The European Youth Event (#EYE2016) is to be held in Strasbourg on 20-21 May 2016 and 3 months before the event there are already 7 500 participants for this second edition. Young people are coming from all the EU Member States with France, Germany and Italy topping the list but also candidate and neighbouring countries. The average age of participants is 21 (participants can be aged 16 to 30). By far the most popular channels for attracting participants were online and social media platforms, together with youth organisations and word of mouth.
YMCA Europe (YE) was earlier chosen as one of the partner organizations for the event. We will bring almost 20 young people from different national movements across Europe to take part in the event.
Throughout the past weekend almost 50 group leaders and 30 volunteers were working on the details of the program that has six main topics such as Apathy or Participation, Exclusion or Access, War and Peace, Stagnation or Innovation, Collapse and Success and Health and Well-being. YE participants are taking a lead on a few activities mostly tackling War and Peace issues.
This event as such is a great opportunity for the young people’s opinions to be heard and for them to show what is of importance for them in today’s Europe as the six topics mentioned earlier were developed during the first preparation meeting in October 2015 by us – young people/group leaders. There will be a lot of interactive space to share opinions on topics of interest, amazing networking opportunities and of course a chance to share knowledge and experience.
I am looking forward to the event and hope it is going to be a good, useful and fun experience for everyone involved.