The 2026 European YMCA Scouting and Jungschar Group (ESG) Leadership Training and Seminar brought together 34 participants and five leaders from six countries at the Masaryk YMCA Camp in Czechia from 12 to 16 August.
The annual gathering is designed for young leaders and experienced youth workers involved in YMCA scouting and Jungschar programmes across Europe. Its purpose is practical: to strengthen leadership skills, exchange methods between countries and give participants ideas they can apply in their own groups and communities.
This year’s programme combined practical scouting skills, teamwork, outdoor challenges and peer-led activities. Participants shared games and methods from their own national contexts, learned from Czech scouting practice and worked together in settings that required responsibility, cooperation and problem-solving.
This learning-by-doing approach is central to ESG. Across Europe, scouting and Jungschar traditions differ from country to country, but they share a common focus on developing leadership, teamwork, self-reliance and personal responsibility among young people. The Leadership Training and Seminar creates a space where these different approaches can be tested, compared and adapted.
The programme also included the annual meeting of ESG, giving participants and representatives an opportunity to discuss the development of the network and its future activities. Alongside the formal programme, canoeing, international games and shared meals created further space for participants from the six countries to build relationships and strengthen the European network.
The ESG Leadership Training and Seminar is organised annually in a different European country. The programme traditionally combines two dimensions: leadership training for younger participants and a seminar component for those aged 18 and above, with workshops and exchanges on subjects such as intercultural communication, YMCA international work and experiential education.
For ESG, the value of the gathering is not only the skills developed during the event. Participants return to their local YMCAs with new methods, international contacts and practical experience they can use in their work with young people.
The European YMCA Scouting and Jungschar Group works with YMCA associations across Europe to strengthen scouting and Jungschar programmes, train leaders and connect national approaches to youth development through a shared European network.
