The official newsflash of Don Bosco Youth-Net ivzw

NF89 (September 2008)

News from the network - News from the partners - European Youth Forum

Info & public calls - Picture of the month

NEWS FROM THE NETWORK

Network meeting in October (23-26/10/2008)

We got some unfortunate news when returning from holiday.  Our application for our network meeting failed for the second time in Slovenia.  This means that we are currently looking for another way to organise the meeting.  Most likely we’ll organise the meeting in a bit of a different form in Munich.  At this moment we are still verifying if this will be possible.  We’ll send more information out, as soon as we know what will happen. 

In this way we would also like to thank our Slovenian partner for all the work done.  We will try to rework the project submitted, and see how their efforts will not be lost.

Open doors at new venue

On Wednesday the 3rd of September DBYN’s international secretariat together with Jeugddienst Don Bosco vzw are opening the doors of their new offices.  The new address is Naamsesteenweg 37, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium.  You’re all warmly invited to come over from 4 o’clock in the afternoon for a visit, an exhibition and some food and drinks. 

Project proposals

If you have a brilliant idea for a project, something you want to realise within Don Bosco Youth-Net ivzw, you can make a project proposal to our Administrative Body.  To do so, download our project proposal form from our website’s toolbox. Complete the form and send it to the international secretariat.  The international secretariat will add your project proposal to the agenda of the next meeting of the Administrative Body.  After the meeting, the Administrative Body will get back to you about their decision.

NEWS FROM THE PARTNERS

A window to Europe (Aktionszentrum Benediktbeuern – Germany) 

The youth exchange “A Window to Europe” brought together young people from 11 different European youth organisations together to get them acquainted with the way of doing youth work in different countries. Through different kind of sessions the participants actively exchanged experiences and information on how to deal with doing youth work in their countries. In this way they experienced how an exchange with a mixed group of European young people influences their lives. The project provided non-formal and informal learning opportunities with a European dimension for young people who start to get active in the international youth work.

To valorize the outcomes of the seminar the participants made a video report of the activity, which can be found on our youtube channel.  Next to that the participants brought together all the methods used during the week in a booklet.  This booklet can be downloaded from our website’s toolbox.

Vakantiebos 2008 (Don Bosco Youthnet Nederland – The Netherlands)

Don Bosco Youth Centre at Rijswijk, Holland came alive August 9th 2008 with the commencing of the Vakantiebos 2008 (Holiday Camp 2008) and concluded on August 31st. The theme chosen this year was  Crossing the Borders through Creative Play.  

Riding on the success of the previous camps and the enthusiastic response and fruit it bore, the Salesian Community at Rijswijk launched the project this year as well. This three week programme was aimed at bringing together the youth volunteers aged between 18 to 30 from eleven countries of Europe (Spain, Malta, Germany, Slovakia, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Belgium, Netherlands, and Scotland) as well as children and youth of the locality.

This summer package included many leisure time activities of entertainment and recreation besides value education and international encounter of European Youth Volunteers. It was not “just” an exchange, but a group-EVS (European Voluntary Service), which is a depth investment with moments of social engagement and spiritual growth. Concrete examples were the training day and the daily good night moments (reflection on the day and oneself). The EVS is a Voluntary Service initiative for young Europeans promoted by the Salesian Organisation "Don Bosco Youth Net". "Vakantiebos 2008" is one of several projects in which the EVS Volunteers have been involved this summer. 

EUROPEAN YOUTH FORUM

Call for Participants: Symposium on Youth Employment, 17 to 19 October 2008, Paris 

The European Youth Forum is organising a Symposium on Youth Employment, which will take place between the 17 and the 19 October in Paris.

Youth unemployment and precarious working conditions are one of the key challenges faced by young people nowadays. Paradoxically, being the best educated generations ever, young people today face enormous difficulties in entering the labour market and once in the labour market, they are faced with precarious working conditions. The Symposium on Employment is a key opportunity to get together institutional actors, policy makers, researchers and youth organisations in order to discuss this topic and possble solutions to it.   

The deadline for applications is on the 9th of September.  For further information contact the international secretariat.

A chance to highlight your work on development issues and sustainable development in general ! Call for contributions  

The European Youth Forum published the successful “Development Needs Youth” in 2006. It has been a useful tool for the YFJ, its Members and partners in the International Coordination Meeting of Youth Organisations (ICMYO) to present development issue pertaining to youth and the need for youth organizations to be involved and to take an active part in enhancing development goals.  The YFJ is now planning on updating the booklet to continue highlighting the importance of youth and youth organisations in reaching the Millenium Development Goals ( MDGs ) and other development objectives. 

The publication would therefore be both a support material for MOs to show the work youth organisations have done and are doing in the sustainable development field and also inspire other Member Organisations to work on the issue.  It would help increase the interest among NGOs and policy-makers of the importance of youth involvement in sustainable development strategies and achievement of the MDGs .

It would contain both a presentation of various sustainable development topics and examples of projects by youth organizations in the different sustainable fields (poverty, unemployment, education, health/HIV & AIDS, the MDGs , climate change and environment for instance).

We would therefore greatly appreciate it if you would send us your contributions which would highly enhance the value of the publication. 

The deadline for applications is on the 9th of September.  For further information contact the international secretariat.

INFO & PUBLIC CALLS

European Youth Foundation 

The next deadline for grant applications for Category A and B projects is on the 1st of October.  This is for project taking place between 1st of April and 31st of December 2009.  Youth NGOs wishing to present applications should refer to the priorities for the Council of Europe's youth sector for 2009, adopted by the Joint Council on Youth in March 2008.  Please read How to apply for a Category A or How to apply for a Category B for more information.  All additional information can be found on the European Youth Foundation’s website.

Photo exhibition "Intercultural dialogue without words" 

Send your photos showing a multicultural Europe! The best 30 pictures will be selected for a photo exhibition that will be shown at the same time all over Europe. The European Commission and SALTO Cultural Diversity Resource Centre work together to ensure that the EU's cultural diversity is understood, respected and promoted. We would like to show that people from different countries and cultures can live together in a multicultural Europe. So take part in the Year of Intercultural Dialogue and send your best picture!

More information and how to participate on http://www.salto-youth.net/photoexhibition/

ECML traineeships for January-June 2009 

The ECML offers traineeships for recent graduates with an excellent command of at least English and/or French.  Traineeships last 6 months (January to June or July to December) and candidates must apply for one of the three areas of the Centre’s work: its programme activities, its information and documentation services or its website. The Centre also offers traineeships in its administration once a year from September to February. More information on ECML web pages on traineeships.  Deadline for applications on the 30th of September.

Good practice event "Tool Fair 3", Canary Islands - Spain, 5-9 November 

Once again 100 people are expected!! Participants will come from both "Programme" and "Partner" countries, all stakeholders of the YOUTH IN ACTION programme: young people, youth workers, youth leaders, trainers, etc.

In one place, for 5 days, the Fair will be a "showroom" for the huge variety and richness of tools developed and used under the Youth in Action programme, a place to experiment with methods and exercises used within the different actions (youth exchanges, EVS, youth initiatives, trainings) and based on different themes (cultural diversity, inclusion, cooperation with partner countries, etc...). 

The Fair could become the creation of the participants themselves and enable their tools to be used throughout the programme. "know-How" will be gathered in order to create a "common memory".

• Organisers: SALTO Euromed, EECA and SEE and Spanish National Agency of the YiA programme
• Working language: English
• Age limit: none
• Participant's cost: none
• Deadline: 16 September 2008
• More details and Application form here!

Training Course "COME (COnflict ManagEment for different actors in EVS projects)", Prague - Czech Republic, 7-13 November

COME (COnflict ManagEment for different actors in EVS projects) is an international training course for coordinators and mentors in EVS projects, who are in direct contact with EVS volunteers in different countries.  The aim is the improvement of the quality of the EVS hosting projects by developing the competencies in analyzing and dealing with conflicts.

Objectives:

1. to clarify the roles of all partners in EVS projects (SO, HO, volunteer, NA) with main focus on rights and responsibilities of the co-ordinators and mentors
2. to raise awareness of possible reasons leading to conflicts in EVS projects
3. to further develop understanding of cultural differences of the participants in EVS projects
4. to share experience in EVS projects
5. to explore a new features of EVS under Youth in Action

• Organiser: Czech National Agency of the YiA programme
• Working language: English
• Age limit: none
• Participant's cost: none
• Deadline: 26 September 2008
• More details and Application form here!

PICTURE OF THE MONTH

This picture was taken at the group EVS project in The Netherlands