In his opening speech the President, Mr. Carl Hertz-Jensen (Denmark), confirmed by referring to the Constitution of the Y’s Men Movement, that the main purpose of the Y’s Men organisation is to serve and support the work of the YMCA at all levels.
Under the title "Making the difference", our YMCA Europe President Ed Eggink referred in his speech during the opening session to the excellent co-operation with Y’s Men in Europe. He mentioned several YMCA projects in Europe which are supported by local Y’s Men clubs and also the strong support that YMCA Europe received from Y’s Men Denmark for projects (Programme Initiative Centers) in Kosovo; Serbia; Macedonia; Romania and Lithuania. Local Y’s Men clubs from different countries also supported the "Friends of YMCA Europe" campaign since 2010. This campaign has been re-launched last May.
A big "Thank You" to all Y’s Men involved.
Ed also spoke about developments in YMCA Europe and about trends which affect young people in Europe. Examples are: still growing youth unemployment; growing radicalisation of young people and the increasing number of young refugees and asylum seekers. He asked to support YMCA’s addressing these issues.
In different sessions and workshops the participants of the Convention discussed issues like: strengthening service to the YMCA; community service and involvement of young people.
Johan Vilhelm Eltvik, Secretary-General of the World Alliance of YMCA’s, referred in his speech to the co-operation between YMCA and Y’s Men at the global level and to the Change Agents project which includes many young YMCA leaders from Europe. He also spoke about the "One Million Voices" project and the "Peace Boat" project. This Peace Boat will sail from Venice (Italy) to Barcelona (Spain) in the first week of October.
