About us

What is Challenger?

CHALLENGER is a one-year program for young people aged between 18 and 35, working in various fields. The program trains young people to critically analyze society issues, as well as to propose and debate solutions to the problems they face.

Description of the "CHALLENGER School of Critical Thinking" program, 2021.

Launch of the 7th edition of the CHALLENGER program, 2019.

Youth Manifesto 2019-2020: Public Policy Dialogues, 2021.

Briefly about the first edition of the Challenger School of Leadership and Critical Thinking in Russian, 2021.

Here you learn how to:

identify and solve community issues;
communicate with people and authorities;
build arguments and eloquently present your position;
research and develop strategies for solving various issues;
understand what a left-wing or right-wing policy is;
think analytically and develop policies based on real needs;
get involved in the decision-making process and interact with decision makers.

Challenger takes place in three stages:

Identifying priority issues in the community.

During this stage, participants learn to develop surveys, to question and communicate with citizens, to analyze survey results, to research and get acquainted with the "problem tree" research methodology.

Developing and debating solutions.

In the second stage, young people learn argumentation, public speaking, get acquainted with doctrines of the right-wing and left-wing ideologies, practice debates and propose solutions and strategies for the researched issues.

Consultation and negotiation of proposed strategies.

In the last stage, participants learn efficient writing techniques, the message box, negotiation techniques and interact with public authorities to consult the researched issues and proposed solutions.

All teams are guided by a mentor throughout all the stages of the program.

Currently, Challenger has nine editions of the program in Romanian and one in Russian, hundreds of Challenger Debate School graduates and over a hundred young people who are active members of the Challenger Plus community, working in various fields: state institutions, international organizations, NGOs and businesses.