The 11th NGS Forum in Den Dolder, hosted by YMCA Nederlands on the 22-25th October has been a truly eye opening event – from connecting with secretary generals from across our movement to understanding and embracing YMCA Vision 2030.
The main theme of the forum has been the celebration of our diversity, resilience, and collectively having a better understanding of how we can support our brothers and sisters from movements that are in conflict areas, or affected by the ongoing war.
We stood in solidarity with the families and communities affected by war, and together created a framework to better integrate our actions within the pillars of our joint YMCA Vision 2030.
It has been a great connecting with 25 National General Secretaries from across our movement, meeting the board of YMCA Nederlands and celebrating together 170 years since the movement is a beacon of youth empowerment and community support in the Netherlands – sessions filled with insightful speeches, collective resolutions and updates from across our continental movement.
The second day of our meeting was marked by the online meeting and updates from our colleagues from The East Jerusalem YMCA, World YMCA, YMCA Artsakh, and YMCA France, together with the leadership from across our continent – standing united as one, in solidarity with the movements affected by conflicts, war and unprecedented humanitarian crises. Our morning message has been a call for unity, compassion and fellowship, across the YMCA and beyond.
We continued our NGS Meeting with a focus on the 4 pillars of YMCA Vision 2030 with an open discussion session, developing ideas, best practices, strategies and future plans to grow our movement – we are building a safe space where each of us can learn from one another.
The final sessions of the NGS forum at YMCA Nederland provided a great opportunity for the leadership of our movement to expand their knowledge and understanding on engaging with the private sector – fantastically led by Markus Schwertel, Government Affairs & Public Policy – HP Inc.
The event continued with a presentation of our partnerships and strategies led by Partnership and Communications Executive Secretary – Marius Pop, and a wrap-up of the program with Measuring impact on youth-focused organization – led by Olga Lukina, Movement Strengthening Executive Secretary, Evaluation of the event in Berlin, and plans for our movement.
The time spent at the event represents the very testimony of the importance of unity, discussing our mission and vision, with great consideration for the future of the movement – while continuing the support of the communities affected by war and conflict.
We continue to serve and inspire communities through our initiatives – growing stronger together.
