European Youth Week – Youth in Action

The 3rd European Youth Week will take place throughout Europe from 3-10 June 2007. In Brussels, there will be a centralised event (3-6 June) to promote the Youth in Action Programme and European Youth Policies, and to contribute to the structured dialogue with young people.

In this event young people from all parts of Europe will meet and, through open discussions and consultation, create a tangible contribution to the European Commission’s Plan D, which stands for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate.

One objective of event will be to promote and raise the awareness of the Youth in Action Programme, which has been launched concurrently. It will also highlight the achievements and success of projects supported by the previous Youth Programme, which ran from 2000-2006.

Participants will form working groups to discuss the main elements of the general theme “social inclusion and diversity of young people in Europe”, with the outcomes to be presented in a plenary session. There will also be working groups using creative methods like music and video to contribute to the same theme.

Finally, the attendees will also have the possibility to participate in a political
round table debate attended by members of the European Commission.

The final conclusions of the Brussels event will be forwarded to the Commission and the Council of Youth Ministers, and is expected to be taken into account in their policy formulation.

YEU - European Identity Exchange Project

check out little movie made after Youth Exchange in Sardinia. Movie made by Arturas, YEU Lithuania.

Youth week is coming!

hey ho! European Youth Week 2007 is approaching us!!
make sure you get involved in one of its events - be it Brussels or your country.

Follow this link http://youthweek.eu for more information and also consult your national youth institutions about the local events.

the keyword is PARTICIPATION!

Youth: Open the door

Internet is a miracle, so i was not too much surprised that Russians voted Internet to be the most important invention of XX century... at the moment i am sitting in the little restaurant in the middle of remote Lithuanian town and using wireless Internet sharing my emotions of the given moment. cool, isn't?

last week i spent with a nice bunch of youngsters from Baltic and Eastern European countries talking about Innovative ways for youth cooperation. Indeed it is important to strengthen our ties with our counterparts across the state borders and to build bigger, broader and YOUNGER Europe.

as one of the "touchable" outcomes, Web log http://youthcooperation.blogspot.com was created to channel future cooperation of our organizations and all of you are welcome to visit and join us!

Youth: Open the door. The door is open - now your time to enter!

Pool of Trainers' meeting

Pool of Trainers near the Pool of green stuff :)
hey hey hey!

Rome Youth Summit

Hey all, there was a little info gap, i have to assume it as my failure.. but i do have a good excuse for that ;))
this month i almost haven't been at home, first Sardinia for prep-meeting of youth exchange, then viziting Moscow (and future father n law:) and now postong these lines from Rome.. andto give some light on that, i added i picture.

day after the end...

this weekend big chapter of my life was closed..
the mandate of YEU Vice President expired..

i guess it is for good since i was looking forward to it.
since now i feel great relief.
since now i don't need to worry about organization.
Of course, i will, but i DON'T HAVE to :)

this was 2 years learning process... how to work in international team. how to manage to make fats decisions while your board members are in 7 different countries and are constantly on the road. Saw how emotions can spoil the work being done. Proved once again that people can do much more than expected from them. Tried to find red line between teamwork (team responsibility) and individual efforts to make things happen.. all in all i can say - many things still to be learned and experienced!!!

-----> people of the course <--------

team meeting

...01:12 in the morning. team-meeting. we already finished with daily trainer's feedback and feedback from exploration group.

now we are shifting to planning tomorrow's sessions. we will be working on Open system model and Environmental Scan in the morning, while afternoon sessions will be designed to work on Models & Culture and Mission, Vision etc... looking forward:)))

Pantheon of Mollina

At the right hand side you can see set of gods from Mollina's Pantheon.
master's hand was shaking because of their tremendouness... (whatever:)))

this cartoon represents trainer's of the courses mentioned in the previous message. the preparation for the course went so well, but... all of the sudden participants arrived - what to do, what to do...:))

Mollina.... again:)

in three years i am for the third time in CEULAJ in Molina, Spain... i think it is a bit too much... and then it is of no surprise that some people call this place second home:) especially European youth workers.

here the training course on organizational management and creative leadership in inter cultural environment is being created. soon we will have more details about that...

Coyote - magazine, not an animal

those who know me, would understand me... i just cannot keep it in myself and would like to share it... :) my organization (and me:) appeared in the major youth work publication in Europe, Coyote.
the article is pasted bellow.

You cannot teach a man anything
You can only help him to discover for himself.
Galileo Galilei [1564-1642]

Have you ever heard of YEU?

YEU is an International Youth organization ‘Youth for Exchange and Understanding’ and stands for peace, understanding and co-operation between the young people of the world, in a spirit of respect for human rights and cultural differences. The organization was created in 1986 in Strasbourg, by a group of 120 youngsters from 11 different countries who believed in NFL and was the result of 4 years of cooperation through multilateral short term youth exchanges. So this year is special for our organization, since YEU is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Nowadays, YEU counts 26 member organizations across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. And cooperation with partner organizations goes far beyond these geographical boundaries.

YEU is constituted by a considerable number of youth organizations with diverse aims and different scope of activities within their local communities. Nevertheless, we all share the 110 YEU mission, all member organizations are democratic, non-political-party-affiliated and all strive to develop youngsters and their communities by being NFL “spaces” and where youngsters can create other NFL and NFE “spaces”. Within these “spaces”, youngsters can develop themselves via participation, they exercise their citizenship, they participate in the promotion of a set of values such as Human Rights, Voluntarism, Cooperation, Respect for Diversity, Intercultural Learning, Non Violent Behaviour, Inclusion and Equal Opportunities for all.

In YEU, individuals, involved in the organization in different ways, are the actors in the education/learning process for which they are responsible. This implies that all youngsters are sharing responsibility for the learning outcomes, based on equality and peer education values: the learning outcomes depend on the active involvement of everyone and each one learns with and from the others.

The main mission of the organization within NFE is to create a "safe" learning space with different opportunities for young people to further develop their skills, knowledge and attitudes. Learning is an ongoing process; one of its crucial features is “learning by doing”. “Non-formal” does not imply “unstructured”; it is a deliberate, planned, staffed, change-orientated and learner-centred process. The process of non-formal learning is shared and designed in a way that creates an environment in which the learner is the architect of the skills, knowledge and attitudes to be developed.

Besides the work done locally by member organizations, YEU develops short-term multilateral youth exchanges, work camps, trainings courses and volunteer activities to promote cultural dialogue and intercultural learning. Around 6-8 multilateral short term youth exchanges (usually ranging from 7 to 21 days and involving between 25 and 80 people) are arranged every year. They involve a few hundred youngsters at different levels of participation: participant, organizer, facilitator, core team member. Besides youth exchanges, YEU also develops other volunteer activities such as European Voluntary Service (EVS), job shadowing and internships, as well as study sessions, seminars and conferences with themes relevant to our network development, training courses, study visits and youth information projects.

Each level of participation is coherent with a particular learning outcome achieved, which is a concrete benefit of non-formal education. They are described in the scheme below.We have taken the example of the participation in a youth exchange, which is the basic level of involvement for a participant in a YEU activity, and we tried to point out the learning outcomes and the attitudes developed by the participants, but also by the team of organizers and facilitators.

Skills	Knowledge	Attitudes
Participant’s Non-Formal Learning Outcomes
Communication Language learning Active Listening Empathy Distance to Social Roles Conflict resolution / transformation Critical thinking Self awareness about oneself and the others Being in a group Creativity Emotional development Sensibility	Cultural diversity Cultural Relativism Human Rights Citizenship Globalization and interdependence Political, economical and social situation of other countries	Respect Tolerance Voluntarism Community spirit Sense of belonging Responsibility Active Participation Non violent behaviours Open minded Supportive towards others Empowerment Autonomy Confidence and self-esteem
Organizer’s Non-Formal Learning Outcomes
Team work Problem solving Capacity to foresee and plan Leadership Interpersonal conflict resolution	Project Management Volunteers management Interpersonal contacts	Discipline Share responsibilities Trust Flexibility Patience Easy going
Facilitators Non Formal Learning Outcomes
Facilitation Assertiveness Implementation of NFE activities Interpersonal conflict Resolution	Group dynamics	Inclusion Equality
Facilitators Non Formal Learning Outcomes
Design NFE programmes and activities Leadership Conflict transformation	NFE methodology and methods	Discipline Share responsibilities Trust Flexibility Patience Easy going

Ensuring the sustainability of our organization

However, our network wasn’t always that dynamic! We entered the 21st century facing a growing shortage of skilful, competent and motivated young people to run our organizations and programmes. This resulted from the incapacity, in the second part of the 90’s, to prepare "new" members to continue the work of the “older” YEU generation in a sustainable manner.

5 years ago we decided to invest our energy in the following three directions:

• Allowing more young people to get involved in YEU through the clarification of YEU structure, procedures and policies. It made clear the way in which YEU can support the development of members who wish to develop their competencies in the youth field and allowed the initiation of youth workers careers in our structure.
• Raising the quality and quantity of non formal education and learning opportunities within the network. We promoted participation of our members in international training courses, such as those provided by the Council of Europe (CoE), SALTO centres and by the Covenant between the CoE and the EU. The direct result of this step was the development and the higher quality of our own training activities.
• Developing cooperation with other NGO’s and International Youth Organizations to share best practice and resources . The European Youth Forum has been a privileged space for the development of those partnerships and for the raising of YEU knowledge in many youth areas, especially those related with youth policy and with youth work practice. This opens existing NFL spaces to people from other organizations and creates peer-to-peer cooperation with different organizations, thus creating new NFL spaces.

YEU as a space for development: find your place!

Every organization provides a lot of opportunities to get involved and develop yourself in the most appropriate way. Network organizations working across the borders, in this case YEU, gives a lot of opportunities for self-development on different levels. Below you will find a simplified scheme which shows how and where a person can get involved in YEU and what social and personal competencies a person may acquire. Some people go through all this "development chain" from involvement in a local organization to international structures; some only get the few things they need and stay at the primary level or leave; but the most important thing is to provide opportunities for everyone to develop all the potential a person has and wants to develop.

Most commonly youngsters first get involved in YEU member organizations at the local level, be it Tunisia, Portugal or Lithuania, and then via participation in the events they become motivated to take responsibilities in the organization or organize exchanges themselves. Some of them undergo more training and become involved in the international structures; governing board, YEU pool of trainers and facilitators. But it is not a "must-go" path; some people continue working on the local level bringing their experience to the grass-root level. The most important thing for us is that everyone can find an appropriate place for learning and sharing his/her experience. At the same time, the structure of the network enables greater accumulation of experience and its transfer.

The conclusion

The last two decades brought big changes in the youth field and recognition of non-formal education in Europe. Since we no longer need to advocate the importance of NFE and necessity of NGOs, now it is our responsibility to make the best use of it.

In twenty years of existence YEU has evolved and developed a long way. But organizations are nothing without people; its members who engage themselves to develop themselves and thereby strengthen the organization. Creating safe learning spaces, making opportunities and structures transparent and the personal approach to each member, will ensure the best results. It worked out well for YEU, why it should not work in your case?

YEU [Youth for Exchange and Understanding] is :

• an international youth organization founded in 1986;
• more than 5000 young people in 26 countries around Europe, Asia and Africa. These youngsters are youth leaders and future leaders of their countries and societies;
• full member of the European Youth Forum based in Brussels and we are recognized by the Council of Europe and the European Union as an International Non Governmental Youth Organization.

YEU Mission
Youth for Exchange and Understanding works to promote peace, understanding and co-operation between the young people of the world, in a spirit of respect for human rights. As an international network, we are the representative body of our members in contacts with the institutions and partners in the youth field.

Personal testimony by Marius Ulozas

I engaged myself with a YEU member organization in Lithuania back in
2003, after two years’ involvement in a political youth organization. YEU
attracted me with its intercultural offer and possibility to implement my own
ideas in a multicultural environment. Participation in seminars and training
courses gave a lot of insights and an understanding that others can think in a different way and that nothing is wrong with that. It also gave me confidence and motivation to go on and share learned things with others.

The nice thing about YEU is that you can get as much as you want – because it depends only on your motivation and dedication. Since I like management and wanted to develop training skills, I went in both directions. On the one hand, after working two years for the YEU Lithuania governing board I was elected YEU Vice-President; whilst in the training field I continued working on different topics and started giving trainings even outside the YEU network. Also, I am representing YEU at the European Youth Forum and its working group, to advocate needs of YEU members and to share our experience with other youth organizations working across Europe. To sum it up, involvement in YEU gave me a lot of experience and opportunities. It helped to develop skills, attitudes and knowledge; to meet new people. And last but by no means least – it helped me to overcome my stage-fright.

What YEU stands for
Over the years, YEU has managed to distinguish its philosophy and working methods. The primary aims of the organization are:

• To foster closer co-operation and better understanding among the young people of the world, both between and within countries, particularly by encouraging the exchange of information & experience;
• To stimulate mutual support between countries, communities and people for cultural, educational and social purposes
• To encourage the interdenominational exchange of ideas and opinions
• To improve the relationship among young people from countries with differing political systems, religious beliefs and traditions, thus fostering tolerance, mutual respect and most of all acceptance

YEU :

Different people, Common values
Common expectations, Different backgrounds,
Different ways, common outcomes,
MUTUAL ACCEPTANCE,
and Universal respect!!!

what i am doing in Varna, Bulgaria?

together with Zara, armenian collegue, we are facilitating European Youth Forum meeting, which is being held in this nice country, which 2 days ago was invited to join EU from 2007 Jan 1. It also gives as a lot more visibility than normal youth meeting - since we are "European" and we are in Bulgaria..

some information about the meeting is given below:

September 26, 2006

In the period 27.09 – 01.10 European Youth Forum in cooperation with Youth Society for Peace and Development of the Balkans, with the support of the State Agency for Youth and Sports and Varna Municipality organize an Open Space Training Event: Improving National Youth Work – exchange of concrete knowledge and practice.

What is the European Youth Forum: www.youthforum.org

In the past years, the European Youth Forum (YFJ) has organized several activities with the broad focus on sustainability of youth work and national youth policy in Europe. These have been followed by concrete regional support activities, and a series of follow-up actions.

Further to the activity on the Role of Youth Organizations in National Youth Policy Development, organized in Moscow in December 2005, YFJ is organizing a seminar to follow up on the discussions initiated, and bridge development of youth work with national youth policy development. The continuous monitoring of youth work development has shown the need for concrete thematic training activities for member organizations active at national level. These have also shown in evaluations and surveys conducted on the topic. Therefore, YFJ is organizing an open space event with strong training element on national youth work and policy development.

Open Space Training Event

This activity will gather representatives of YFJ MOs active at the national level, and working to strengthen the capacity of youth organizations in determining the national youth policy agenda.

The overall aim of the meeting is to bring together practitioners and decision-makers of member organizations willing to share and learn good practices in capacity building and influencing national youth policy agenda. The event will therefore focus around three main themes:

1. Working with member organizations;
2. Advocacy and lobby work;
3. Monitoring youth policy implementation.

(the picture: Zara and me are preparing balloons for Treasure Hunt)

Youth Work Development: end of the story

last weekend we had a last meeting of YWD working group of 2005-2006 mandate.
we had done many excited things, developed bunch of documents, explored youth work realities throughout Europe and gained a lot on personal and professional levels.

dear collegues, i will miss you hell a lot. with you we made things happen, together we sampled georgian wine, went to soviet disco in Warsaw, celebrated christmas in Tallin, took care of me in snowy Zagreb (when, according to Khaalid, my hand split in two:), celebrated LORDI's EUROVISION triumph in Helsinki, and finnaly went to a coffeshop in lovely Utrech..

i loved time we spent together and i will miss you dears...