annual report 2018 - yes forum
TRANSCRIPT
AnnuAl report 2018
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editorial 5
YES Forum Objectives 6
Achievements 2018 7
Projects & Activities 8
Advocacy 18
Annual Budget 20
Structure 22
Our Network 24
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Old-fashioned journalism during the YourEP Simulation, Strasbourg, 29 May – 3 June
YES Forum and its members accompanying young peopleat the European Youth Event 2018 in Strasbourg, 1-2 June
EDITORIAL
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EDITORIAL
Youth participation is a central value within the YES Forum. The guiding question in our work is not „What can we do for young people?“ Instead, we ask „What can we do with them?“ We create a culture of listening in which young people influence decisions about projects and activities that aim to have an impact on their lives.
In 2018 the YES Forum focused on citizenship education and engagement. This was realized in particular through the implementation of the YourEP project. Young people from 7 different EU countries came together to create a political simulation game. Along the way, the partici-pants learnt to better understand Europe, its bodies and the decision-making processes that underlie so many po-litical choices. In an interactive workshop at the Euro-pean Youth Event 2018, the young participants became experts sharing their knowledge on the EU with other young people. They further engaged with the topic of ga-mes as a tool for citizenship education and social engage-ment at YES Forum’s Annual Policy Event in Brussels in November 2018. Here the young people were able to en-gage in a dialogue with stakeholders from EU institutions and beyond. More information about the success of this project and many others can be found on the following pages of YES Forum’s Annual Report.
Despite many successful projects, learning and fun, YES Forum faces the difficulties in the youth sectors of its partner countries time and time again. Fragile support and financing structures, disparities between the Member States and a sense of uncertainty are present in our part-ner’s everyday work. This shows us how important our advocacy work is to make sure politicians and other sta-keholders understand the value and also the requirements of good youth work.
Together with our network members who work with vul-nerable young people every day, we implement activities that engage, connect and empower youth in the spirit of the new EU Youth Strategy. This is even more important as we enter 2019 and thus the year of the election of the European Parliament. As official Partner for the European Elections 2019, the YES Forum is committed to raising awa-reness amongst young people and – in line with our princip-les – make sure young people get the chance to experience: My voice counts!
We would like to thank all the young people involved in YES Forum’s activities for their dedication, courage and creativity in making our projects a success. Furthermore, we would like to thank our member organisations for their passionate work and commitment. Last but not least, we would like to thank the staff at the YES Forum office, espe-cially all the young people who supported us in many ways this year, for their hard work. Together, we can make sure young people’s voices are heard.
Mirco Trielli, Ronald de Haan, Maria Petersson, Alexander Hauser | YES Forum Board Members
Annett Wiedermann | Director of the YES Forum
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YES FORUM OBJECTIVES
IMPROVEfuture prospects of vulnerable young people
INCREASEpolitical and social recognition of youth issues BOOST
participation of marginalizedyoung people in the democratic decision-making process
STRENGTHENprofessional approaches inyouth work across Europe
YES FORUM Strategy 2020
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1. Improve future prospects of vulnerable young people
Coordinator or Co-leader in 5 Erasmus+ projects for young people and practitioners:• YourEP• YES to Volunteering!• Towards more Gender-Sensitivity in Youth Work, with BAG EJSA• Kinderstadt Goes Europe, with St. Johannis GmbH• YES Forum’s Network Structural Support
Partner in 3 additional projects for young people and practitioners:• H2020 PROMISE• DIVE – Diversity in Pan-European Networks• Voluntary Generation
2. Strengthen professional approaches in youth work across Europe
• 4 Members Events (“Say YES to Volunteering!” Annual Event, General Assembly, PPM, Policy Event).• 5 Mobility Projects for young people involving more than 160 participants.• 18 Partner Meetings and Planning Visits related to projects (Preparatory Meetings, Partner exchanges, ...).• 6 Newsletter Issues, 3 “Special Newsletters”, Weekly update of our Website and Social Media.
3.Boostparticipationofmarginalizedyoungpeopleinthedemocraticdecision-makingprocess
5 European projects specifically aimed at boosting participation of marginalized young people:• YourEP• YES to Volunteering!• H2020 PROMISE• DIVE – Diversity in Pan-European Networks• Voluntary Generation
4.Increasingpoliticalandsocialrecognitionofyouthissues
Contribution to 7 Events related to Youth Policies, including:• European Youth Event, 1-2 June, Strasbourg.• European Commission’s DiscoverEU Stakeholders Forum, 17 October, Brussels.• Youth Parliament, 19 November, Brussels.• European Parliament’s 2019 European Elections Partners Seminar, 23 November, Brussels.
Organisation of 3 Events related to Youth Policies:• European Youth Event 2018 – Workshop on YourEP, 2 June, Strasbourg.• “PROMISE European Policy Network” Meeting on 21 November, Brussels.• “Why so serious? EU politics can be fun!”, Policy Event on 21-22 November, Brussels.
ACHIEVEMENTS 2018
PROJECTSYES Forum and its members passionately support vulnerable young people. Together, we work to create a culture of participation to make sure young people’s voices are heard.
YES Forum and its members accompanying young peopleat the European Youth Event 2018 in Strasbourg, 1-2 June
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www.yes-forum.eu/projects
Programmes waiting for the participants during the first Staff Training of the “YES to Volunteering!” project,
Athens, 13 June
YES to Volunteering!
From early 2018 to mid-2020, this Strategic EVS will sup-port the development of the exchange of international vo-lunteers within the YES Forum network.
Project partners will focus on youngsters with fewer op-portunities to open volunteering and international mobility to a wider and more diverse audience, as disadvantaged youngsters are, still to this day, underrepresented in such initiatives.
Additionally, the project will organise several Staff Trai-nings to ensure the quality of the EVS activities which will be implemented, and to help newcomers in the field of EVS and volunteering in their preparation to send and/or host their first volunteers!
https://goo.gl/7s5o3F
European Youth Event 2018
On 1-2 June, the diversity of the YES Forum network and the young people it works with was represented at the 3rd edition of European Youth Event.
Organised by the European Parliament itself in Strasbourg, the event gathered 9.000 young Europeans to exchange and discuss ideas for the future of Europe with decision makers. Among them, almost 40 young people and youth workers from the YES Forum and its members also raised their voice!
Furthermore, YES Forum and its partners had a unique op-portunity to present their work: they organized their own EYE Workshop inside the European Parliament itself, under the theme “Why so serious? EU politics can be fun!”
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/european-youth-event
“An eye opening experience that has widened both my political and cultural aware-
ness. An opportunity that I will never forget!“Young participant in the YourEP project
after joining the EYE2018
Young citizens from the “Children’s Town” Bärenhausen
welcoming YES Forum’s youth practitioners, Bernburg, 6 July
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PROJECTS
Towards more Gender-Sensitivity in Youth Work
From 2018 to 2020, YES Forum will work in partnership with BAG EJSA on the topic of gender in this exciting new project.
The aim is to contribute to the achievement of gender equality and equalisation in different countries within the EU through increasing knowledge about the diversity of adolescent life situations (young people from disadvanta-ged backgrounds, the appearance of gender stereotypes, the overlap of different forms of discrimination) and de-veloping methods for working with disadvantaged young people of all sexes.
This project is targeted at social work practitioners wor-king with young people who share a common interest in working with youth on the topic of gender. Not only in discussions and reflections, but also by trying out diffe-rent methods from the field, project participants will get a grasp of gender sensitive work with young people. They will also explore their attitudes towards gender issues, and work and reflect on their own values. Gender-sensitive youth work can be challenging, but in this project, exper-tise, ideas and opinions from youth workers from different EU countries come together to change that!
https://goo.gl/TYrnUY
Kinderstadt goes Europe!
This new project started in 2018 and is coordinated by St. Johannis gGmbH with the support of the YES Forum. It will transfer the concept of “Kinderstadt”, mostly imple-mented across Germany until now, to other European countries.
The “Kinderstadt” – or “Children’s Town” - concept offers children and young people the unique opportunity to ro-leplay a “mini-city” – job searches, an elected mayor and bank accounts included! In their roles as citizens of a town, children and young people can playfully encounter active citizenship, participation and other important processes of social life in society.
The starting point of the project is the Kinderstadt “Bä-renhausen” which has been organised every year in the last decade by the foundation Stiftung Evangelische Ju-gendhilfe in cooperation with the St. Johannis gGmbH in Bernburg. During the transnational seminars and project meetings, this concept will be discovered and discussed by project partners from other EU countries, who will ad-apt the concept to their own context in the course of the project.
https://goo.gl/igNEN7
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www.yes-forum.eu/projects
YES Forum at the 2nd Partners Meeting of the DIVE project, Dubrovmik, 7 April
DIVE - Diversity in Pan-European Networks
Established in 2017 and coordinated by JEF Europe , this Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership aims at improving the in-clusiveness of three major European Youth Networks – JEF Europe (Young European Federalists), ESN (Erasmus Stu- dents Network) and AEGEE (European Students‘ Forum) – in order to help them reach and involve a more diverse audience.
With the YES Forum contributing with its experience and expertise on inclusion and diversity, the project will iden-tify the barriers explaining the lack of diversity of these networks and develop adapted tools to take them down.
https://goo.gl/ENuUov
Voluntary Generation
In 2018, the YES Forum hosted Simon Frischbach, a French EVS volunteer, in its Secretariat in Stuttgart.
This mobility experience provided Simon with a unique opportunity to have a positive societal impact through his active involvement in the YES Forum’s activities and day-to-day work, while learning about youth and social work at the European Union level and its many, different aspects.
“I am grateful for the opportunity and so I would like to say:
Thank you Erasmus+ for this chance to develop myself further!”
Young participant in the YourEP project after the simulation in the EP in Strasbourg
Young participants and youth workers from the YourEP project after their simulation of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, 31 May
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PROJECTS – Spotlights on … YourEP!
YourEP – Political games are a serious business!
The Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership YourEP, coordinated by the YES Forum, celebrated its successful conclusion in 2018!
The YourEP project, which started in early 2017, contri-buted to making political education across Europe more inclusive by focusing on one specific method: political simulations.
To contribute to open political simulations catering for a more diverse audience, YourEP allowed partners and their young participants to develop and implement an In-clusive & Accessible political simulation of the European Parliament:
- Inclusive - regardless of participants’ personal backgrounds and difficulties.- Accessible - regardless of participants’ prior knowledge of or interest in politics and the European Union.
https://www.yes-forum.eu/projects/detail/yourep
Why a political simulation?
The YourEP project started from a shared observation: Citizenship has become yet another area of exclusion, especially for youngsters with fewer opportunities. Active citizenship, EU and political awareness, and Social inclu-sion are indeed closely intertwined issues in the field of youth.
Youngsters with fewer opportunities are still underrepre-sented in initiatives promoting political participation and political awareness. This can only be tackled if all youth are involved.
This underrepresentation is even more striking in the spe-cific case of political simulations, despite their extremely high educational potential. This is why the YES Forum, to-gether with its partners, designed the YourEP project.
„Being involved in a political project as YourEP helped me to understand how the European Union works.
Since the project, I have felt part of EU and I realized how lucky we are of being in this union.”
Young participant after YourEP conclusion
The young “YourEP MEPs” debating during the #YourEPsimulation in Strasbourg, 31 May
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A youth-led, participatory process
To better suit their needs, the #YourEPsimulation method was designed with the active involvement of 24 youngs-ters with fewer opportunities from 7 different EU coun-tries.
They were accompanied by experienced youth workers from the partners, while the whole process was supported by the European expertise of JEF Europe.
The young participants were first trained in order to pre-pare them to design, and afterward implement, their very own political simulation of the European Parliament.
Later on, they also contributed to the project’s outreach through numerous events organized by the YES Forum and its partners!
Results & Publications
YourEP’s results are summed up in two main publications:
„The YourEP Experiment - Key Lessons for Inclusive & Acces-sible Political Simulations“, on the one hand, presents the project‘s context, objectives and process, before focusing on the key aspects explored to make the #YourEPsimulati-on as inclusive and accessible as possible.
https://goo.gl/mK3FZ5
„Sésame, Ouvre-toi! Recommendations - Unleashing the full educational potential of political simulations”, on the other hand, provides targeted solutions for political simulations organisers to help them improve inclusion and accessibili-ty in their own events.
https://goo.gl/jws8JY
„#YourEP was an eye opening experience that has widened both my political and cultural awareness.
An opportunity that I will never forget!“Young participant after the YourEP simulation
in Strasbourg
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YES FORUM‘S ACTIVITIES
13-18 February, Sofia (BG): “DIVE” (Diversity in Pan-European Networks) -1st Training
1-2 March, Porto (PT): H2020 “PROMISE” Partner Meeting
8 March, Pitea (SE): YourEP 2nd Transnational Project Meeting
29-31 May, Strasbourg (FR): YourEP simulation of EU parliament ledby young participants
1-2 June, Strasbourg (FR): YourEP participants facilitate workshop at the EU Parliament’s European Youth Event
14-15 June, Athens (GR): YES Forum‘s 2018 General Assembly
5-12 July, Bernburg (DE): “Kinderstadt Goes Europe” - 1st Training provides the chance for partners to experience the Kinderstadt concept
10-15 July, Athens (GR): “DIVE” (Diversity in Pan-European Networks) - 2nd Training
20-21 September, Stuttgart (DE): “Gender Sensitive Approaches in Youth Work” - Kick-Off Meeting
13-14 June, Athens (GR): “YES to Volunteering!” - 1st Staff Training
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10 October, Tallinn (EE): H2020 “PROMISE” Partner Meeting
10-11 October, Groningen (NL): YES Forum’s Project Planning Meeting 2018
11 October, Cologne (DE): Presentation of the YourEP Projectat the “Brüsseler Club” (national meeting of stakeholders in the field of youth who are working on EU topics)
17 October, Brussels (BE): Contribution to the EU Commission’sDiscoverEU Stakeholders Meeting
21 November, Brussels (BE): “Promising Contexts for Youth Engagement” – PROMISE European Policy Network meeting to discuss first research results
21-22 November, Brussels (BE): “YourEP – Why so serious? EU politics can be fun!” - Policy Event and Final Conference
23 November, Brussels (BE): Contribution to 2019 European Election Part-ners Seminar
12 December, Cologne (DE): European Play Day – sharing skills of how to engage young people on EU topics through games
9-10 October, Groningen (NL):“YES to Volunteering!” - 2nd Staff Training
Finding the common ground - two young participants in conversation at the YourEP project meeting in Pitea, 8 March
Street art photographed by young people from the UK who participated in PROMISE
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PROJECTS – Spotlights on … PROMISE!
PROMISE
Launched in 2016, the PROMISE (“Promoting Youth Invol-vement and Social Engagement”) youth research project in-vestigates the ways young people with a history of stigma-tisation or conflict participate in society. The focus is on the different ways they engage with social, environmental and political issues, and how they create opportunities for posi-tive social change.
The project is led by the University of Manchester and invol-ves 10 other academic partners from across Europe as well as the YES Forum. It is financed under the EU’s Horizon2020 research and innovation programme.
http://www.promise.manchester.ac.uk
Case Studies The H2020 PROMISE research project has been using a va-riety of social research methods including ethnographic case studies and a quantitative analysis of data from secondary sources such as the European Social Survey.
The 22 ethnographic case studies carried out in 10 partner countries focus on a diverse range of youth that experience marginalisation and stigmatisation and therefore are in some way in conflict with society.
These include gender activists in Portugal, young ex-offen-ders in Estonia, radical left youth in Germany and many more.
Find out how young people around Europe facing stigmatisa-tion and marginalisation engage with society by reading the case studies here.
https://goo.gl/8pDn2m
“We had a big group something like 6-7 years ago (...). We went to the council to get that lake sorted – to clean it up. We did all the work, got the plan on the paper in a really detailed way and everything, (…)
and so we presented it to them. And they just rejected it.” - Young ex-offender, Estonia
EU stakeholders discuss PROMISE’s case studies with researcher Dr. Jo Deakin from the University of Manchester,
Brussels, 21 November18
Preliminary Results
All in all, several factors promoting social engagement of marginalised young people can be identified. PROMISE’s preliminary results show that factors such as political so-cialisation and parental educational background influence young people – positively or negatively.
The findings also show that more than trust in political in-stitutions, it is trust in other people that is able to increase political and social engagement.
The research also stresses the important role of institu-tions in accumulating advantages or disadvantages for indi-viduals and therefore influencing young people’s transition into adulthood.
Encompassing youth support in all areas of life seems cru-cial for the socially disadvantaged and those facing multip-le life challenges to make their voices heard.
The preliminary results were discussed by a diverse group of stakeholders including representatives from EU institu-tions such as the European Parliament’s Youth Outreach Unit, youth work practitioners and representatives of ad-vocacy networks such as the Social Platform at the Europe-an Policy Network meetings organised by the YES Forum in June and November 2018.
“It helped me to be here, in this environment of young people meeting up, having fun, playing...
it is something that moves you and makes you get more involved with people around you
and makes you think differently too: to lose fear, to have confidence with people,
to relate to others...” - Young NEET, Spain
Next Steps – European Policy Brief & Final Conference
The PROMISE project will be concluded in 2019.
The consortium will sum up its results into key messages for policy- and decision-makers across Europe. This Euro-pean Policy Brief will especially focus on recommendations on Promoting Youth Involvement and Social Engagement of all young people in Europe, based on the research’s re-sults.
Furthermore, on 8-9 April, PROMISE will also hold its Fi-nal Conference at the University of Manchester in order to present its results to a wide range of actors including the academic and youth fields, as well as decision-makers from the local, regional, national and European levels.
PROJECTS – Spotlights on … PROMISE!
After work - young participants at the DIVE project meeting in Dubrovnik, 7 April
ADVOCACYTo ensure that all young people are given the opportunity for a brighter future, YES Forum builds bridges between European Youth, youth practitioners and policy makers at EU and national levels.
Young people and youth practitioners from the YES Forum discuss with representativesfrom the EU institutions during the Policy Event, Brussels, 22 November
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ADVOCACY
A young participant from the YourEP projecttaking part in panel discussions during the Policy Event,
Brussels, 21 November
Through lobbying work, YES Forum seeks to influence po-licy and perceptions in order to create better life oppor-tunities for young people in all their diversity.
Thanks to an increasing institutional recognition at the EU level, this work was manifold in 2018. It included YES Forum and its members’ participation in events as well as several projects, bringing in the extensive knowledge pro-vided our network in how to include the needs and views of young people with fewer opportunities. The YES Forum also participated actively in the preparation of the next EU budget for the period 2021-2027, by sharing its own position on the successor of the Erasmus+ programme and contributing to the European Commission’s events.
Our lobbying culminated in the Policy Event in Brussels in November. After sharing the results of YES Forum’s You-rEP project. Young people, youth practitioners, MEPs and top level EU officials exchanged views on how to make se-veral EU initiatives more accessible for all youth, in parti-cular DiscoverEU, the European Solidarity Corps, and the European Youth Event 2018.
- YES Forum took part in 3 Public Consultations organized by the European Commission, including the publication of a Position Paper on the future Erasmus Programme 2021-2027 and the DiscoverEU Stakeholder’s Meeting, where YES Forum stood up for an inclusive DiscoverEU program-me, accessible for all youth.
- YES Forum took part in 3 events organized by the EU institutions, including the European Youth Event in Stras-bourg on 1-2 June, in which YES Forum and 8 members took part with almost 40 young participants and youth workers.
- YourEP was concluded with the publication and disse-mination of “Sésame, Ouvre-toi! Recommendations on how to unleash the potential of political simulations”. They were widely shared, for instance through:
- YES Forum’s own Workshop at the EYE2018 on 2 June, “Why so serious? EU politics can be fun!”.
- More than 15 dissemination events at the local level.
- The Policy Event “Why so serious? EU politics can be fun”, which concluded the YourEP project.
BUDGETYES Forum creates impact through its effective and efficient use of resources. With tight budgets, we deliver significant results. Imagine what we can do with more!
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YES FORUM’s BUDGET 2018
Grants221.366 EUR
Project expenses110.317 EUR
Membership fees24.000 EUR
Staff139.962 EUR
Services, conference fees, etc29.459 EUR
Operating expenses22.208 EUR
Meetings & travel1.127 EUR
Experts1.900 EUR
Income
Expenses
40%
50,8%
8%
80,6%
8,7%
10,7%
STRUCTURE YES Forum is a membership driven organisation, with multiple ways of engaging within the network.
YES Forum members brainstorming during the Project Planning Meeting, Groningen, 11 October
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YES FORUM‘S STRUCTRE
The YES Forum, founded as EEIG, is a membership driven organisation. Aims are achieved through our democratic structure with full participation of members. Elected by the members, the Board of Directors represents and protects the member’s interest in the network, and supervises the budget and activities. The appointed Managing Director is responsible for running the business of the EEIG and internal organisation.
To manage the activities and to support effective internal and external communication, the YES Forum is supported by the Secretariat in Stuttgart. In the Secretariat experienced staff work together with young people in training as apprentices and EVS-volunteers in a dynamic environment.
Do you want to become a member? Then please check here! https://goo.gl/kUOGKs
Board
Ronald de Haan, Jongerenwerk Barkema en de Haan, The NetherlandsMaria Peterson, Municipality of Skellefteå, SwedenAlexander Hauser,BAG KJS, GermanyMirco Trielli,Zefiro, Italy
YES Forum Secretariat
Annett Wiedermann, Director and Project ManagerDiana Neugebauer, Finance and Administration OfficerElie Demerseman, Communication & Project OfficerFabian Besche, Assistant Research and Projects (from October)Simon Frischbach, European Voluntary Service (May-December)Carolina Blom, Erasmus+ Trainee (July-September)Mariana Tavares, Erasmus+ Trainee (July-August)Sophie Brandes, Project Assistant (from September)Theresa Streib, Office Support (March-June)Elias Hartacis,Support Youth Activities
YES Forum EEIG Members‘
Assembly
YESOfficestaff
Elects Appoints
BoardofDirectors
Managing Director
Appoint
The Inclusion Network
Gio.Net
IDEUM Arvidsjaur Kommun
OUR NETWORK
New members
Naujoji Vilnia Culture Centre
Action Jeunesse Pessac
Municipality of Midden-Groningen
OeJAB
YES Forum EWIV – Youth and European Social Work Forum
Wagenburgstr. 26-28D-70184 StuttgartGermany
Tel.: [email protected]/YES.Forumtwitter.com/YESForumoffice
The YES Forum is supported by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. The contents of this report are the sole responsibility of the YES Forum and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.
March 2019
Images: All images used except for the photo on page 20 were taken by and are therefore property of the YES Forum. Usage by any other party is prohibited. Credits for the photo on page 20 go to Mister Vertilger / photocase.de.
The template used to produce this Annual Report was designed by Iurii Nechyporenko at the „Media-Workshop of Stiftung Evangelische Jugendhilfe St. Johannis“. Text written by Elie Demerseman and Sophie Brandes.
Coverpage: A young participant taking a photo of fellow participants of the YourEP project during their simulation of the European Parliament in Brussels in May 2018.
YES Forum Membership in Networks:• Social Platform• European Anti Bullying Network
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