Regional Meeting: Europe

Date: August 16th 2008

Attendees: 50

Countries Represented:

Azerbaijan, Slovenia, United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Russia, Finland, Serbia, Moldova, Romania, Turkey, (Scotland), Portugal, Czech Republic, Ukraine

Process:

Youth were first asked to answer the following two questions:

-What are their recommendations to their governments on the issue of YLD?

-What challenges do youth face in their region?

After they had answered the two questions they were asked to split into pairs and each pair was asked to look at their answers and agree on a commonality.  After they had agreed to a commonality they were asked to split into groups of 4 and agree on a commonality.  They were then put into groups of eight- a presenter was chosen here.  Each group of 8 presented to the whole group their choices of recommendations and challenges.  This was followed by an open discussion after which presenters met to decide on a final message.

Responses to Question 1 (Individual) - Recommendation to Government

• Have better laws about alcohol

• Having more workshops at school that deal with self esteem issues

• Supporting dialogue between youth on a global scale

• Include youth more in decision-making

• Promoting YLD in school

• Providing more opportunities for informal education

• To consider what you spend more carefully

• Investing in education more

• Offer youth a voice in public arenas

• Provide more social support

• Supporting more environmental projects

• Having better universities and a better system  for education

• Having better courses that support a career

• Changing the healthcare system to universal free healthcare

• Supporting and recognizing youth leadership organization and help them run programs  regarding their courses

• Develop the concept of co-management

• Creating a comprehensive youth policy in each country

• FUnding of YLD projects

• Having greater media coverage of youth

• Less bureaucracy when it comes to securing funding for projects

• Support more long-term, sustainable projects

• Supporting a United Nations Delegate

• To involve youth in government discussions

• Government should target the stigmatized and marginalized groups

• Better youth consultation

• Promotion of internship, volunteer work, and work experience to young people

• Making grant and bursary schemes more accessible 

• More educational training

• More opportunities to work in social work

• Foster political participation

• Promotion of YLD in the community so the idea is more acceptable

• Organizing more youth conferences

• Better acknowledgement of youth work

• More transparent politics

Responses to Question 2 (Individual)- Challenges faced by Youth

• Unemployment

• Rural youth migrating to urban areas

• Not a lot of courses offered- no variety

• No extracurricular activities

• Too much freedom and little guidance when it comes to deciding on a career path

• Level of suicide

• Alcoholism

• No participation in community activities

• No funding for youth to continue their work

• Access to higher education

• Lack of financial resources to do exchanges with countries outside of EU

• Being interested in political decision making- not being motivated to be the change

• Racism

• Finding a solution to environmental issues

• Job security

• Being portrayed as a threat to society- how to convince society that youth are positive role models?

• Not being supported enough by the government in terms of fundraising 

• Lack of access to information

• Few youth organizations

• Time it takes to be viewed as credible

• Not being well informed about politics

• Health issues

• Status of women- for women to have both a career and a family

• Youth aren't showing a real interest in social-environmental issues

• Ease of buying a house

• Control of media by government

• Language barriers

• People not aware of what YLD is 

• Change of local leadership

• Victims of gang violence

• Discrimination of ethnic/sexual minorities

• Equal opportunities

Responses to Question 1 (Pairs)

• Promotion of YLD in schools

• Better financial support

• Development of youth policies

• Funding of YLD Projects

• Better power and visibility to youth councils and NGOs

• Better interaction between organizations

• Informing (increase of) young people about their opportunities

• Making funding easier to secure

• Giving young people more opportunities and empowerment

• Fostering youth participation in politics

• Increased numbers of apprentice (internship) positions

• Universal access to healthcare

• Having youth parliaments 

• Youth advisors in the government 

Responses to Question 2 (Pairs)

• Poverty

• Lack of opportunities

• Lack of commitment from other youth representatives

• Lack of competitive educational systems 

• Obesity

• Female empowerment

• Lack of employment opportunities

• Poor quality of education

• Adults mistrust of youth 

• Alcoholism

• Lack of leisure facilities

• Being pressured to stay in education when it may not be beneficial to do so

• Lack of credibility of youth organizations

• Racism

• Hard to find graduate jobs

• Information overload

• ensuring that youth participation is truly representative of all young people

• motivation of young people to get involved

• Rise in popularity of extreme right-wing thinking

Question 1 (Group of 4)

• "We are responsible for the messages and awareness that we provide to the government.  We must not expect the Government to solve all of our needs, but encourage the Government to endorse our needs."

• Motivate young people to foster participation and to tolerate youth involvement

• More "life skill" training that would help prepare youth for careers and building a career

• Better support of YLD

• "Governments should take concrete steps to support young people in each country.  They should develop youth policies.  All governments should trust young people and give a chance to youth."

• Universal healthcare

• Budgets of governments should be readjusted to allow allocation to YLD

• "Young people dream big and achieve big, make the most of us before we grow up and turn close-minded."

• Accessibility of funding

• Merit-based selection

Question 2 (Group of 4)

• Underage drinking

• Lack of opportunities

• Lack of youth policy

• Increasing levels of drug and alcohol addictions

• No leisure facilities

• Lack of funding

• Lack of information about opportunities for youth

• Media stereotype of youth

• Education

• Integration of migrants/minorities

Final Group Presentations

Group 1:

• Ended up with a broad- education, career, politics

• Talked a lot about youth councils and youth politics--good avenues for involvement- would like more youth people to be involved in opportunities like this

• Would like to see young people having a right to speak in heritage groups, ministry of cultures

• Youth-Adult Partnerships

• Young people taking part in educational curriculum development

• Encouraging internship and apprentice opportunities

• Environmental education should start from the beginning

• Increased importance of peer education- show that young people can achieve

• Making sure that all groups are included

• Giving life skills- how to write a speech, proposals, etc.

Group 2:

Talked about a variety of topics and agreed upon several components.

-Making more funding opportunities

-Consult, listen to, and respect of youth

- Explanation of why youth should be involved

-Empower young people to participate on an equal opportunities

-Lack of transportation

-Intergenerational dialogue

-Access to quality education

-Development of cultural awareness- want to see more of this

-Commitment to social change

-Teachers and educational system being accountable 

Group 3:

Recommendation to government: