YMCA Europe has a long history of working on peace and youth, thanks to the amazing work done by our Roots for Peace Programme.
We believed it was time to go beyond programmes, and to bring the expertise we developed to the work with other youth NGOs, straight into advocacy territory.
To do so, we joined the European Youth Forum Network on Youth, Peace and Security, nominating as our delegate Jonathan Van Varik, head of the international committee of YMCA Nederland, and strongly involved with the Roots for Peace.
Jonathan participated to the very first meeting of the Youth, Peace and Security Network on the 11th of June.
This one-hour-meeting served to introduce all the delegates making up this group. It was also meant to set up the networks’ aims and goals and to discuss the practical form these meetings will take.
Participants and delegates got to know each other and the organisations they represent, but also the activities related to peace and security their organisation oversee.
Jonathan presented the youth and peace work of YMCA Europe, noting how it would be great to have even more YMCAs who work on the topic connected to the Network.
The aims of the Network group are:
- networking people involved in similar corners of this work,
- give a way to exchange information of each other’s projects, and
- draft joint memo’s, policy papers, statements and more.
Meetings will likely be organised as regularly as every two months, allowing the delegates to update each other and plan joint actions with frequency.
If you would like your work on Youth, Peace and Security to take advantage of the work of the Network, please contact us at info[at]ymcaeurope.com
