Summer is here, and as the temperatures rise, the Camp Europe team also reaches the busiest (and exciting!) period of the year. After months of fundraising, planning, and strategizing, Camp Europe 2024 is ready to commence.
YMCA Europe has received 27 proposals from partner organisations all over Europe. Based on technical recommendations, the YMCA Europe Executive Staff Tasks Force approved funding for 17 camps in an official meeting. Out of these, 10 camps will be held in Ukraine, six in neighbouring countries, and one in Palestine.
With a total budget of 140,000 Euros, Camp Europe 2024 aims to enhance the summer experience for more than 740 direct beneficiaries.
To assist partner organizations and ensure the successful implementation of each camp, at this stage, the Camp Europe team is communicating with partner organizations to finalize grant applications and set up the process for project implementation, monitoring, and evaluation plan.
The team will follow up the process with additional communication regarding communication and media guidelines. Our aim, as the Camp Europe team, is to be part of every camp while giving partners full freedom to facilitate the project based on their vision, deal with day-to-day challenges with them, and then celebrate the success together – because at Camp Europe you are not alone.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of funds and high competition, several very strong applications were rejected due to not fully meeting the criteria; However, the good news is this is only the test year of the Camp Europe project.
A minimum of two more rounds of funding will be available for 2025-2026 years, therefore we encourage those who did not apply or did not get their applications approved this season to keep an eye on the updates and the next opportunity to join the Camp Europe family.
The first camp will commence on the 1st of July, followed by the rest of the camp throughout the rest of the summer. We encourage you to keep an eye on our activities, watch our news and read our empowering stories as the campaign will incorporate online fundraisers to secure the future of Camp Europe, and our common goal – establishing camping culture as one of the main youth activities designed not only for advancing young people’s physical abilities and creating beautiful memories, but for trauma healing and a sense of relief during hard days.
The team is working on securing more funding for the project, to provide more opportunities for interested parties. As a final note, exciting news, we are glad to be able to share, that as it was this year in Spain, we are already working on the next Campacity Conference 2025 which will take place on April 7-13, in Berlin.
Our gratitude to everyone who is creating Camp Europe, for their support and encouragement. Each contribution, kind word, shared experience and simple picture matters, and motivates us to keep going. Busy days are ahead, but we know we are not alone!