Trying to identify the fil rouge of EYP experiences I came across the impact of my involvement that always traces back to the personal growth of myself and the people around me. This has appeared in three forms - self-development, critical and abstract thinking, and cultural awareness - and this is what we will strive for during Lviv 2020. EYP puts everyone in a position where self-development is necessary, wanted and wished. This development has many forms, from improving English to engaging in debates, from starting to deeply care about others to learning how to make people help you. Lviv will be the place where every participant will have the opportunity to focus on what they care the most being sure that someone will always be there to support them in reaching their goal. To understand EYP and it’s values we always have to trace back to one of its core goals: education. We volunteer and invest emotional and physical energy in this network in order to give the possibility to as many young people as possible to learn how to think in a critical and abstract way. As active citizens, we should be able to practice and teach how to read the world around us in an analytical way and to be able to recognise in it what we see cognate to our beliefs and what it’s not, the basis for being ready to act for changing it, without stopping on the surface. EYP teaches these values and skills and it’s a goal we should never lose, personally and academically, especially in the Academic Team. EYP can play a great role in shaping the vision of the world less because of the topic that we discussed and more because it gives the opportunity to reflect on ways of living and standpoints that were far from one’s experience.
Cultural awareness is something that is not easy to teach and that few experiences in your life will give you, especially if you are not lucky enough to be born in a context that provides you with the possibility to travel or to listen to people coming from different realities. Nonetheless, our network can provide an opportunity for navigated officials as well as for new delegates and while approaching our work we should always have in mind how to make this happen in a session. EYP can sometimes become overwhelming and officials should specifically be aware of it and ready to act on it, especially the Academic Team. Its role should always have a great focus on wellness and wellbeing on three levels: 1. promoting them for all participants - by leading by example; 2. tackling the causes of work-related mental and physical health issues; 3. supporting participants who are experiencing problems. A personal strategy for ensuring one’s own welfare and on how to act in case someone else is struggling it’s an important asset for every participant.
The EYP Ukraine umbrella topic for the year is "Laying a strong foundation for a sustainable society". It has the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as the groundwork, yet it focuses on three certain goals. Lviv NSC will be aimed to elaborate on Goal 9 - Industry, innovation and infrastructure building on the motto Create. Innovate. Drive. The Agenda had been adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries in a global partnership, and SDG 9 that plays a key structural role in reaching all of them.In fact, it has long been recognised that a strong physical network of industry and communication can enhance productivity and incomes, and improve health, wellbeing and education. Technological progress similarly enhances our wellbeing as countries, and can also improve the state of the planet through increased resource and energy efficiency. Investments in infrastructure – transport, irrigation, energy and information and communication technology – are crucial to achieving sustainable development and empowering communities in many countries. Without technology and innovation, industrialization will not happen, and without industrialization, the development will not happen. Join us to have the chance to create new approaches to industrialisation, innovate the way we think about progress and drive the future of infrastructure. This theme aims to create topics close to the interest of delegates and to their everyday life while making them reflect about the deeper connection of events and aspect of the reality they are living. In fact, this approach will put delegates in a position to express their opinion and their point of view; remains on the officials the responsibility of channelling the stream into a fruitful debate.
As we consider EYP a perfect platform not only to socialise and develop but also for informal education and academic growth. Comprehensive understanding of the EU politics in general and complete involvement into the resolution drafting process requires basic knowledge of the European institutions and governing bodies. Sadly, the latter can sometimes be superficial among the delegates, and among firstcomers in particular. Trying to overcome this gap step by step, we wish to bring innovation to EYP Ukraine events by adding Understanding Europe Crash Course in the schedule of the session. The primary reason for it is to give participants an efficient academic boost and to increase their knowledge of the EU Institutions. We would be glad to elaborate on the right scheduling and delegates allocation for this part of the session with the whole Board. Therefore being a trainer might be a benefit for all applicants, but we will anyway have a short training during the two days of CMO for those who are not because we believe that, approaching an SDG that might seem already tough, a Crash Course might be extremely useful to set a common knowledge basis for delegates. The Officials' Team, will work on creating the safest, pleasant, and welcoming environment to open everyone's full potential during the session. This will also be achieved by holding first aid training during CJO. Therefore, we would like each committee to remain a healthy environment for each participant's personal comfort, growth and well-being. We are eager to minimise the gap between and bring closer Delegates, Academic, Media, Organising Teams, and the Leadership as well as between different committees.
I believe that the quality that always stands out at first sight while collaborating with someone is their level of commitment to the work they are to carry out. This is why willingness to learn and challenge themselves is more appreciated than the ability to be a “good” chairperson.Seeing in someone the sparkle of enthusiasm and the readiness for growing - in whatever form these might take is something that is valued more than anything while looking at a team of young volunteers. We are looking for 8/12 Chairpersons that might work as solo or co-chairs, who are not only willing to participate but to actively contribute and shape this Session. You will be given the time to actively seek out the areas you most want to work on and we will support you fully in finding the right means to do so. Acknowledging the fact that chairs will be the officials closer to delegates, great emphasis will be put on their level of approachability. Chairs should often reflect on their ability to express humility and to relate on a peer-to-peer level with delegates.It is in fact crucial that participants are able to come to their chair with any concern, need or question as they would do with someone that they can trust and approach. Lastly, we aspire to have members of the Academic Team that are able to represent EYP and its values without compromising their true nature and their beliefs. Our network is, in fact, an open platform for ideas and opinions and Chairs that will not compromise their own standpoints - without over-imposing them on the committee - are extremely appreciated. But for covering a role to which delegates look up to so much it is necessary to be able to stand for all the values and goals that an EYP setting entails.
‘’You are capable of delivering a masterpiece if time, energy and efforts are selfcurated well; The media team of Lviv'20 shall be an environment fueled with productivity, enhancement, and advancement, where combined efforts shall provide the audience of the event and the network of EYP with exemplary and inspiring work, encouraging inclusion, warranting quality and eliminating stagnation through further development in character and abilities. What can help Lviv'20 become the sunniest session of the year? Your dedication and commitment, enthusiasm spent on networking, growth, progress and enjoying your time in the balance between having a good time and seeing yourself evolved, more advanced than a day before.Joint efforts, encouragement, academic spirit in an exciting and liberating environment such as Lviv'20.’’ Media in EYP is in charge of assessing and enhancing encouragement and inspiration within the internal and external audiences, meaning, the projects and work done within has to inspire the participants of the EYP event and anyone else, who isn’t present on the session or in the overall network of EYP; as the media team is also in charge of the memorial maintenance of the event, projects done have to include people opening up, speaking about their experiences, fears, expectations, skills and anything relevant that can inspire the viewer, overall conducting knowledge and experience-sharing through video projects and interviews. Considering inclusion, inspiration, encouragement and advancement in the projects, they also have to be balanced out with quality, The media experience at Lviv’20 shall teach you content creation, marketing and project management via training, independent decision-making and freedom to follow your ambition through teamwork, cooperation and collaboration.
From the editorial assistants, I require the skill of team and task management, alongside videography and understanding of content creation - someone who aspires to follow EYP media further and edit events in the future, or simply learn more about team management and media overall. Potential journalists are required to have a passion for inspiring others and creating content, alongside having the proper equipment to do so. Lviv’20 does not have a set number of media team members, it all depends on the candidates and applications. The editor is looking for people with an open mind, ambition to learn and create, grow their knowledge, alongside the understanding of EYP media and journalism and potentially edit events in the future.
Referring back to the mission of EYP, to me it has always centered around the concepts of self-development and empowerment. Self-development especially is essentially the poster child of EYP, and rightfully so, as an organisation EYP offers immense opportunities to evolve as a person - facilitated by the diverse environment you consistently find yourself in. In this I view empowerment to be the tool, with development as the goal. However, despite this, the empowerment of some of the most, if not the most important participants, the delegates has room for improvement. My goal for Lviv is to change this fact - allowing the delegates to utilise the resources of the Jury team as a catalyst for improvement. From a delegate’s perspective a Juror can seem scary, thus it is vital that we humanise ourselves for the delegates while reaffirming our potential as a tool for their development. For this reason we will work closely with the other officials to develop an in-session feedback mechanism for the delegates, as an addition to the pre-existing opportunity for post-session feedback. Personal experience has shown that the most interested delegates will seize such an opportunity with both hands, and hopefully fuel their desire to continue within the organisation at a later date. Nevertheless I wish for all delegates to look back upon the event knowing they gained something valuable there. Keeping the aforementioned points in mind, our role as the Jury team is to ensure a fair and transparent selection process, and in this I believe my own opinion to bear no more weight than yours. As such, the Jury team will be flat and non-hierarchical, built on the notion of consensus, where every decision is made by the team as a whole. Such a system requires all Jurors to be open minded, one person only sees a small portion of the session, yet combined we have the full picture, I am therefore looking for individuals that are both not afraid to raise their opinions, but also capable of compromising.
Lviv’20 having two days of CMOJ also presents an amazing opportunity to introduce Jury modules as a means to further ensure that all Jurors are on the same page. Moreover, my overarching goal is to provide each individual Juror with the freedom and tools to shape their experience. As a part of this the modules will differ from the more standardised modules, in the sense that they will be more personal - as made possible by the smaller team size - focusing on for example biases and behaviour. Ultimately I wish to complete the Jury vision together with the rest of the Jurors, granting the previously mentioned freedom to shape our own experience at the session. Previous Juror experience is far from a requirement, so if the ideas and values presented here pique your interest do not hesitate to submit an application. Thank you, and good luck!