December is a month of presents, and Roots got a major one last year when our application for “Be a Voice not an Echo” study session was approved by the Council of Europe. Aiming to scale up the capacity and actions of YMCA Europe against hate speech using counter and alternative narratives as a tool, […]
For every YMCA person and no matter where we hail from, June 6th is a special day – this is when our organization was born way back in 1844. And ever since it has been the journey that touched and changed the lives of millions around the world! Generations are inspired by the story of […]
The week of May 3 – 10 was planned to hold the first International Activity (“Prospective Memory” ProFest) within Roots in 2020, in cooperation with YMCA Netherlands and with engagement of partners from different parts of Europe and beyond to get together in Leusden, Netherlands and explore the shared history and legacy in the aftermath […]
There are quite a few reasons why Roots has been around for so long, but if to have those listed – accountability and innovation would definitely feature among others. Doing the job well is the key, of course – but getting your story out and in the right way are by means less important. With […]
…I felt very proud and excited to become one of the ‘Rooters’ with the Peace Work Institute in 2012 and for what is about to happen]and considered it a responsibility… We, young people have used this space to build relationships across cultural dividers… I come from Georgia. It is a small country with two red points on the […]
Upon applying for one of the Peace Work Institute, I was nervous and excited, I wasn’t sure what I would experience. Now, I can truly say each project has blown my expectations out of the water. I was met with wonderful, friendly, intelligent peacemakers who have now become my dear friends. I have learnt vastly about peace […]
I felt a bit privileged to be invited to participate in this Project (‘Give Peace a Chance’ – ROOTS Tandem Group Project – Istanbul, Turkey) as a guest because I was neither a Peace Work Institute participant, nor a Tandem Group member. As all my fellow friends, I had certain concerns about the visit to Turkey and the […]
Quite to my astonishment, the Peace Work Institute ‘happened’ to me, like all the best things in life, when I didn’t even know how much I needed them and what a significant impact they would have. I joined Peace Work Institute at the second training session in Berlin as a part of the Art4Peace project. Being a part of several YMCA TenSing […]
Before becoming a part of the Peace Work Institute family, I have heard about this project from my friends who were participating in the previous events held by the Roots. The stories they told, the emotions they had, the connections they kept with the international friends made me think of becoming one of them. I applied and got admitted. At first, I […]
I have been a member of YMCA Georgia since I was ten. My experience, in the beginning, was just camps, festivals and then volunteering. Once I found out about the second generation of Peace Work Institute and the chance of being its participant, the first thing I did was approaching one person that I knew from the first Peace Work Institute […]
