Y-E-N ACTIVITIES

CANCELLED DUE TO THE COVID-19 STAYING IN TOUCH WITH OUR MEMBERS

STUDY SESSION « SOCIAL RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS III »

This Study Session was co-organised with Youth Social Rights Network and the Youth Department of the Council of Europe, and foreseen for 14th - 20th June 2020 in the European Youth Center of Strasbourg.

It was unfortunately cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. ALL youth organisations faced new challenges amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Solidarity continued, or tried its best, in various forms, with adaptation, innovation... To keep in touch with our member organisations and map some of the different realities of Youth NGOs around Europe, we asked our members to send us news. We shared some of their realities through 6 articles published on our website and social media. These articles showed a variety of ideas, actions, difficulties, successes that youth NGOs faced or experienced under this context. Find these articles on our website youthexpressnetwork.org.

NETWORK CALLS

The pandemic directly impacted European youth mobility: less planes, less opportunities for young people, youth workers and youth organisations to gather and work together offline. Many of Y-E-N’s planned projects and partnerships were either postponed or cancelled so we too had to find a way to adapt our work and maintain the activity of the Network. To do so, we launched the Network Calls.

With the Network Call, we invited the Y-E-N community to gather online, as we would do for a coffee break. We wanted to spark informal discussions and collaboration around topics linked to youth work and youth organisations.

1 - European youth work and the pandemic

We held the first edition of the “Network Call” on the 2nd of October. It was entitled « No plane, no work? – Youth Work and Solidarity: from international to local level during Coronavirus ».

The discussion focused on the effect that the global pandemic had on young people and youth work. Our special guest for this Network Call was Özgehan Şenyuva, Youth Researcher and former Vice-President of Y-E-N.

Most findings shared during this online meeting where the results of the research conducted by RAY Network. Videos of our Network Calls on Youtube.

2 - Communication for youth organisations

Another Network Call was entitled « Hey Comm' Friends! - Connecting communication officers of Youth Organisations ». Whether they were volunteering or employed by their NGO, we invited any member in charge of the communication of their youth organisation to join Y-E-N’s communication officer for an informal discussion! Together, they shared their tips and struggles, from working on tight budgets to choosing the right social media platform! This Network Call took place on the 30th of October.

3 - Sustainable offices

For this last Network Call of 2020, we were joined by Lari Schinteie from the Sustainable Babes. Through their initiative, the Sustainable Babes aim at raising awareness on the climate crisis and educating people on their power as consumers. This online meeting was held on the 16th of November. We divided the content into 7 parts and presented various ideas on easy ways to implement sustainable habits at the work place. The categories were: advices on how to start ; transportation ; waste and electricity ; digital pollution ; paper and communication ; lunch and coffee break ; events.

From the content of this online conference, we developed a « How-to Guide » including all of the efficient alternatives we mentioned. You can find it on our website, on our Library.

NEW WEBSITE

Our coordination office, based in Strasbourg, France, had to comply with the measures that the French government implemented to avoid the spreading of the virus. The lockdowns and decreased amount of offline youth projects allowed an unexpected opportunity for our communication officer to fully focus on the renewal of our Website.

The previous website presented numerous issues: it was heavy in data, contained some vague and repeated informations, translation and grammar mistakes, the navigation was not very instinctive and its overall appearance didn’t fit our identity anymore.

The main task of our communication officer consisted in restructuring, « resizing » and rewriting the majority of its content, thus ensuring a fresher, lighter and more clear website. Any visitor would need to understand quickly the mission, values and work of Youth Express Network.

More modern and easier to navigate through, our new home on the internet is now matching our identity more accurately! Its weight in data was lowered to a third of its original size.

Visit the final result at youthexpressnetwork.org and find there all there is to know about Youth Express Network!