Wednesday, 27th October 2010

The Importance of Volunteering
In the wake of the International Year of Volunteering +10 (IYV +10) and the European Year of Volunteering 2011 we should take a moment to consider why we have these dedicated years and what are the issues to be considered and the challenges to tackle. To do this I want to open a discussion by asking important questions and try to answer some of them while remaining humbly aware that the topic is too wide to exhaust it within one blog entry.

What is volunteering and why is it important? What does it bring to us as volunteers on a personal level as well as professional level? Is voluntary work sufficiently recognised? Where is the link between youth work and volunteering? What is the importance of non-formal and informal learning in volunteering? Are youth organisations offering volunteering opportunities in an inclusive way open to all?

Many important questions open for debate but I want to first look at some of the hundreds of definitions out there and numerous interpretations as well as explanations why volunteering is important and to whom and then focus on the importance of volunteering for youth work and youth NGOs.

A volunteer is someone who gives time, talents and professional expertise on a voluntary basis and without any remuneration (NCSS, 1977b).

Volunteering is the commitment of time and energy, for the benefit of society, local communities, and individuals, outside the immediate family, the environment or other causes. They are undertaken out of a person free will, without payment except for the reimbursement of out of pocket expenses (Volunteering, Ireland, 2000).

Volunteering is an activity undertaken out of free will, where the motivation is not monetary gain and the action is of benefit to others (International symposium on volunteering, 2001).

Volunteering is about the professional or the volunteer offering a needed service by personal commitment without equivalent financial compensation (A Strategy for Scouting: The Proposed Concept, WOSM, 2002).
The concepts of free will, personal motivation and offering of an expertise and/or service without monetary gain are at the core of volunteering. These values should be the cornerstones of civil society engagement and the entire youth work should be based exactly on these basic principals.

We commit our free time as volunteers to a given cause, we become activists, we gain valuable experience, learn new skills and pass on know-how to our peers or to our target group in a given activity. Even though we do this without aiming at earning money we should have certain rights as volunteers and get a certain level of recognition for the skills learnt via volunteering and experiences gathered in this way. This is exactly the point in which I see a difference between youth volunteering and volunteering in a different age group.

Young people volunteer in a different way than older generations do. Older generations of volunteers might fit perfectly into the first definition mentioned above, namely offering their time and professional experience on a voluntary basis. Young people do that as well but many of them first and foremost develop their personal and professional experience thanks to being a volunteer. This is where the importance and link with the non-formal and informal education comes into play. A young volunteer not only commit his/her time and energy for the benefit of a given society and/or group and/or given cause but also gains valuable experience and acquires new skills that s/he would otherwise not.
I can testify with my personal experience and example that this is the case. I have been fortunate enough to take advantage off many volunteering opportunities such as getting involved in my local community as a child in a more traditional sense of contributing to society. But then thanks to my engagement in youth organisations and participating in the European Voluntary Service I have greatly benefited from non-formal and informal learning possibilities. This was how I managed to develop my managerial and leadership skills, improve my language skills, gain my team-work experiences as well as intercultural competences. All these things have never been offered to me in my formal education.
That is why I truly believe volunteering to be the oxygen needed for youth NGOs to breathe and flourish. It is namely youth NGOs that provide the above-mentioned possibilities that I was fortunate enough to benefit from. But are all youth NGOs offering equal access to these volunteering opportunities to all in an inclusive manner?

As a unique platform it is very important that YFJ celebrates the International Year of Volunteering +10 and the European Year of Volunteering 2011 properly, using the momentum to advocate for better recognition of youth volunteering and non-formal education that accompanies it. However, we also need to capitalise on the year, so that its achievements could lead to further improvement of the rights of volunteers beyond 2011 and across all Europe.
Wednesday, 20th October 2010

Youth on the Move: pros and cons
What is Youth on the move and why has it been such a hotly debated issue, especially among youth organisations? I will try to look at the pros and cons of this so-called flagship initiative of the Commission within the EU2020 strategy and what is left for us to do.
In his September 2009 Political Guidelines President Barroso announced the expansion of existing instruments like Erasmus into a new EU youth and mobility initiative. The reaction by civil society organisations and especially youth organisations was reserved, even critical, as fears arose of a possible unification of the current life-long-learning programmes and mobility programmes (e.g. Erasmus, Leonardo Da Vinci, Comenius with Youth in Action etc). Brining these programmes within the Education and Training field under one common initiative could mean less funding available – a legitimate fear in times of severe austerity measures due to the economic and financial crisis. In the end we received guarantees that the Youth on the Move initiative would remain just that – an initiative and not a new programme. Namely, a political initiative bringing youth to the forefront and making it a cross-sectorial issue within the Commission.

The Youth on the Move flagship initiative includes reference to actions under DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal opportunities' responsibility (i.e. Youth employment framework). There are also links to other DGs activities, such as DG Research (European Research Area), DG Internal Market and services (recognition of professional qualifications, Services Directive), DG External relations (mobility programmes outside the EU), DG Enterprise (Erasmus for entrepreneurs).

On 15th September 2010 Commissioner Vassiliou launched the Youth on the Move flagship initiative as part of the EU2020 strategy to achieve smart growth; the package proposes measures aimed at:
  • improving the job prospects of young people
  • making education and training more relevant to their needs
  • raising awareness of EU mobility grants to study, train or do a voluntary service in another country
The measures of YoM include a clear framework for Youth Employment and proposes a “Youth Guarantee” to ensure that all young people are in a job, further education or vocational training within four months of leaving school. This, together with the development of a European Quality Framework for Internships and the implementation of adequate social safety nets for young people, are crucial aspects of the improvement of youth access to the labour market.
Finally young people are put at the centre of the EU agenda and as such we should welcome this initiative.

But there is also a flip side to the story. First and foremost young people are not just the future but the present and the fact that this has not been truly recognised yet is reflected in the fact that youth participation is a concept alien to the YoM initiative. If the most visible and politically important initiative of the EU aimed at young people talks only about formal education and training and mobility aimed at increasing the employability of young people many important aspects of youth work, especially the questions of non-formal education (NFE) and volunteering are being left out or at least sidelined.

Moreover, given that the Commission is currently evaluating its Youth in Action programme and preparing a new version of it, the fact that political impetus is pushing (only) towards employability might hinder the discussion on the importance of NFE and endanger getting a youth programme that will continue focusing on active citizenship and participation of young people in society.
Back in September 2009 President Barroso said: "Youth on the Move" initiative would be a decisive contribution to the promotion of cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue and multilingual learning. Yet the YoM initiative as presented a year later does far less for cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue and multilingual learning than the Youth in Action programme, where these themes are considered as the cornerstone of all activities and touch upon and promote European values such as democracy, tolerance, human rights etc.
Tackling youth unemployment is an important task and the fact the Commission is taking on the challenge in a cross-sectorial manner and bringing youth to the forefront of its EU2020 strategy is a fact to be appreciated and welcomed. But at the same time we need to continue the fight for getting a new youth programme that will address the entire spectrum of needs of young people and youth organisations as providers of activities in which young people develop the same soft skills that are nowadays identified as contributing to a (young) persons employability (language skills, team-building, intercultural sensibility, management and leadership skills, etc.).
Friday, 15th October 2010

Why having a National Youth Council is a good idea?

A youth council or similar structure is a form of representation of young people through which youth express their voice and engage in community decision-making. Given that a precondition of a healthy democracy is the active participation of citizens, especially young people, and a vibrant civil society sector, including youth organisations, having youth structures representing and empowering young people to have a say and be heard is crucial.

Since working together in order to address the needs and defend the rights of young people in a given society and at a given level it makes sense that different youth activists, youth organisations and interest groups create an umbrella structure, such as a local, regional, national youth council.

A national youth council (NYC) should be led by young people and for young people and usually fulfils two main tasks: on the one hand it empowers young people to get involved in the things that are important to them and have a say in decisions that affect them; this is usually done by providing capacity building for individuals and member organisations via training workshops and volunteering opportunities. On the other hand a NYC is an important stakeholder in the structured dialogue with institutions and decision-makers; in practice this means doing advocacy and lobby work towards decision-makers to enable the youth voice to be heard but also serves as a consultation body for institutions regarding youth issues. There are other reasons why having a NYC in place is a good idea but the above-mentioned are key in my opinion.

Now that we established why having such structures makes sense let us have a look on what the situation is in Europe at the moment. From the 48 member states of the Council of Europe (if we include the suspended Belarus) we have national youth councils or similar structures in (in some cases such as Belgium and Spain due to their specificity even more than one) the vast majority of countries. Over thirty of them are also members of the European Youth Forum. But several countries, such as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia and Turkey do not have an NYC yet in place or if they do they are not YFJ members.

YFJ has decided to put part of its youth work development focus on assisting the creation of new NYCs. However, it has become apparent that assisting in the setting up of new NYCs in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe is not an easy task. Unless a sufficient number of national branches of INGYOs that understand and promote the added value of having a structure such as a NYC in place is engaged in the process. 

Following the previous commitments made by MOs in past work plans and the agreed need for continued support to the development of new NYCs we should learn from experience of the past and try to make necessary improvements for the future. At the same time we should explore the possibilities of how we could help INGYOs strengthen their national branches wherever possible and applicable. Only by working together can we achieve the desired goals!
Wednesday, 13th October 2010
Participation of young people in democratic life: Vote@16
The European Union (EU) has completed a decade of institutional reform with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty that provides us with new tools (e.g. European Citizens' Initiative - ECI) and new opportunities (e.g. Article 165 - “youth article”) to bring youth participation in Europe to the next level.

What is the “youth article”? By this we refer to Article 165(2) of the Lisbon Treaty that states: “encouraging the development of youth exchanges and of exchanges of socio-educational instructors, and encouraging the participation of young people in democratic life in Europe”.
The interpretation of this paragraph will be pivotal for the work of the European Youth Forum and all youth organisations in the coming years. The first part of the paragraph in my interpretation provides a legal basis for the Youth in Action programme (YiA) and similar European programmes aimed at youth (be it mobility programmes, educational programmes and/or exchange programmes). This will be important to keep in mind when doing advocacy in favour of a YiA 2.0 in the coming two years. The second part of the above-mentioned paragraph is linked to political participation and participation of young people in decision-making processes. This aspect is important for two main reasons: 1) the right to vote and be elected, 2) the right to participate in decision-making by being heard and consulted as representatives of young people; key word = structured dialogue.
Exercising the right to vote and the right to get elected are at the very heart of each democratic system. But who has the right to vote, when and how are important questions to which each society in a given time has provided a different answer. The limitations on exercising the right to vote are usually different from the limitations on exercising the right to be elected. For example, in Slovenia one can vote and get elected once turning 18. In Italy however, the voting age for the Parliament is 18, while the voting age for the Senate is 25. Moreover, as Italian citizen you can only get elected for becoming President at the age of 50 or over. Recent developments have been to lower the voting age down to 16. In 2007 Austria became the first European country that gave 16 year olds the right to vote. Similar campaigns for lowering the voting age to 16 are wide-spread in Denmark and the UK.

If the EU and its member states are serious about encouraging the participation of young people in the democratic life in Europe they need to live up to their words and enable full and active participation of young people in decision-making processes. Young people are too often reminded that to be heard one must have a vote. In this respect a fundamental right, such as voting, is missing for many young people for them to fulfil their role as active citizens. If one can be held responsible for criminal acts and treated as an adult at 16 one should also be given the right to participate in democratic life at 16. Moreover, lowering the voting to 16 would strengthen our democracies and give young people a sense of ownership and responsibility. Including and involving young people more and better in the political life of a given society will enrich and benefit the entire society. 

We need to continue the fight for the right to full and active participation of young people at all levels!
Monday, 11th October 2010

Youth participation

Youth participation in shaping the world of tomorrow, but even more importantly the world of today, is at the very heart of youth work and the reason why we have youth organisations and youth representatives in the first place. Participation is a broad concept and active participation of all citizens in a given society is a vital part of a healthy democracy.

Youth participation manifests itself in many ways: from participation of young people in activities organised by, with and for young people, their civil-society engagement covering a very diverse range of issues and topics, to the participation of young people in decision-making processes. Mainly, but not exclusively, this happens via youth organisations as the framework enabling, facilitating and promoting youth participation. 
The Sociologist Roger Hart has identified eight degrees of participation illustrated by the following ladder:
 
In Europe we currently have different levels of youth involvement and participation and we need to strive to achieve the maximum levels in all spheres and at all levels. It is the role of the European Youth Forum and its member organisations to strive for the maximum and jointly climb to the highest rung of the ladder.
 
Thus, our continuous task is to offer support to democratic, independent, youth-led organisations and empower young people by equipping them with skills necessary for their personal and professional development.

In my next blog entry I will focus on the political aspects of youth participation in the democratic life of a given society, especially issues linked to taking part in elections.
Thursday, 7th October 2010

The State of Youth Rights in Europe
A personal account of the YFJ meeting in Strasbourg

The event took place from 6-7 October 2010 in Strasbourg and was organised by YFJ with the aim of preparing input to the report on the motion for a Convention on Youth Rights.

A total of 20 participants (11 representatives of MOs, 3 representatives of the Advisory Council of the Council of Europe (AC), 2 YFJ Board members, 2 guests and of course Sara as CoE coordinator from the YFJ Secretariat).

For myself and for JEF on whose behalf I was sent to Strasbourg it was important to be present in order to gain more insider knowledge and information on what has been done so far in the field, where the discussions are at internally within the YFJ and externally in terms of advocacy and lobbying in the CoE framework.

In the first part we heard two valuable contributions regarding youth rights in Europe and Latin America. Our colleague Mourad Mahidi (OJV) has namely just successfully defended his Master Thesis "The Young and the Rightless - the Protection of Youth Rights in Europe", the first such academic research on the topic in Europe. We can be grateful to have a real expert among our own members and his conclusions helped us better understand the situation as well as come up with evidence-based (legal) arguments in favour of youth rights.
The second valuable contribution was by Trinidad Garcia from the Ibero-American Youth Organisation (OIJ) who presented their experience with achieving and implementing the Ibero-American Convention on Youth Rights. She reminded us of the lengthy process that accompanies such an undertaking and that in their case it was a top-down approach with the initiative to have such a document coming from the states. In our case its rather the opposite.

The most important thing for me in this meeting is the broad agreement on the need for more debate within our platform between those that have been involved in this issue in the recent past and the rest. It was also important that regardless of previous reservations all participants present managed to agree that we can agree on supporting the fight for youth rights as long as:

1) youth rights are understood as "adding and enhancing the rights of young people" that are currently covered by the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Social Charter and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; this means fighting for rights that will correspond to meeting the actual needs of youth as a special age group (e.g. right to autonomy, right to full and effective participation etc);
2) we continue a broad and open discussion on the issue of youth rights within the YFJ by informing and involving everyone before being able to decide on the next steps both in terms of content as well as strategy;
3) we ask for the maximum legally-binding document to achieve such rights.

In the second part of the meeting we exchanged views with Ms Elvira Kovรกcs, a member of the Committee on Education within the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), who is rapporteur for the issue of youth rights in this framework. Moreover, we prepared the input for the meeting of this Committee and come up with a list of arguments in favour of youth rights. These arguments should also serve as a basis of further discussions among the YFJ members prior and during the General Assembly in Kyiv. 

The final act was the actual participation in the Committee meeting of PACE. Welcoming the fact that youth representatives had the chance to participate for the first time I was disgusted by the Chair of the Committee on Education of PACE telling youth representatives when cutting their speaking time and not allowing the diversity of four speakers: "we have urgent business to do (undertone being you are not urgent/important) & life is brutal". It was a shameful moment and we can only hope that the new Chair of this Committee Mr Flego from Croatia will improve in his dealing with youth. 

It was exactly these kind of moments and incidents that are symptomatic in the dealing with young people: we don't want to be considered as inexperienced bearers of future but as opinionated actors of the society of here and now. And the fight for the right to full and effective participation in political and social life and decision-making processes is a much needed and worthy cause to fight for. But to fight such a fight we need to stand united and that can only happen if we have everyone pulling on the same end of the rope, which in turn can only happen if everyone was given the chance to voice their opinions on the issue in an open and transparent manner and then take a final decision in due time that will stay binding not only for a year or two but for the entire lengthy process of this struggle for youth rights.

Having had individual and usually disconnected events on the issue of youth rights in the past is not a sufficient way of bringing the issue into the core of our future work. We need an action plan and clarifying debate on what we want, why we want it and how we plan to achieve it.
Wednesday, 6th October 2010

Board & Secretariat

The recent statutory changes have made it clear that the platform is moving in a direction of giving the Board more responsibility in terms of strategic development of the YFJ.  With more power also comes more responsibility. Thus the need for ever more transparent decision-making, especially in establishing non-permanent working structures will be crucial.

For me the Board needs to work as a proper team in which everyone has a place of his/her own, where each member can feel ownership of the work being done, cooperate in a cross-sectoral way and mutual assist each other. But this also means staying committed for the entire period of two years and living up to the electoral promises. As President I would ensure that all Board members can give input on all topics while maintaining the thematic responsibilities for the areas of work that are to be decided. I would also introduce a mechanism of internal monitoring of the progress made via regular reports and not shy away from getting my hands dirty if needed by confronting a given Board member that wouldn't be living up to his/her promises.

The Secretariat is the backbone of any organisation and having more than 25 employees the YFJ Secretariat is doing a great job in managing the daily affairs of our work and offers excellent support to its members. But there is always room for improvement like in anything else in life. However, the Board should not manage the Secretariat as we have people (s)elected to do that. But the Board should be able to critically asses the work of the Secretariat and voice those opinions and possible concerns to the Secretary-General as its manager and then work jointly to find solutions or implement improvements. The entire YFJ policy department is one of our platforms biggest assets as we have committed youth experts working daily on the issues that concern young people in Europe. The policy officer as experts should thus also be given more opportunity to speak up on behalf of the YFJ when an expert opinion is asked and not only work for the Board but rather with the Board on a given issue.

Having served in three Executive Boards of JEF-Europe I know what it takes to be in a properly European team with a diverse cultural and linguistic background and all the benefits as well as challenges that such diversity brings along. Moreover, I have a proven record of being a good motivator and with leading by example I'm convinced that I could build a proper team that would work towards a more inclusive and transparent platform for the benefit of all its members.

Tuesday, 5th October 2010

Organisational Culture and Structure

YFJ is an umbrella organisation offering its members access to the European youth sphere and providing a framework for exchange of ideas and opinions, while in exchange asking its member organisations to further its aims. In this respect the YFJ can only be as strong as its member organisations allow it to be.

Having been involved in European civil society for such a long time and based on my experience and seeing the reality of youth NGOs in different countries and settings – both as an activist, trainer and youth leader – I value the organisational culture of a given structure very much. Regardless of how well an organisation is doing there is always room for improvement and many times this doesn't require much effort, money or statutory changes – a good advice, a simple smile or polite gesture can do as well. This has at least two main aspects: one is working with member organisations within YFJ and the other is linked with the issues of transparency and organisational ethics.

But at the same time the YFJ has a persona of its own if you will, namely once a decision has been agreed by the MOs in the set decision-making processes it has the mandate to act. And MOs need also to be aware who acts on behalf of YFJ and how. What does the Board do, what does the Secretariat do, how they interlink and who bears responsibility for what? What is the role of other working structures within YFJ, where do they fit in and how are their outcomes and work communicated? 

This is just some initial food for thought. Tomorrow I will share my concrete proposals on how I envisage the work of the YFJ Board and Secretariat and thus try to answer on the questions mentioned above.
Monday, 4th October 2010

On this page I will post my blog entries in which I will share some ideas on how I see the future development of the European Youth Forum (YFJ) and the main points that I believe are key in order to make the YFJ a truly inclusive platform for an inclusive Europe.