European youth metre news..

September 7, 2016 BERLIN, GERMANY Eight weeks for two handshakes Berlin district authorities of Charlottenburg – Wilmersdorf start collaboration with YouthMetre in Germany: an innovative project presented for EU member states On September 9, the Children- and Youth Parliament (CYP) Charlottenburg – Wilmersdorf, in its official function as a department of the youth welfare office, invites young people interested in public policy to attend the first  YouthMetre study group session on European youth policy issues in Berlin and Germany. The event is coordinated by eSPOONe (European Storypool Network for Education), which is the self determined participation tool from CYP, regarding the European Youth Strategy and it’s Structured Dialogue (SD) activities. eSPOONe is managed by CYP and IfeQ Institut für europäisches Quartiersmanagement gGmbH (Institute for european quarter management NGO). The establishment of the non-profit Institute is a result of the CYP activities in the last SD priority working theme “Youth empowerment addressing access to rights and the importance of political participation of young people” (SD priority themes are issued every 18 month by the European Commission, including the actual (and based on former) results of Structured Dialogue activities, which are communicated by European Youth Conference to European Council and Commission). So the articles of association of IfeQ include 9 objectives, which were created to cover important outcoming eSPOONe-workshop results of the SD activities from CYP. The idea to bring YouthMetre to Germany came up at an event in April, organized by Agenzia Nazionale Per I Giovani, in Taormina, Italy. The “Youth in 3D – Dialogue – Democracy –Decision” event enabled international participators to discuss possibilities (and to create opportunities) for the European implementation process of the actual SD priority theme “Enabling all young people to engage in a diverse, connected and inclusive Europe – ready for life, ready for society”, which was just started in January. As a result Alessio Lupi (Ars4Progress) and Thomas Grau (IfeQ) agreed to organize the collaboration between YouthMetre/eSPOONe/CYP, based on the non-formal workshop outcomes of their Taormina activities. Already at July 02, Martin Maska from European Youth Press (EYP) met Reinhard Naumann, borough major from the Berlin district Charlottenburg – Wilmersdorf (EYP is a member of the YouthMetre Consortium which had its executive meeting at the middle of June in Zaragoza). Both agreed officially about the idea of collaboration, which was born only 8-9 weeks before in Taormina. “When I was the district councilor for Youth, Families, Sports and Environment in Charlottenburg – Wilmersdorf, a lot of people were laughing about the idea of a Structured Dialogue for youth, which was created by the European Union already in 2001. In 2003 we’ve implemented the idea and the CYP was established in our district. It took further 7 years, until the European Youth Strategy was officially declared by the governments of all European member states, in 2010. Again the CYP was the first organization, which created a sustainable, self determined tool for their SD activities by organizing a national youth forum in 2011: eSPOONe was born. Then I became borough mayor of Charlottenburg – Wilmersdorf. But it took again 4 years until the IfeQ Institut für europäisches Quartiersmanagement gGmbH could be legally established in December 2015 - based on the workshop results of eSPOONe and the SD activities from CYP – as a service point for European youth policy and european quarter management on a local level. Today I am very excited that it took only 8 weeks from a handshake about an idea in Taormina until a handshake about the cooperation in Berlin and Germany, based on european CYP activities. Thanks to Agenzia Nazionale Per I Giovani”, Reinhard Naumann said in his meeting with Martin Maska.       The YouthMetre project empowers young people, encouraging them to become engaged and actively participate in EU Youth policy matters, as participation in democratic processes at different levels (local, regional, national and European) is essential for young people to get their voices heard.   Through multiplier training activities YouthMetre directly provides youngsters with necessary skills and knowledge to improve or transform the effective implementation of policies and practices for youth by challenging policy makers. The study groups are expected to contribute towards effective reforms in youth policy, in line with the indicators provided by the EU Youth Strategy and according to actual priorities of young Europeans. Eventually, local policy makers will also be involved, by receiving evaluations of the proposed initiatives and possibility to learn about the best practices achieved in other municipalities across Europe. The project is initiated by a group of non-governmental and educational organizations. Project partners include the European Association of Geographers (EUROGEO), ARS for Progress for People (ARS4P), European Youth Press, the University of Zaragoza, the Association of Local Democratic Agencies (ALDA), and CESIE.