Reviving youth engagement in Greece
Crisis and youth
Nowadays Greece is facing a financial crisis that has
multiple effects on society, while Europe in general tries to identify or
reconsider its position on the world. Many support that there is lack of core
values in Europe, such as solidarity and respect between nations and states.
Young activists try to prove them wrong! They organize themselves, cooperate
smoothly, promote youth mobility and take various solidarity initiatives. They
fight against populism and extremism by all means; they build tomorrow’s Europe
by acting immediately today when and where needed.
Volunteering rise in Greece
Youth is one the most affected groups by the crisis in
Greece. Youth unemployment rate stands at about 60% and young people’s future
perspectives are grim, at best. Thousands of young people emigrated searching
for better job opportunities and living conditions; the risk of a brain drain
is clearly visible in the near future.
On the other side, the crisis led to a flowering of
civil society and volunteering-based initiatives. New initiatives came out and
many innovative youth-led projects implemented. Young people have to be
nowadays adaptable in order to overcome the challenges and barriers they face.
One of this successful youth initiatives will be presented in this article:
Youthnet Hellas.
Youthnet Hellas: How it all
started
In 2009 a handful of motivated young people from all
over Greece decided to channel their vitality and energy in a new youth-led
NGO, while making use of their rich experiences and useful knowledge on Youth
Policies, European Mobility Programmes and Volunteering. They established “Youthnet
Hellas”, a non-governmental organisation that aims to engage young people at
different levels through innovative activities, and to promote young people’s
active participation, information, social inclusion and active citizenship in
community life. It soon became one of the most active and popular youth NGOs in
Greece!
Youthnet Hellas’ specific goals include:
- enhancing the role of young people in decision-making processes;
- endorsing the development and implementation of policies supporting children’s and young people’s rights;
- encouraging environment-friendly activities;
- advocating for the respect and advancement of democracy, peace, diversity and human rights;
- strengthening of democratic values and human rights;
- encouraging exchange mobility and multicultural dialogue among young people regardless of their nationality.
Innovation in practice
Youthnet Hellas was innovative since its very first
moments. It operates as an online organisation and thus an environment-friendly
NGO. It doesn’t use offices, it consists only of volunteers and has never
received any state funding. Its members and volunteers live in almost every
city of Greece, from little islands and border villages to towns and big
cities. Youthnet Hellas already counts more than 350 members and hundreds of
active volunteers!
The flexible online way of operating gives the
advantage to work with young people from villages and remote areas that don’t
have access to any other organisations, projects, initiatives or activities. It
gives them the chance to stay informed about youth policies, be more active in
their community and take local initiatives.
The organisation’s website and social media pages are
used as platforms to inform young people for all the formal and non-formal
education opportunities available in Greece and Europe, as well internships and
work opportunities. So far, more than 9000 young Greeks follow the news on
social media and more than 15000 visit the website daily. The last years, more
than 600 young people participated in more than 180 EU funded programmes. In
2014 only, 121 young people (in 35 projects) benefited from these funds!
Recognition at European level
Although working on a voluntary basis, Youthnet Hellas
has an important presence, as well as distinctions in European level. Its
actions are well recognised abroad in various ways. In 2013 Youthnet Hellas was
awarded the European Citizen’s Prize by the European Parliament and the UNESCO
label at UNESCO’s 8th Youth Forum in 2013 for the project “Training for
Developing Youth Reporting Capacities”. The continuous efforts of its members
and volunteers, and the implementation of innovative activities led to another
prize in 2015, namely the “NGO of the Year” laureate at the European Democratic
Citizenship Awards organised by European Civic Forum. In addition, Youthnet
Hellas is the only Greek NGO member of the Advisory Council on Youth of the
Council of Europe for the 2014-2015 mandate.
All these awards recognized mainly the innovative work
that has been done during the writing of the “Greek Youth Policy Report” over
the last four years, and the significant efforts to promote the educational
mobility of young people in Europe.
Greek youth policy reporting
The absence of national initiatives and campaigns for
young people is visible in Greece, so the youth-led organisation, need to step
in and provide even more support to young people. During the last years
Youthnet Hellas works hard on it and has already influenced the national youth
policies by publishing the “Greek Youth Policy Report” annually since 2010.
In this report’s pages, the situation in the youth
field in Greece is reflected every year. It highlights the well-organised work
done in the youth field, and promotes the main actions and activities
implemented by Greek NGOs and youth institutions. Thus, these organisations can
see their work and efforts recognized. The report is not only published online,
but is also available in printed version in public and university libraries
across the country, giving it more prestige and publicity.
Youth policy reporting know-how
transfer
Youthnet Hellas strongly believes and works towards a
closer cooperation between stakeholders, actors and organizations in the youth
field. Developing sustainable synergies among youth-led NGOs would empower more
young people globally in a long-term period. Thus, know-how transfer between
youth organizations and other relevant institutions is valuable to achieve this
goal.
For this reason, the project “Training for Developing
Youth Reporting Capacities (You.Re.Ca.)” was implemented on July 2015. 50 young
people from 41 countries were given a trained in order to develop capacities so
that they are able to create their own countries’ Youth Policy Reports.
Experienced trainers transferred this valuable know-how to young people with
the aim to develop similar initiatives in their countries.
The You.Re.Ca. project was sponsored by UNESCO and the
State of Kuwait and was one of the 15 projects awarded the UNESCO label at
UNESCO’s 8th Youth Forum in 2013 out of the 1532 totally submitted projects
from around the world. Following its great success, the You.Re.Ca. project was
presented during the 9th UNESCO Youth Forum in Paris and the Social Innovation
and Global Ethics Forum 2015 in Geneva!
Defending Human Rights and
combating hate speech
Youthnet Hellas is a European-oriented organisation
that represents most of the core European values in Greece. Active youth
participation is its most important sector, while it is active also to values
such as respect of human rights, freedom of speech and democratic dialogue. In
the past, Youthnet Hellas has contributed a lot with its projects and initiatives
in other values such as tolerance and non-discrimination, minority rights and
gender equality.
The absence of a National Campaign Committee, led
Youthnet Hellas to become a partner of the Council of Europe’s “No Hate Speech
Movement” campaign and run it in Greece, by creating a Facebook page and
promoting the campaign online in Greek language. Already more than 2,000 people
have been informed about this important campaign and many awareness raising
activities are planned for the next months throughout Greece.
Looking towards the future
As the 2015 reaches to the end, Youthnet Hellas plans
its future activities having in mind young people’s needs and expectations in
Greece. It is of high importance to defend human rights and democracy in the
times of crisis and Youthnet Hellas will have a leading role in it. Many
projects are planned and will be implemented soon, including support mechanisms
for young refugees, anti-bullying campaigns and many more. We all strive
towards a better and fairer future for Europe’s young generations!
Το παρόν άρθρο δημοσιεύτηκε στο 2ο τεύχος του διεθνούς περιοδικού Activizenship
