The Larnaca District Development Agency and the Center for the Study of Childhood and Adolescence organized on 26th September 2006 at 6:30 p.m. the official opening of the Project “Diversity Ambassadors” at the Palm Beach Hotel in Voroklini.

As Cyprus is becoming more and more multicultural and more diverse in every aspect, it is becoming increasingly important to understand how to address and manage this diversity to everyone’s benefit. The people of different background, races, religion, culture, etc. create a diverse environment. Diversity features, might include: people from different communities and/or races, women in the workforce, people with disabilities, single mothers/parents, people of minorities, gays, etc.

The current situation in Cyprus companies is not very optimistic. They pay absolutely no attention to issues of diversity, with very few exceptions. Middle and upper level management is not even concerned about it and they don’t consider it an issue to be addressed, hence it is difficult to convince them to get trained and offer training to their employees.

The project and the partners involved, will attempt to tackle the issue of diversity and improve the situation by targeting a specific age group, youth between 16-30, who are the future managers and are not already pre-dispositioned on the importance of addressing diversity in the workplace, providing them with the background and tools to bring it into their workplace. By making the youth aware and more sensitive on the issue and enabling them to at least identify when discrimination is being exercised, then we ensure that they enter the workforce prepared and able to develop authentic relationships with diverse others. The overall target is to reduce prejudice and discriminating behaviours towards groups of people that are different from the dominant group, especially in work environments.