What a journey! In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, a new approach to fostering youth participation was launched in the network of Generation Europe – The Academy. Since then, a comprehensive training and exchange programme is empowering young people from the more than 40 partner organisations to take on more responsibility in their local groups and in European networking.
With this support, they have become the network’s Ambassadors – mentors for the other youngsters and multipliers for the interests of young people in Europe. A good three years after the kick-off, the Ambassadors from 14 European countries have now met in Hattingen, Germany, for this year’s conference. For five days, they looked back on their work and planned their future collaboration.
The step from an active participant in international youth encounters and member of a local youth group to a peer educator who also passes on knowledge to enable others to engage in activism is associated with an interesting development of one’s own role. Enabling this while ensuring co-operation on an equal footing is one of the central aims of the Ambassador network.
Youth Work, Activism and Peer Education
Those attending this year’s conference experienced at first hand how peer-to-peer education works. Never before since the start of the programme have so many new Ambassadors taken part, who are in the process of taking this step themselves and can benefit from the experiences that the others have gained over the past few years. So self-organised workshop sessions formed an important part of the conference programme, in which the Ambassadors introduced each other to self-developed and tried-and-tested methods for team building, youth work and dealing with topics such as anti-discrimination and democracy.
Self-Organisation Also Needs Professionals
The entire process is guided and curated by an experienced team of youth workers who have taken on this task for the International Association for Education and Exchange (IBB e.V.). Another key aspect is to enable the Ambassadors to become advocates for their own concerns – for example, for the demands and projects with which the local groups campaign for positive change in their communities.
Strengthening Youth Groups Against Crisis
In order to remain active in challenging times, young people also need strategies to deal with frustration and obstacles. Here too, the Ambassador network provides a space for sharing experiences and learning, from which local groups across Europe and their associated youth organisations can benefit. IBB e.V., which coordinates the overall programme, and the more than 40 European partner organisations are actively committed to ensuring that this proven concept of strengthening the participation and development of young people as active citizens can be continued and further developed beyond 2025.
More Impressions from the Ambassador Conference 2024:
