The official name of our network is Don Bosco Youth-Net ivzw. Those last 4 letters stand for ‘Internationale Vereniging Zonder Winstoogmerk’. This is Dutch for ‘international non-profit organisation.  This refers to the registration of our network under Belgian legislation. This recognition is important, because it determines our governance structures. 

A standard non-profit organisation can have natural persons and legal entities as members; an international one can only have legal entities (organisations). This means that the statutory bodies, which are responsible for the policy development of our network, consists only of member organisations.  In order to determine our strategy, they put together a 3-year-period 'Master Plan'.  In order to develop the strategic priorities into action, DBYN puts together working groups of young volunteers. They develop the actions of the network. The statutory bodies have the responsibility to assure the actions developed by the working groups, also achieve the impact envisioned in the Master Plan.  The international secretariat has the responsibility to support both the working group in the development of their actions, as the statutory bodies in achieving the impact envisioned in the Master Plan.

GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE