Press release: Award-Winning STAND Changemakers Academy Opens Applications for 2026 Programme on Peace and Reconciliation

May 2026 | STAND, Irish Aid’s official strategic global citizenship education partner for higher education, opened applications for the Changemakers Academy 2026, an immersive three-month programme for students and recent graduates in Ireland exploring peace and reconciliation, and one of the defining questions of our time: how can we live together?

Running from August to October 2026, the programme includes a four-day residential in Knockree, Co. Wicklow, a five-week online Global Issues course, and a cross-border residential weekend in Derry focused on peacebuilding, storytelling, and dialogue.

“The question “how can we live together?” sits at the heart of the 2026 programme, and it feels more urgent than ever. At a time when conflict dominates headlines, from the ongoing war in Ukraine, Sudan, or Myanmar, to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza or the Democratic Republic of Congo, to increasing political polarisation across Europe and North America, opportunities for meaningful dialogue can feel increasingly difficult.  Young people today are navigating a world in which division can feel like the default. The Changemakers Academy responds directly to this moment. Drawing on extraordinary examples of reconciliation from post-conflict societies — including Rwanda, Northern Ireland, and South Africa — the programme explores how peace is never simply an outcome, but something fragile, hard-won, and actively practised. Participants are invited to examine both the macro scale of political and societal reconciliation and the micro scale of their own lives: the conversations they choose to have, the communities they build, and the habits of dialogue and openness that make living together possible.” commented Clare Sheppard, STAND Innovation & Leadership Manager 

The Changemakers Academy is an evolving programme that has continually adapted in response to the ways young people engage with global and social issues. Since its earliest edition in 2023, the programme emerged from a recognition that activism and responses to injustice were changing, and that young people were looking for spaces to think critically, engage with complexity, and reflect on how change happens in practice. The 2026 edition introduces a new format and theme shaped by the realities of the current global moment.

Participants will engage in a range of experiential workshops and activities, including Theatre of Witness workshops, a form of socially engaged storytelling that brings together people directly affected by conflict and division to share personal testimony and create space for reflection, dialogue, and understanding across communities.

“The Changemakers Academy, and participating in STAND’s programs at large, has changed my life—it has opened my world to new perspectives, given me tangible tools to develop my academic and professional success, and provided me a space, skills and support to imagine and work towards a better world." Said Ella Burkett, Changemakers Academy Alumna

The programme intentionally creates opportunities for participants from different backgrounds and perspectives to come together and, through shared learning, dialogue, and reflection, examine how societies rebuild after conflict and what reconciliation can look like in practice, both locally and globally.

The Changemakers Academy was awarded a GENE Award (Global Education Network of Europe) in November 2025, recognising it as one of five outstanding global education initiatives selected from 41 across Europe. The award acknowledges the programme's contribution to transformative learning and its model of experiential, cross-community education.

The programme is a co-funded by Irish Aid and ESB. Applications are now open and close in mid-Augut 2026. To apply or learn more, visit stand.ie