One youth encounter, three destinations: As one of the last international meetings of this year, young people from Germany, Italy and Greece recently came together in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. During ten days, they also travelled to Strasbourg, France. It was an exciting journey through “communities, Europe, and everything in between”, as the title of the encounter already has promised. A report by Jovanna Schneider, International Forum Burg Liebenzell.
We we welcomed the groups from Italy and Greece in Bad Liebenzell, the homebase of the International Forum in the Black Forest. Everyone could enjoy a first evening together in the rustic “Burgschenke”, the tavern of Liebenzell Castle. The castle is managed by our organisation and used as an academy for civic education and youth exchange.
Arriving on the castle
In this setting, we reconnected with each other, and laid the foundations for new friendships, as all three partner organisations have seen some changes among their participants since last year, when the groups met on the island of Sardinia, home of our Italian partner organisation Associazione Interculturale NUR. The youngsters quickly made new friends, but dearly missed those who couldn’t make it this time. In the afternoon, we took a trip to Calw, about ten minutes by train from the castle, to get to know the lovely old town and birthplace of famous German writer Hermann Hesse.
The second day saw the start of the work on our topics: There were activities on stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination as well as a scenario workshop on ways to stand up against discriminatory behaviour in our daily lives. We can highly recommend working with the classic TED Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, called “The Danger of a Single Story”. The youngsters had to work hard on that day, but were rewarded with pizza in the evening.
The morning activity on the third day was a bit of an experiment: The youngsters entered a dystopian parallel reality, where they now were citizens of six countries in a post-war chaos. Would they realise that they need to cooperate to successfully rebuild their homes? Yes – in their own time. There was some frustration first, since the method only allowed them to whisper to the inhabitants of their own parallel world country. They were not allowed to talk across borders without applying for a visa to make an official visit first. But in the end, they enjoyed the experience, and so did the team of youth leaders.
State of the Union
This simulation game was the beginning of one and a half days that were dedicated to the topics of Europe and the EU. We talked about the institutions, history, values and youth participation in the European Union. This thematic part of the encounter was rounded off with a screening of the documentary film Generation Ukraine. We’re greateful that Katia Henrikh, one of the producers of the documentary, visited us and answered all the participants’ questions after the screening and on the next morning. During this time, also IBB project manager Claudia Gerbaud arrived on site. Thank you, Claudia, for your commitment, whether it was in long overdue in-person meetings, or about telling the youngsters everything about Generation Europe – The Academy!
We spent the next day and a half on the groups’ local activities, and were able to make considerable progress on all three projects. The youngsters worked hard and presented impressive results after the sessions, probably fueled by what they had heard from their international partners. In fact, all three groups are working on very different projects. During the exchange, they were able to gain a lot of added value from the feedback and suggestions they received.
Connect European: On our way to Strasbourg
Then, it was finally time for the big first big move of the youth encounter: We took the train (or more like three trains) to Strasbourg, home to the European Parliament. Over there, we took part in a strategic game within the Parliament, including discussions among the different EP groups, topical committees and in the plenary. The youngsters had to give speeches and negotiate, react to a crisis scenario, and had to meet up with lobbyists. Luckily, they forgave us the early start, and enjoyed the programme. Afterwards, we visited the plenary hall and finally took a long walk through the European quarter while having a scavenger hunt.
On the next day, we had to get up even earlier, since we headed back to Germany, to spend our last three days together in Stuttgart. There, we tackled topics such as youth participation on the local level, linking opportunities of youngsters to get involved in local activities to marginalised perspectives in urban areas. This included an impressive city walk in Stuttgart, where we learnt about the everyday lives of people without shelter, homeless children and other marginalised groups. The walk was cold, a little wet and tough, but really rewarding.
Experiences that are going to last
On the last full day, we had a guest from the local youth council who told us about her work. We spent the afternoon playing Quararo (a game on decision-making and democracy), trying German kebab and making good use of the football field across the street from our seminar room. And then, on the next day, it was time to say goodbye. But our last full day was a happy one: We had a great reflection session and spent the evening in a small bar, where one of the German participants‘ dad gave a concert (thanks to Eliana for organising it!). He is Greek, so the evening was the perfect end to our ten days together.
All in all, we had a challenging programme, considering that we had some unforeseen changes in all three groups since the last youth encounter. Taking this into account, we could not be prouder of our groups for what they achieved during this exchange. The youngsters reconnected immediately and even the new members of the group blended in extremely positively and fast. We as the team of youth leaders cannot appreciate enough how welcoming the kids were towards each other! We want to thank everyone involved in this exchange – the youngsters, all facilitators and youth leaders, and of course the amazing IBB team for making Generation Europe – The Academy such a valuable and positive project. See you all at the Network Conference and the youth encounter next year! 😊