By Besnik Hoxha – YMCA Tirana, Albania

Two sessions, and still me and ROOTS have “stuff” to say to each-other. Actually, now I realize, there’s never a ‘goodbye’ but rather a ‘see you later’. After Berlin, all what I was thinking about was the time of the tandem groups projects, to put into work, what was created there. The call was open and Budapest was waiting. From the 16th- 22nd September me and 35 other people from 17 countries attended the Roots study session on Peace, E-activism and Campaigning. Through the time I learnt to increase the expectations because YMCA never disappoints. As someone once said “I go to work every morning with the possibility that I might learn something I don’t already know…. If you look at a problem as an opportunity to show what you already know, it’s useless. You should look at every problem and think, ‘what can I learn by doing this?’ And if you think you can learn nothing, forget about doing it.”  That’s the great benefit of being in the YMCA, the possibility for learning never disappears.

Unlike the last time, in the new group were more people I did not know before. For some of them this was their first time in a kind of training abroad, and I had some flashbacks in my head, putting me in that place, anxious, enthusiastic and excited.  How much things have changed, thankful to YMCA and the opportunities they offer to young people.

Passing through sessions, we learnt more about eActivism, Online Campaigning & Fundraising, Communication and Social Media. What will always be on my mind are the videos used to make a campaign, the types of campaigns used as brand awareness, promotional, community and causes, educational etc. We also learnt about the YMCA brand history and changes of logo through time. After all, we thought of creating campaigns about issues in our countries which brought many ideas, experiences, better understanding of other realities and so on.  Thankful to the TEAM and EXPERTS who did an excellent job in transferring to us their knowledge, ideas, work, successes and lead us to a bright future. In just some days I’ve learned so much.

Not to forget the city: it was, amazing, amazing and amazing. The walking nights besides the river, with really good people will not be forgotten. Your contributions to the conversations make me want to do better, react better, THINK better. The sharing ideas, opinions, facts, personal thoughts and the after sessions fun (International Karaoke), will always be with me. Getting back is always hard, but as I said, it’s a ‘see you again’. To close it, in the end what matters are actions, so… stay tuned!

By Emma Symeonidou, Coordinator of Non Formal Education & Volunteers Manager – YMCA Thessaloniki, Greece

Peace begins with you…

For me, that was the highlight of this study session!

Don’t let the behavior of others (who are actually an expression of our greater whole) destroy your inner peace – a leader once said.

And I relate to this.

The past stays in the past. What we should focus on is the future!

And being young, gives us the privilege to do so and try to change the world and the future for good.

So, to start with, YMCA Europe managed to bring together 35 delegates aged 18 – 30 from 17 different countries at P.E.A.C.E. study session.

I am sure that you have the same question I had before I attended “PEACE”; How Peace, Campaigning and Digital all match together?

After a week in Budapest, and after many sessions, workshops, presentations from experts and facilitators (to whom I owe a big thanks) I finally got answers to most of my questions. So the question mark became an exclamation mark  (!)

And I would like to go deeper in that and try to give you an idea on how the days in Budapest have been like for me from my perspective.

I will continue by saying that In some countries that were present in the study session, the level of external conflict may be very high…

But the greatest thing of all: during the study session, not even for a second, there was zero feeling of “tension” in the room!

We did not let this stay in our way of having fun, interacting and learning from one another.

So, despite our challenges, despite our conflicts and how different we were from one another, this study session granted us with the opportunity to come together and learn from one another.

And it shouldn’t really be a surprise to all of you reading this; that we did learn from one another. Either from the questions we addressed, the sessions we attended, or just from chatting over coffee or lunch.

We tend to enjoy new experiences and to bring new creative ideas to the table. Even if we were there to listen, hear and learn, we were also there to interact, think, create and speak up when needed.

YMCA Europe and “PEACE” has provided us with a safe space to further our skills and discover the untold stories of the Youth!

And now we can take on responsibility, we were supported, and they showed confidence in us – this is the YMCA!

So, thank you YMCA Europe for making this seem so easy! Thank you all for your time and your efforts.

And before I finish this article, I would like to give an advice to all: go talk to someone who is different from you, someone who may not have the same skin color or share the same ideas with you, someone you wouldn’t talk to normally, because this is how we truly learn from one another!

After a study session like this, one thing is certain: we are more alike than we are different! We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that separate us!

By Jenny Rainey, Mpower Project Worker – YMCA Ireland

Roots and Reconciliation is a YMCA Europe project created to bring together/empower young leaders across different socio-political and cultural divides. From the 16th- 21st September I attended the Roots study on Peace, E-activism and Campaigning. In total 35 people from 17 countries attended. This was an amazing week packed with learning and laughter in the European Youth Centre Budapest, a long way from my place of work, Lisburn YMCA, in the north of Ireland. It was inspiring to see what is happening with YMCA organisations across Europe. The key phrase for the week was to “Be the peace you want”.

The purpose of the week was to learn about peace work and using digital media in this process. I personally was interested to learn about methodologies influencing the foundations of peace work, such as the “Do no harm” approach led by Vardan Hambardzumyan (Executive Secretary at YMCA Europe).  I also learnt about how campaigners engage with the Council of Europe to promote human rights. Other sessions covered the psychology of social media/ branding by Palmer Hestley, the Communications Manager of Branding of YMCA England and Wales. This session was exciting and I loved the examples of the best video adverts for well-known brands and experimenting with our own ideas.  There were useful tips for design and best practice for campaigns. It was easy to keep engaged with the content of the sessions as I took part in activities related to the topics.

There were so many tips and suggestions, I can’t communicate through this short piece of writing! There are two moments however, which will stay with me and taught me the most.

Reflecting on the history of the YMCA logo.
The experience of creating a cross cultural campaign.

If you ask someone who works in a YMCA what their logo is, they will probably tell you about a red triangle symbolising physical, spiritual and emotional wellbeing. However, I learnt that the “roots” of YMCA as a whole are in the first logo, which was created in 1881 at the 9th World Council. This was an emblem to reflect the hope that people in the movement across different countries would be “one”. This sentiment stood out to me as we worked together on cross cultural campaigns.

For our last activity, we individually identified a key challenge for young people in our community and I wrote down “mental health”. Afterwards, we formed into teams with participants who had identified similar challenges. We were then given the task of creating a campaign. As we started the process it became apparent that each of us had a different idea of mental health, shaped by external factors in our country. Eventually, we gave up on the process of planning and trying to give our different opinions on what mental health is and merely started to share personal experiences. In sharing what mental health looked like in our countries right down to our families, we saw the bigger picture and the commonalities were obvious. From that point, it was easier to communicate about ideas for a campaign.

On the International Day of Peace we will posted up pictures online. Anastasia who was in my group, works for YMCA in Russia. She posted a picture of a children’s park with what I felt was a beautiful thought that a “playground is a place where kids are playing, laughing and enjoying their time together regardless skin colour, religion, culture.” To me, the simplicity of peace is what we all long for but the reality of finding one voice in our dialogue is not so simple. Conversations we had throughout the week went deep and wide but in the end it was the desire to make this phrase, “Be the peace you want” a reality that motivated us.

From my week in Budapest I take home memories of international karaoke even more entertaining than Eurovision. I most enjoyed conversations at night by the golden lights of Budapest with intelligent and kind people. I look forward to seeing the future work of Roots and the on-going dialogue with my friends around Europe. I have so much to take back to YMCA Ireland and I am thankful for the opportunity to YMCA Europe. It was insightful to be re-rooted in the history and heart of YMCA.

By David McAdam – YMCA Paisley, Scotland

Ok, where to start…when arriving in Budapest, I was both nervous and excited as to what was going to unfold over the week. At the start, we were all a bit shy in letting our true selves out but that didn’t take long. In the space of a day, we were talking and laughing with each other like we’d known each other for ages. Regardless of our backgrounds, situations and experiences the thing that unites us is that we were all there for the same purpose – to empower young people and bring peace into the digital projects we do. From this, there was an underlying respect and love for one other of which makes me feel comfortable from the first few hours of meeting. This is a feeling I’ve yet to experience anywhere else.

Every session was informative to me in some degree in relating to projects through my local and national YMCA, and in picking up useful methods in how to promote these projects online to a wider audience. From the breakdown of branding from the Communications Branding Manager from YMCA England & Wales, the sharing of the project model at the start of the week delivered by Vardan, sharing of ‘best practices’ from other local and national YMCA’s plus lots more.

With every day, there was chances to deliver feedback on the days activities and in work in small groups to discuss each other’s situations and the YMCA’s of which they work in, hone in on delivering new projects and practicing what has been taught to us.

The thing that really hit home for me during the small groups was some of the harsh realities that other countries face of which their YMCA’s abide in such as war, mass poverty, having no YMCA government backing etc. Apart from this being an opportunity to gain insight on how these YMCA’s overcome these hurdles, it has humbled me in seeing how fortunate YMCA’s within my country are in comparison to them.

From the week, I would say I have gained a better insight in how to market projects, further insight into the branding of them and taking tips from other YMCA’s in the way they use social media, plan events and the sources they use in order to make it a success. I came into the week with no expectation but to gain a bit of insight, but i’ve returned home with so much more than that. From potential close friendships, best practices, new project ideas and inspiration…the list can go on.

This was a week that will be with me forever in more ways than one. Thank you everyone for making it the experience it was.

One week from November, 12 to November, 18 was marked by an outstanding 2^nd session of the YMCA Europe Roots for Reconciliation Peace Work Institute in Berlin. I had the honor to ‘leap’ into this project missing the first step – the session in Tbilisi, to be embraced by the open and caring participants.

This session was dedicated to the development of our Tandem Group Peace Projects and the exploration of the ‘Do No Harm Approach’.  We’ve discussed the core of our projects in multicultural groups and then looked at them though the ‘Do No Harm’ methods that presuppose sensitive and very conscious-about-details approach to conflict resolution. During the session we also explored Berlin with its rich history of acceptance and reconciliation.

When I came back home and told this story to my co-workers explaining why I had been missing for a week, I kept getting one and the same comment: “Why are you doing all that?”. Not because they diminish the importance of peace, for sure they don’t; it is due to the fact that it is impossible to understand how much change can Roots create, not paying attention to people’s feelings and these small stories that would never happen without the project.

The key feeling for me during this session would be ‘Trust’. The Trust from the organizers giving us the responsibility to be in charge of the projects, doing their best to guide us and believing in us, anyway. The Trust from the participants sharing honestly their ideas, feelings and believes. And the Trust from my YMCA supporting me in going for the Roots.

One of the most important smaller stories that happened to me because of this session is connected with the Berlin Wall. Deeply touched by our visit to the Berlin Wall Museum I bought a book about the history of the Berlin Wall to find out more. I was reading about the escapees from the GDR when I came across the story of several elderly couples who escaped though a handmade tunnel of 1.75 meters height. When they were asked what was the point of making such a big tunnel, they said ‘ We wanted to walk to freedom with our wives, comfortably and unbowed’. And the simple idea struck me: my perception of peace before that moment was so limited and vague; peace does not only mean ‘no war’, it means the chance for people to live in dignity, which apart from many things mean ‘to have no place for hatred in the heart’.

I believe in small stories. Our projects may not stop massive killing in countries at war, but if they could strip some particular people of prejudices and hatred, and help them to live in dignity, that would be enough for a big story to start.

By Natasha Martynenko, YMCA Russia