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EFILife NEWSLETTER Edition 79, March 2010

EFIL is the Federation of AFS Organisations in Europe Avenue Emile Max 150, 1030 Brussels, Belgium tel +32 2 5145250 fax +32 2 5142929

INDEX

EFIL tra inings and projects • EFIL Volunteer Summer Summit

2010 – preparatory work in progress

• EurAfrican Partnership for Change project - Focus on Ghana

• ECTP 2010 • Intercultural Learning Seminar • Programme Directors meeting,

Sarajevo • Volunteer tra in ing for developing

organisat ions, Sarajevo • TAB Meeting coming up

Governance

• Board meeting Rome • Board elect ions at GA

Partner news

• Partner news • Denmark train ing Nov. 2010 • Reviv ing AFS in S lovakia • I l ive in Vyatka and I am

European

Europe and the world • YFJ NFE-QA pi lot project mid-

term meeting

• Mult i l ingual ism Plat form: mid-term meeting

• CoE Advisory Counci l newsletter • YFJ Pool of Trainers meeting

General • Welcome to Laura

EFIL VOLUNTEER SUMMER SUMMIT 2010-

PREPARATORY WORK IN PROGRESS The preparat ions of the largest AFS European volunteer gathering of the year are progressing! The cal l for part ic ipants went out a couple of weeks ago and now the early appl icat ion deadl ine is quickly approaching. Early appl icat ions can be made onl ine at www.ef i lsummersummit .org unti l 28 March. Why apply so early? Early appl icants have less expensive part ic ipat ion fees and have better chances of being accepted for the Summer Summit . We wi l l conf irm the acceptance of partic ipants by the 16th of Apri l . After conf irmation you can go ahead and book your t icket to Hungary. The sooner you book, the cheaper the travel costs wi l l be. Already more than 80 motivated volunteers from 18 di f ferent countries have appl ied. We have appl icants from non-European countries as wel l , such as Argentina, Malaysia , South Afr ica, Egypt , etc . Currently AFS Belg ium Flanders and AFS Ita ly have registered the highest number of part ic ipants.

The deadl ine for tra iner appl icat ions has now passed and the prep team received a good number of interest ing appl icat ions. 10 trainers wi l l soon be selected according to the required tra ining competences, ensuring the diversity in terms of orig in, gender, age and prof i le .

EFILife Newsletter, Edition 79


This year’s theme is Intergenerat ional Learning. We aim at having volunteers of a wide age range present at the VSS. Many workshops wi l l focus on the theme, including such specif ic topics as : Host Family and Intercultural Learning, Conf l ict Resolut ion – An Intergenerat ional Perspect ive, Intergenerat ional Learning at Chapter Level , How to Be Forever Young-at-Heart , The Concept of Age in Dif ferent Cultures, Volunteering for Li fe , etc. We are happy to announce that at the moment 16 per cent of the appl icants are “young-at-heart” - as the prep team agreed to cal l the higher age group. Our oldest appl icant is 67 years old! The average age of appl icants is 27. Do we want i t to be higher? I t is up to you! The EFIL Volunteer Summer Summit is an event not to be missed, so mark the dates 4 – 9 August in your calendars and apply as soon as possible!

EURAFRICAN PARTNERSHIP FOR CHANGE PROJECT- FOCUS ON GHANA -

The f irst of three vis its to the Afr ican partner countries in the project is taking place in Ghana from 08-19 March 2010. A team of 10 experienced volunteers from AFS organisat ions in Latvia , F inland, Hungary, I ta ly , Austr ia , Germany, Kenya and South Africa arrived in Accra, Ghana, for two weeks of project activ it ies .

Tra in ing in Accra , Ghana (Photo : EF IL ) As part of the f irst week’s programme, AFS Ghana has set up appointments with government

inst itut ions, private sector, NGOs and local organisat ions for part ic ipants to col lect information in the framework of a feasib i l i ty study. The feasibi l i ty studies in the EurAfrican Partnership for Change project a im at proposing a framework to help empower the AFS organisat ions in the African partner countries and further support them in their organisat ional and volunteer development.

Over the weekend, a tra in ing for

volunteers took place in three regions

in Ghana, this way reaching as many local volunteers as possible . Altogether, in Accra, Cape Coast and Sunyani , some 50 volunteers attended the trainings, which covered a wide range of topics such including volunteer motivat ion, promotion of AFS, intercultural learning, host ing and f inding host fami l ies , recruitment and select ion of part ic ipants , preparat ions and orientat ions, etc .

EurAfr ica -Team Ghana (Photo : EF IL ) The next country v is i t is planned to take place from 19-29 Apri l in South Afr ica.

ECTP 2010 In 2009, EFIL and its AFS partners launched the European Cit izenship Trimester Programme (ECTP). The init ia l a im to help programmes and organisat ions grow with qual ity was welcomed with a lot of support from



EFIL members. The ECTP is adding a European dimension to the regular AFS exchange programmes by focusing the educat ional scope of the programme on European Cit izenship & Identity . In i ts very f irst cycle in November 2009, 16 partners joined and sent 107 part icipants to the End-of-Stay camp in Brussels . The numbers of part ic ipants of the 2010 ECTP programme is est imated to be over 160. The preparat ions for the second ECTP End-of-Stay camp in Brussels are about to start , the cal l for members of the preparatory team has been spread. EFIL. The actual camp wi l l take place from 28 November to 2 December, in a youth center near Brussels . Stay tuned for more information and cal ls about ECTP.

INTERCULTURAL LEARNING SEMINAR Last days to apply for the EFIL ref lect ive seminar on Intercultural Learning and AFS Exchanges! As mentioned in the previous edit ion of EFILi fe , the recruitment of part ic ipants for the abovementioned seminar, which wil l take place 10-16 May in Strasbourg, is in progress. The cal l for part ic ipants has been distr ibuted to EFIL Member Organisat ions and al l the interested candidates ( including non-European ones) should contact their nat ional of f ice to be nominated for part ic ipat ion. The deadl ine for applying has been set for the 18th of March 2010 – do not miss i t ! The idea of this event is to bring together about 25 part ic ipants - volunteers and staf f from within AFS network (primari ly from Europe) who deal with di f ferent aspects of Intercultural Learning within the organisat ion. The 5 days of seminar wi l l focus on a deep ref lect ion and debate on the AFS s ituat ion in ICL, confronted in addit ion with the external developments in the f ie ld.

Preparatory Meet ing (Photo : EF IL ) The seminar’s preparatory team represents very diverse prof i les , which wi l l enrich the event’s shape and content: F lorin Feldmann (AFS Germany volunteer, EPOT), Hazar Yi ld ir im (AFS Turkey staf f , EPOT), El isabeth Hardt (Belg ium, AFS Germany Board), Mark Taylor (France/UK, freelance trainer) and Izabela Jurczik (EFIL Training Co-ordinator) , supported by Alexander Mül ler (FSJ volunteer of EFIL) . The team met in person in Brussels on 5-7 March, to discuss the detai ls of the event’s programme. During the fruit fu l meeting several leading themes were chosen as the seminar focal points . The planned process wi l l put together external input with our own views and experience, de-composing separately the approach to Learning, the understanding of Culture/ Intercultural and f inal ly looking at the AFS educat ional framework hol ist ica l ly . Moreover, i t is planned to identi fy areas for further work - during future events and other act iv it ies at nat ional and internat ional levels . The interact ive working methods wi l l maximise exchange of pract ices, opinions and peer learning - hence the importance of the prof i le of part ic ipants ' group. PROGRAMME DIRECTORS MEETING SARAJEVO

In Sarajevo, from 1 - 4 March, Programme Directors from across Europe met for the annual EFIL



Programme Directors meeting. The programme included an overview of the mid- to long-term EFIL act iv ity calendar and a discussion fol lowing the evaluat ion of the f irst European Cit izenship Trimester Programme and the Brussels end-of-stay camp, which took place at the end of 2009. Further topics included Youth Pass and Mobil ity Pass , the chal lenge of part ic ipant growth and qual i ty , and several other matters of interest , bundled in an Open Space session on Wednesday afternoon.

Programme Directors meet ing (Photo : EF IL ) A highl ight of the meeting was the very v is ib le presence of our new partners in South Eastern Europe, as compared to some 15 months ago, when they f irst joined us at the Programme Directors meeting in Belgrade, Serbia . Congratulat ions to the volunteers in Croat ia , Serbia , S lovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina for the remarkable progress made in developing AFS in their countries , s ince that meeting in November 2008. Thank you also to Urszula S ienczak for represent ing Poland at the meeting and bringing the dream of establ ishing AFS in Poland a bit c loser. Pr ior to the Programme Directors meeting, at the same venue, EFIL organised a volunteer training, target ing volunteers from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia , S lovenia , Croatia and Poland (see next art ic le) . We've now clearly come to a point where the new partners wi l l start play ing an act ive role in the AFS network at

large. Look out for further announcements from EFIL and AFS INT, updat ing you on the current s i tuat ion with the new partners organisat ions in South Eastern Europe.

Programme Directors meet ing (Photo : EF IL ) A specia l word of thanks goes to Mirela Hrnj ic and the volunteers of Bosnia-Herzegovina, for being the perfect hosts of our meeting. EFIL a lso wants to thank Dominik Scherrer of AFS Internat ional for his valuable contribut ions to the meeting ( including a fu l l day workshop on leadership and innovat ion), and his strong commitment to the development of new network partners. The hotel in Sarajevo was the scene of a fu l l week of construct ive discussions, a varied programme with interact ive sessions and various methodologies used. The part ic ipat ing Programme Directors a l l took home some great learning experiences and plenty of good memories of Sarajevo.

VOLUNTEER TRAINING FOR DEVELOPING ORGANISATIONS

From 26 February to 1 March 2010 EFIL organised a tra ining weekend for volunteers from South Eastern Europe and Poland in Sarajevo. The event was attached to the Programme Directors Meeting and saw the part ic ipat ion of 16 motivated young people from the Croat ia , Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia , S lovenia , as wel l as from Poland.



The event is part of EFIL’s ef forts in new partner development and was primari ly a iming at providing the start ing organisat ions and their volunteers the knowledge and ski l ls on basic AFS aspects l ike programmes, sending and host ing cycle, European and internat ional structures, volunteer l i fe cycle, etc . The training a lso was an opportunity for part icipants to exchange hints and best pract ices on how to overcome chal lenges that beginning organisat ions face. An interact ive programme had been put together. Part ic ipants were able to ask the experienced AFS trainers quest ions about chapter development and organisat ional structure. In a specia l sess ion “Meet the Programme Director” the volunteers had an opportunity to ta lk to the Programme Director of AFS France and get to see the of f ice perspect ive of their AFS work.

Volunteer Tra in ing , Sara jevo (Photo :EFIL ) The tra ining establ ished some regional l inks and init iated the planning of a potent ia l common mid-stay camp for exchange students in the South Eastern Europe region. On the Pol ish s ide, there was a lot of enthusiasm to further bui ld on to the recently made progress. In the same weekend, a paral le l tra in ing for another eight key volunteers from the countries of South Eastern Europe focusing on Global L ink, was organised by AFS

Inernat ional . Croatia (CRO), Bosnia (BIH), Serbia (SRB) and Slovenia (SLO) now have access to AFS Global , and their AFS contact detai ls can be found in the Internat ional Directory. We warmly welcome the volunteers from South Eastern Europe and Poland into the internat ional AFS fami ly . “Hvala!” to a l l of them and the team for the excel lent work done in Sarajevo!

TAB MEETING COMING UP The f irst meeting in 2010 of the EFIL Training Advisory Body (TAB) is p lanned to take place 11-12 Apri l in Zurich, Switzerland. The TAB had been created as an advisory structure at European level to support EFIL in the train ing f ie ld. Thanks to its composit ion including two Organisat ional Development Co-ordinators (Diana Rosta from AFS Hugary and Manuel Schwinn from AFS Germany) , two experienced volunteers (Michela Bortol i from AFS Ita ly and Stephan Winiker from AFS Switzerland) and a representat ive of AFS Internat ional (L isa Cohen), the TAB helps EFIL in keeping the overview of AFS train ing needs in Europe. As the agenda of the TAB meeting is st i l l in preparat ion, we would l ike hereby to open up the f loor to a l l interested AFS contributors (staf f , volunteers) to bring in their proposals for issues to be tackled. In the usual pract ice, the TAB discusses evaluat ion of past EFIL tra in ing events , br ings input to those already planned and proposes ideas for further projects in the future. Agenda topics might a lso include tra ining issues of general concern. Your proposals are welcome on tab@afs .org unti l the 23rd of March.



BOARD MEETING ROME The EFIL Board held i ts f irst meeting of the year in Rome, 12-14 February 2010. The agenda featured a wide range of topics , including an update by the Secretary General on recent developments in EFIL and in Europe, EFIL’s mid- to long-term act iv ity calendar, new partner development, governance issues, EFIL’s f inancia l s i tuat ion. Over the past years the EFIL calendar of act iv it ies has developed into a mid- to long-term plan for trainings , meetings and projects , including several recurring act iv it ies (annual events l ike the Volunteer Summer Summit, Intercultural Dialogue Day, European Cit izenship Trimester Programme, Programme Directors meeting, Training for Trainers, p lus biennia l events l ike the Governance Seminar, ODC meeting, Support Staf f meeting, p lus twice a year a HOO meeting) . In 2009 external funding was obtained for the majority of the act iv it ies , and stat ist ics show an increasing number of part icipants in act iv it ies . An overview was presented of facts and f igures related to EFIL’s annual f lagship projects , the Volunteer Summer Summit , Intercultural Dialogue Day and the European Cit izenship Trimester Programme, and stat ist ics were discussed about the part ic ipat ion of Member Organisat ions in EFIL events .

Col i seum, Rome The discussion on new partner development included a proposal to introduce a new membership status

to accommodate the newly establ ished partners in South Eastern Europe (Croatia , Serbia , Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia) , as wel l as a brainstorming on EFIL’s future endeavours a iming at expanding the network into EU countries that current ly don’t have an AFS presence. The EFIL Board continued its discussion “what about the remaining 99%”, referring to the large group of young European pupi ls that are currently not involved in any form of mobi l ity . In a brain storming sess ion the fol lowing corner stones were identi f ied: a strong volunteer network; strong leadership; appeal ing programmes and act iv it ies ; strong school relat ions; f inancia l stabi l i ty, fundrais ing. EFIL plays a role in help ing the Partners to bui ld up these corner stones and reinforce them as ‘drivers’ of our organisat ions, by providing trainings that help motivate and educate a l l levels of the organisat ions ( leaders, volunteers) ; by providing socia l networks on internat ional level ; by st imulat ing sharing between Partners, including the exchange of good pract ices; by looking for European funding; etc.

EF IL Board a t the GA in Moscow (Photo :EFIL ) The next EFIL Board meeting is scheduled for 4-6 June, in Nice, France, prior to the Heads of Off ice meeting in Sernhac, France (6-9 June) .



BOARD ELECTIONS AT GENERAL ASSEMBLY The EFIL Board cal ls for an extra-ordinary General Assembly in June in order to elect new Board members. The e.o.G.A. wi l l take place a longside the Heads of Off ice meeting in Sernhac, France in June 2010. Four Board members are to be elected. As by the set procedures, on 1 March 2010, a message was sent out on behal f of the Elect ion Committee cal l ing on ful l EFIL Member Organisat ions to nominate candidates. Candidacies for the vacant Board posit ions have to be sent to EFIL by e-mai l , addressed to the Chair of the Elect ion Committee. Deadl ine for submiss ion of the candidacies is 9 Apri l 2010. The Elect ion Committee consists of Johanna Nemeth (AFS Austr ia) , Gérard Sautereau (FS France) and Fi l ipa Santos (AFS Portugal) . EFIL (on behalf of the Elect ion Committee) wi l l in form the Members of a l l candidacies received the latest by 19 Apri l 2010, and send by e-mai l a l l documentat ion received from the candidates or the Member Organisat ions who have appointed them. At the extra-ordinary General Assembly in June in Sernhac, the fu l l Members wi l l be invited to vote for the new Directors from the pool of candidates nominated.

PARTNER NEWS In each ed i t ion o f EF IL i fe , we ded ica te some space to partner news , inc lud ing personne l changes as we l l a s re levant events that have taken p lace over the pas t month . On the weekend 5-7 March 2010, 115 volunteers, staf f and board members met in Linz/Steyregg for AFS Austr ia ’s biggest annual nat ional volunteer tra ining event, the Megaworkshop 2010.

Megaworkshop 2010 (Photo : AFS Austr i a ) Part ic ipants enjoyed various seminars deal ing with quest ions l ike "how to improve the preparat ion and support of host fami l ies?" , "how to improve the preparat ion of sending part ic ipants?" , "new perspect ives for returnee-camps", "how to deal with sending parents and part ic ipants ' select ion?" , "camp essentia ls" , "how to strengthen the community service programme?".

AFS Turkey recently held two workshops on Total Qual ity Management and

Organizat ional Excel lence (6 and

21 February) . The workshops brought together about 55 volunteers, board members and staf f from al l corners of Turkey. Ana Beekhof, AFS Spain’s External Relat ions Coordinator, has left the organisat ion s ince the beginning of March. During AFS Spain’s General Assembly in Valencia on 27-28 February, Sandra Lois Fraga, former Treasurer of the Board, was elected the new Chair of AFS Intercultura España for a 3 year term. Vice-Chair is Nacho Forcadel l Utri l la . AFS Iceland held its General Assembly on 6 March. Krist ján Gís lason was re-elected as Chair for one year. The board is currently recruit ing a new Partner Director in col laborat ion with AFS Internat ional . In the transit ion phase, Petrína Ásgeirsdótt ir , current Board member



and former Partner Director (1997-2004), wi l l be in charge for communicat ion with the AFS network on matters other than student related issues.

DENMARK TRAINING NOVEMBER 2010 AFS Denmark currently works on a model for a tra ining to take place during their “Uddannelsesbazar” (National Volunteer Training) from 5-7 November, whereby volunteers from other countries wi l l get an opportunity to experience a Danish AFS training. In order to make this event as valuable as possible it wi l l focus on experienced volunteers, young and old, who have been act ive in their AFS organisat ion for at least two years. AFS Denmark is expect ing anywhere from 2-4 part icipants from each part ic ipat ing country and is working out ways to keep the costs and fees low for part ic ipat ing volunteers. Stay tuned for further information as the project progresses.

REVIVING AFS IN SLOVAKIA Since the c losing down of AFS Slovakia at the end of June 2009, plans are emerging to revita l ize the organisat ion, with the support of AFS Czech Republ ic and AFS Austria.

Volunteers f rom Ausrt i a , Czech Republ ic and S lovak ia (Photo : AFS Czech Republ ic ) On Saturday 20 February, a successful launch took place of a volunteer

chapter in S lovakia , which wil l now run its operat ions through AFS Czech Republ ic. 15 motivated volunteers from di f ferent walks of l i fe gathered in Nitra to plan their upcoming act iv it ies , decide on a structure and get a tra ining on what i t means to be an AFS volunteer. Present at the event were Michael Rosak (Chairman of AFS Czech Republ ic and EFIL Board member) and Phi l ipp Wagner (Chairman of AFS Austr ia) , who welcomed the volunteers back to the AFS Network. With programmes running through the AFS Czech Republ ic ’s of f ice, the core volunteer group of fers the AFS network a historica l reunion of Czechoslovakia in the AFS community! At this t ime, 5 Slovakian students go on an AFS programme via AFS Czech Republ ic and soon host ing too should revive in S lovakia . AFS Czech Republ ic is grateful to AFS Austr ia , AFS Italy and EFIL for support in this endeavour. In the near future a c iv ic organizat ion “Interkultura Slovakia” wi l l be establ ished by the volunteers and the a im is to expand the Slovakian volunteer base in di f ferent regions across the country.

I LIVE IN VYATKA AND AM EUROPEAN Fol lowing an AFS presentat ion for the Regional Government in November 2009, by the Chair of AFS Russia who is at the same t ime Vice-Governor of the Kirov Region, Alexander Gal itskihk, the Region donated about $25 000 from its budget for the organisat ion of a youth contest “I l ive in Vyatka and I am European”, target ing students 15-18 years old. AFS Russia decided to of fer part ic ipat ion in EFIL’s ECTP programme 2010 as the main prize for the 6 winners. Part ic ipants in the contest were required to write an essay in which they had to demonstrate their



knowledge of local history by tel l ing about pol it ica l , economical and cultural connections between the Region and European countries , to prove that whi le l iv ing in Vyatka (this is a tradit ional regional name, the name of the r iver) , far from the European countries and cit ies , they are st i l l Europeans. Part ic ipants wrote in Russian and sent their work to AFS Russia . 17 students who were selected for the second stage, then had to present their work in Engl ish or French.

(Photo : Government o f K irov reg ion) Mass-media in Russia attached a lot of attent ion to the contest . The Governor of the Region, Nikita Belykh, greeted the winners and awarded them with diplomas. During the f inal ceremony, AFS Russia made a presentat ion of AFS, of EFIL and of the ECTP programme. The governor stated that “such regional act ions wi l l be continued in future and hopeful ly even at a larger scale”.

(Photo : Government o f K irov reg ion) Congratulat ions to the winners of the contest (2 form Ita ly , 2 from Belg ium French,1from France, 1 from

Portugal)! We look forward to meet them in Brussels for the ECTP end-of-stay camp.

YVF NFE- QA PILOT PROJECT MID-TERM MEETING

On 13 March 2010 an interim meeting of the European Youth Forum (YFJ) project in Qual i ty

Assurance of Non-Formal Educat ion took place. The meeting was attended by I lyana Panteleeva from the EFIL Secretariat and Viv iana Gal l i – a volunteer from Intercultura Ita ly. After a successful appl icat ion, EFIL became part of this pi lot in it iat ive in September 2009 together with AEGEE, Youth for Exchange and Understanding (YEU), World Associat ion of Gir l Guides and Scouts (WAGGS) and 2 National Youth Counci ls – VJR from Flanders and LI JOT from Lithuania . The meeting focussed on the progress of the project and evaluated the work of the partners. Within this project , a Qual ity Assurance framework is being tested on the example of 6 NFE projects and events run by each organisat ion. EFIL has chosen as i ts pi lot in it iat ive the ECTP Camp and is now developing Qual i ty Indicators to assess the work done in 2009. In this respect, our part ic ipat ion in this YFJ project is help ing us to improve the ECTP Camp 2010, to ref lect on the results and make it an even better experience than last year’s . In the long-term, the YFJ in it iat ive is meant to make NFE accountable for i ts qual ity and gain better recognit ion among the external partners and stakeholders. Furthermore, the project helps the partnering organisat ions learn a lot from each other & improve their internal qual i ty assurance systems.



MULTILINGUALISM PLATFORM MID TERM MEETING

On Friday 12

March, another external project, part of EFIL’s lobby & pol icy work, had

its mid-term meeting and reported on the progress done. The Civi l Society Plat form for Promoting Mult i l ingual ism is working towards its formal establ ishment: the members of the plat form are planning to apply for an operat ional European Commission grant provided next month. This development wi l l see the work of the plat form more structured and wi l l provide for real act ions to promote mult i l ingual ism in the years to come. EFIL has sent out two questionnaires a iming to col lect AFS’ best pract ices, experiences and suggest ions related to rais ing awareness on the value of learning more than just one foreign language. The AFS non-formal learning approach – long-term youth exchanges – is quite successful in the ef fort of young people to learn a language through l iv ing in a nat ive environment and gett ing to know the local culture and everyday l i fe . AFS’ added value and contribution to mult i l ingual ism and intercultural dia logue are even more interest ing because of the less widely used languages that are of fered in our programmes. With the a im to focus attent ion on youth exchanges a lso in this f ie ld, EFIL wi l l continue its work within the Mult i l ingual ism Plat form. We need your good examples and expert ise on that – do take t ime to f i l l in the survey that wi l l be re-sent to EFIL Members in the next days.

COE ADVISORY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER

The Advisory Counci l on Youth (AC) of the Counci l of Europe is the only Co-Management body of the Counci l of Europe deal ing with topics related

to youth. I t brings together 30 representat ives from youth NGOs and networks who provide opinions and input on al l youth sector act iv it ies of th is internat ional inst itut ion. The diversity of youth NGOs represented in the AC is essentia l to the qual i ty of i ts inputs and proposals to the Committee of Ministers . In order to increase vis ib i l i ty and awareness among youth NGOs the Advisory Counci l on Youth (AC) of the Counci l of Europe has opened its series of newsletters, which wil l be publ ished twice a year after each Advisory Counci l meeting. The newsletter wi l l feature the focus and main outcomes of the meeting as wel l as the work carried out s ince its last edit ion had been publ ished. This f irst issue introduces the reader to the AC, the CoE, the Directorate of Youth and Sport and its Co-Management structure. For more information please check the fol lowing website: http: / /www.coe. int/t /dg4/youth/Coe_youth/co_management_en.asp Not only does it outl ine the priorit ies of the AC, l ike the promotion of Youth Rights and the implementat ion of Agenda 2020, but it a lso l ists the events attended by members of the AC in its name. We’d be very happy to receive your quest ions in case you are interested in the work of this CoE body – please get in touch with I lyana Panteleeva in the EFIL Secretariat .

YFJ POOL OF TRAINES MEETING Bel ieve it or not, EFIL‘s wel l known tra in ing body – our EPOT – is not the only pool of tra iners act ive on European level . The pool of tra iners of the European Youth Forum (YFJ www.youthforum.org) is a group of 40 experienced trainers from the YFJ network. YFJ is a plat form gathering more than 90 youth organisat ions and representing their common interests on European level . YFJ a ims to



represent the voice of young people in Europe. Among other act iv it ies , YFJ suppports the development of i ts member organisat ions and of fers di f ferent tra ining activ it ies for young people. And that ’s why POT – the tra ining resource group – is here.

(Photo: Eva Vítková) POTties are people with very diverse backgrounds – coming from National Youth Counci ls , pol it ica l or environmental organisat ions and l i teral ly from al l over Europe. And two of them have roots in the AFS/EFIL network: Eva Vítková (AFS Czech Republ ic) and Florin Feldmann (AFS Germany). POT meets once a year and the most recent meeting took place at the end of February 2010 in Kandersteg, Switzerland. About 35 trainers and representat ives of the YFJ met in the wel l equipped Internat ional Scout Center to evaluate the past year, discuss the role of POT, current pol ic ies and priorit ies of YFJ and to ta lk about the future training events . Some t ime was also dedicated to sharing train ing methodologies.

(Photo: Eva Vítková)

Here are some words from Eva Vitkova, who’s been on the POT for a year: “Being a pott ie brings great tra ining and learning opportunit ies . It enables you to work with tra iners from di f ferent countries and organisat ions, which I personal ly f ind very valuable. And last but not least , my group of internat ional fr iends grew much bigger and I have had a lot of fun!”

WELCOME TO LAURA

Hel lo everybody! My name is Laura Licari , I ’m Ita l ian and I came from Catania (eastern coast of S ic i ly) .

I ’m an Intercultura-AFS volunteer s ince 2003 when my family hosted an exchange student from Germany for the f irst t ime, on the occasion of the “Ita l ian exchange week”, where AFS part ic ipants have the opportunity to change their fami ly and city for one week to have a g lance at another real i ty . I arr ived in Brussels in the beginning of March, after having spent s ix months in Northern France as a volunteer for a European pi lot programme named AMICUS. I now have the possibi l i ty to join EFIL thanks to the second part of the same pi lot programme, this t ime for a four month period. I ’m f in ishing my studies at the University on foreign languages and l i terature in Catania , where I do a major in Internat ional Communicat ion. In the past I part ic ipated in a few short term exchanges and projects , including travel l ing to Germany and Uruguay. I ’m ready to learn as much as I can and bui ld up new experiences, hoping to be helpfu l whenever and wherever I can in the EFIL off ice. How about preparing some real S ic i l ian specia l i t ies for the staf f ?



CALENDER 8-19 March EurAfrican

Partnership for Change project , Ghana

11-12 Apri l Training Advisory

Body meeting, Zürich, Switzerland

19-30 Apri l EurAfrican

Partnership for Change project , South Afr ica

28 Apri l – 1 May EurAfrican

Partnership for Change project , Steering Group meeting, South Africa

10-16 May Intercultural Learning

Seminar, Strasbourg, France

4-6 June EFIL Board meeting,

Nice, France 6-9 June HOO Retreat and

EFIL Extra-ordinary General Assembly, Sernhac, France

31 Ju ly-7 Aug. Training for

trainers, Hungary 4-9 August EFIL Volunteer

Summer Summit , Hungary

23-27 August Closing Seminar

EurAfrican Partnership for Change project , Vienna, Austria

30 September Intercultural

Dialogue Day 8-10 October EFIL Board meeting,

Belg ium

28 Nov – 2 Dec European Cit izenship Trimester Programme Brussels Camp

Editor: Paul Claes, Layout: Laura Licari & Alexander Müller Contr ibut ions: Paul Claes, Frini Ezunkpe, Izabela Jurczik, Ilyana Panteleeva, Laura Licari, Alexander Müller, Eliza Popper, Eva Vítková, Nonna Kovrizhnykh Many thanks to all those who have contributed to

this issue of EFILife. Please do not hesitate to share with us your

comments and suggestions. We welcome your contributions!

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Secretariat at: [email protected].

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