The current news headlines and global trends leave many young people with a lack of hope and trust in our leaders. They feel discouraged to engage and participate in political processes as they experience continuous disregard of their needs and perspectives.
At the same time, we can observe the young generation coming together across countries with incredible force, taking matters into their own hands and creating new and creative spaces to support each other across communities, demanding change and for their voices to be heard.
One of these spaces is the Council of Members (COMEM) of the European Youth Forum which took place in Berlin from 17-18 November.
Around 140 young delegates from Youth Organisations across Europe met for a weekend to bring in their perspectives on youth issues and decide on joint positions and advocacy priorities in the light of ongoing issues and conflicts.
After the kick-off training “Know Your Say” in July, YMCAs European Youth Representation Network (EYRN) has continued to come together as a cohort and accompanied the preparation of the Council of Members.
The EYRN also selected Emanuella Gier, National Youth Representative of YMCA Serbia as a first-time delegate to the European Youth Forum. Congratulations for successfully representing YMCAs youth and many thanks for your motivation and vision Ema, you were amazing!
Together with her, Hannah joined as an Extra-Delegate to support the introduction into the affairs of the European Youth Forum. With the participation in this years’ COMEM, our youth representatives are strengthening their involvement in European youth policies and learning about the internal processes of these key platforms.
Topics discussed during the conference were the participation and consideration of young people in peace and security issues, the protection of young people’s rights in restricted civic spaces, and increased learning mobility and youth spaces in national contexts.
This year’s COMEM was also an opportunity to sit together and reflect with delegates from our partner organisations such as YWCA, the World Scout Movement, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, Red Cross and others. Throughout the next weeks and months we will continue to work together online to develop a joint strategy increasing our collaborative work and advocacy.
With many small wins, lots of inspiring inputs, and ideas to realise, we continue our efforts to facilitate peaceful youth dialogue and participation.
