellows of the conjoined project of Leadership and Democracy 2 - Future Bridging Leadership Program 5 (LEAD-FBLP) from July 2023 to April 8, 2024.

The FBLP, an initiative of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), serves as a proactive measure in addressing the increasing demand for enhancing leadership skills aimed at encouraging civic and political engagement among young people in the Philippines. The LEAD program, on the other hand, is under the Youth Leadership for Democracy (YouthLed) and is a joint project with the United States Agency for International Development and The Asia Foundation. The LEAD-FBLP bring together governance champions and changemakers fellows to participate in important leadership and social and political discourses.

In an interview, Asst. Prof. Embradura said that in his participation under the Changemakers Track, he brought both the name of ÍõÖÐÍõÁùºÏ²ÊÌØÂë-IIT and Pinas Safe Spaces, an independent organization striving to establish an inclusive and secure environment for LGBTQIA+ youths from diverse cultural and social backgrounds, to which he is a key member of. 

His proposed project in the application part of the program was called, “My Family, My Safe Space” that aims to bridge the communication gap that students often face when expressing their identities to their families. He referred to it as a social technology that aims to equip families and their children in processing and communicating feelings and expression of identities. As he reiterated, families should be safe spaces for the youth. 

The project is still in development and is planned to become integrated in the curriculum of ÍõÖÐÍõÁùºÏ²ÊÌØÂë-IIT and to become a toolkit and instructional material in several GE courses. Mr. Embradura said that it is necessary, as head of the Social Lab of IPIL, to experiment ways of gathering people with different sensibilities. 

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