VISION 2020

Following the decision of the General Assembly of Youth Express Network held in Ostia, Italy in June 2013 to research the needs of our member organisations and the young people they work with, the Board decided to create a questionnaire. In September 2013, we asked our members to complete this questionnaire, assess the needs of the youth of their country, and propose topics that Y-E-N should focus on tackling in the future. During Youth Express Network’s Board meetings in Strasbourg in November 2013 and in Gdansk in March 2014, the Board members compiled and worked on all the input from member organisations, the results from the General Assembly working groups and past strategic documents and produced a paper called “Vision 2020”. This strategic document sets our goals until 2020. It is updated each year at the General Assembly and approved by vote by the attending members. The “Vision 2020” paper is founded on the values of human and social rights and the principles of non-formal education, active participation and interculturality. It helps us bring more impact and quality to our work while maintaining the focus on social inclusion of young people. The following version was approved by member’s vote during the General Assembly of 2019, in BERLIN, Germany. It was implemented through the activities and initiatives of Y-E-N and our member organisations in 2020.

Y-E-N Vision 2020

Inclusive society for young people

« Youth Express Network considers inclusive a society where young people, their needs, rights and participation are recognised, valued and appreciated »

Goals

When establishing the goals to our vision we decided to work on 3 different levels that we identified in our strategy: young people with fewer opportunities, society and our network. We turned the 3 levels into 3 different goals, each of them having different objectives focusing on reaching the needs identified by our member organisations. Every goal has specific activities through which we will reach the goal and fulfill our vision.

Goal 1. Social inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities

Through this goal and the objectives that subsides it, we wanted to continue to involve in our activities young people with fewer opportunities, youth workers and social workers and to keep the focus on creating opportunities for young people with fewer opportunities to participate in international youth work activities. • Objective 1. Creation of a definition of social inclusion and young people with fewer opportunities inside Y-E-N • Objective 2. Direct work with young people with fewer opportunities on local and international level • Objective 3. Direct work with social workers and youth workers who work with young people with fewer opportunities • Objective 4. Cooperation with other institutions and organisations who work on social inclusion of young people

Goal 2. Active societies towards social inclusion

Through this goal and the objectives that subsides it, we wanted to focus our attention to the outside, towards the communities that we live in, towards our societies. We want them to be aware of the disadvantaged young people and to react towards social inclusion. • Objective 1. Raising awareness about the issue of socially excluded young people • Objective 2. Advocacy and lobbying for social inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities at local and European levels • Objective 3. Advocacy and lobbying for recognition of youth work and non-formal learning • Objective 4. Communities take action

Goal 3. Strong network

Through this goal and the objectives that subsides it, we wanted to focus our attention towards the inside of our network. In order to be able to reach all of our goals and objectives we need to be a stronger network, a network where the quality of our activities is high, where we share experience and competences and where we can collaborate with each other. • Objective 1. Increasing the sense of belonging for our member organisations • Objective 2. Expending the network geographically in order to reach more young people • Objective 3. Building the capacity of our member organisations • Objective 4. Improving the quality of Y-E-N services • Objective 5. Improving the visibility of the network • Objective 6. Improving the sustainability and financial stability of the network.