Our Secretary General, Juan Simoes Iglesias was in the office this month for an extended work stay. Our team in Brussels has taken another relevant step in the implementation of YMCA Europe’s Strategy.
The frame and concept for further pan European projects as a response to the actual social challenges affecting young people, combined with further action in our youth policy, advocacy work and the next phase of our movement strengthening strategy were in the agenda of individual and collective discussions.
We continue advancing and implementing our response to the humanitarian crisis faced by refugees and displaced persons as we focus now on mid-long term initiatives presented by YMCA Ukraine and different affected movements.
From the 13-14 of May the Council of Members (COMEM) of the European Youth Forum (YFJ) 2022 took place. Our intern – Hannah Sauer has been supporting the coordination of the Youth Policy Group to represent YMCA Europe at the conference, together with Jonathan van Varik as the official Delegate.
In preparation the YPG discussed the motions, amendments, and resolutions submitted by YFJ Member Organisations and met with their representatives to coordinate responses. One of the main topics that were discussed before and during the conference was the war in Ukraine and its effects in neighbouring countries.
The conference was also a great opportunity for networking with YFJ Member Organisations and stakeholders in Brussels which provides many inputs and opportunities for our Youth Advocacy activities.
This last month the Brussels team met with partners from YUSA, YMCA Ukraine, and YMCA Romania to discuss mental health and exchange ideas on the best ways to support staff and volunteers working with traumatised youth.
We see a big need for networking around the topic of mental health, continuing sharing best practices, and for building international projects to support this work in the best way.
The Brussels staff team met with representatives of our Executive Committee and Youth Policy Group to discuss Youth Empowerment Space (YES Network).
Clarity about the concept, critical questions to answer, connection with programme groups and next steps were on the agenda.
Stay tuned for more news from the YES Network soon.
On 18 May, we took part in the European Youth Forum’s Member Consultation on Digitalisation. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the European Youth Forum's priorities and position on the topic and to receive inputs from the Member Organisations. Based on the consultation the Youth Forum is now working on a first draft for a policy paper and will then consult the Members again in a next step.
Eliza and Hannah from our Youth Policy Group presented the most recent Report on shaping digital inclusion, safety and wellbeing in the post-pandemic context and shared some of the findings on these issues.
We stressed the importance of digital wellbeing and digital inclusion and proposed to send a series of arguments derived from the research on why these topics should be addressed in any youth strategy tackling digitalisation.
Over the last month we moved from our office space from the 4th to 2nd floor of Mundo-J building! The new space accommodates our staff team in Brussels much more comfortably.
We look forward to welcoming you in the new space if you are ever in the neighbourhood. We also would like to give special thanks to Antonio Nyerjak (YMCA Belgium) for his assistance in the move.
