Moving forward together

As 2013 draws to a close, this EYCAtcher is perfectly timed to focus on the main areas for development for EYCA over the next year. This edition is something of a mid-term report between the last conference and the next.

Mollina 2013 GA and conference marked a turning point, setting a new direction for EYCA and defining new strategic ways forward which will include all EYCA members. So rather than a round-up of members’ practice, this EYCAtcher aims to convey some of the exciting and inspiring work that’s already been done and highlight next steps for us all.

Already, members have said that this process is giving older members a new perspective and newer members a real sense of ownership and empowerment.
The bottom line is that all the actions described in this EYCAtcher have been informed by, and designed by, EYCA members. The series of seminars planned over the next couple of months give every EYCA member a chance to get involved in the development and delivery of, in particular, the following key pieces of work.

·      Brand development
·      Maximising impact
·      Rewards
·      Discount development
·      Partial agreement

May 2014, believe it or not, will be our 30^th conference and is an ideal opportunity to celebrate how far we’ve come and look forward to new directions and developments.
 
Jarkko Lehikoinen
EYCA President

Meet the board members

 

• Drazen Gecevic – Regional group board member of the Mediterranean group, responsible for GA preparations
• Bjorn Boon – Regional group board member for the Rivergroup, responsible for the brand development and vision review
• Jonas Levin – Regional group board member for Baltic and Nordic countries, responsible for online discounts development

 
What are you most looking forward to in your role as an EYCA Board Member?
Drazen - Working with interesting people from around Europe and witnessing and being part of the EYCA’s success story in the near future.     
Bjorn - The professionalisation of the association is one of the key challenges over the next few years. The process is already running and I would me more than happy to contribute to new developments in this area.
Jonas – Supplying energy to EYCA for growth of card-members.
 
Describe your present house...
Drazen  - A cosy flat in a nice neighborhood in a Zagreb suburb. It’s dominated by the living room that is designed to relax in with my wife and enjoy reading, listening to music and watching films. And, of course, having good times with friends.       
Bjorn - I live in a old factory in Ghent – a very old building with lots of charm.
Jonas – Nice house outside Gothenburg 12 kilometres from work filled with good family members.

What would you save if it went on fire?      
Drazen - Besides my wife and myself?! Most probably the backup disc for my media centre with our music and movie collection and photo archive. These are my memories. Other things are replaceable, wouldn’t risk too much to get them out of the fire.
Bjorn - I am not attached to things, so burn, baby, burn!
Jonas – Family and one painting.

Most recent download?
Drazen  - Fast Stone Image Viewer and Damon Albarn’s album, “Mali Music” (2002). This album is the result of collaboration with fantastic musicians like Afel Bocoum, Toumani Diabate, Ko Kan Ko Sata Doumbia and came about from Albarn’s support for Oxfam’s educational projects.
Bjorn - Josh Rouse
Jonas - The Kite Runner

Favourite childhood memory?
Drazen - Scoring three goals in a football match finals and my first falling in love
Jonas – Long summers on the sea in a sailboat.

Favourite food?
Drazen - Grilled fresh fish, “buzara” shrimps, spaghetti with tomato salsa.
Bjorn - Italian and Asian, difficult to choose…
Jonas – Black pudding, lingo berry jam and a glass of cold milk.

Favourite place to relax?
Drazen - Croatian islands.
Bjorn  - The beach.
Jonas – In the boat.

One big hope for EYCA over the next three years?
Drazen - Having member organisations in Germany and France.
Bjorn - Growing more synergy and finding a big common target we can all cling to.
Jonas – Double the amount of young people with EYCA Cards.

EUROPEAN YOUTH CARD BRAND – GETTING IT RIGHT FOR THE FUTURE

EYCA members from all five member groups will give a kick-start to the EYCA brand development working group in Brussels on 8-10 of December in Brussels.
 
EYCA’s board member Bjorn Boon from CJP Belgium (FL) is responsible for EYCA brand and communication work. He says that “This is the opportunity for all members to be engaged in the process of reviewing and developing the EYCA brand. Members have identified this is needed specifically to clarify the difference between EYCA the organisation and EYC the card; revisit our vision and mission and check for relevance and clarity; communicate what we are doing clearly and effectively”.
 
In addition he says “Members recognize that EYCA’s current work programmes are driven by ideas about the vision and mission that stem directly from the founding definitions of the European Youth Card and the Association itself. This vision needs to be discussed more fully, particularly with newer members and with people who have more recently joined established member organisations, to ensure that it is still relevant and it is expressed and communicated in ways that are meaningful to all”.
 
It is vital that EYCA conveys, clearly and effectively, its vision, mission and values to all stakeholders, including European agencies, national partners, large and small businesses and, most importantly, to a community of over 5 million young cardholders across Europe. That can only be achieved if EYCA member organisations define and communicate a brand, which is meaningful and adds value to what they already want to achieve in relation to youth mobility and active citizenship.
 
This working group meeting will be the first step in a process that will conclude at the EYCA 2014 GA in Croatia. Following the first meeting there will be a round of surveys, consultations and discussions involving all members and stakeholders. A draft brand management and communications strategy to be presented for discussion at the regional meetings before being presented at the GA in May 2014.

HERE COMES MI2!

The 2013 GA in Mollina included inputs from member organisations who have been successfully supported through the Maximising Impact programme and are now making positive progress. Office staff and board members have provided them with support through detailed analysis and discussion, Skype calls and a rolling programme of feedback, occasional meetings and rapid response.
 
As well as this, members involved in the process have said the opportunity to meet and exchange good practice with other members at focussed meetings and seminars was extremely valuable. So now it is time for Maximising Impact Phase Two – MI2 - which will be the subject of the EYCA working group on 3-4 December in Vienna.

Vladimir Jedlicka together with the regional group board members has been responsible for the maximising impact programme since it was launched in 2010. Vladimir explains that the MI2 will continue to focus on three main areas:

• supporting associate member organisations during their first year of EYCA membership.
• helping member organisations reach and exceed the minimum Quality Standards.
• supporting members to work towards reaching EYCA Standards of Excellence.

The Maximising Working group meeting in Vienna in December gathers participants from member organisations, some have already been part of the MI programme, some not. They will work together to develop tools and practical training materials including the following:

• A self-assessment/peer assessment tool for the Standards of Excellence.
• Developing a tutoring programme for Associate members.
• A members’ support and learning kit.

In addition, they will examine some of the big quality issues that have faced EYCA for a number of years: reciprocity; age limits; quality assurance and brand recognition. You will be hearing lots more about their work in the coming months.

REWARDS FOR EUROPEAN YOUTH CARD HOLDERS - DO STUFF, GET STUFF!

The principle of the Young Scot’s Rewards Programme is simple: young people who take part in positive activities earn points, which they can use to claim rewards. Far from being simple prizes the rewards are fun, original and motivating, and often ‘money-can’t buy’ experiences. Participants can currently use their points to job-shadow a marketing executive or to feed the only two polar bears in UK.

Discount development discussions at the EYCA GA identified Young Scot’s Rewards Programme as an important tool to make the European Youth Card more useful to young people, as well as creating more effective opportunities for Governments and other partners to engage with young people through youth cards.
 
In order to help EYCA member organisations understand and consider using this innovative approach, EYCA and Young Scot have prepared a seminar in Edinburgh taking place 16-17 January 2014.
 
David McNeill Rewards and Entitlements Director of Young Scot tells “The idea for Young Scot Rewards originally came from young people, who wanted to turn their youth card into a loyalty card for doing positive activities, such as healthy eating and volunteering. We responded to this request and it has helped us enhance the value of the card to young people, as well as providing new opportunities for our partners.”
 
Director of EYCA Bob Forsyth adds that “The seminar we are doing in cooperation with Yong Scot in January will give all members the opportunity to understand the overall approach and purpose of the Rewards Programme. Rewards is an innovative approach to add value to the youth card for young people, and is an approach which clearly supports the EYCA vision to promote and develop youth mobility and active citizenship.”
 
This seminar will help Member organisations understand the technicalities of making this approach work:

• Securing points providers
• Securing rewards
• Connections to the card
• Web technology
• Marketing and promotion
• Resources – what does this cost?

 More news will follow soon after the seminar in January.

PILOT INITIATIVE FOR PAN-EUROPEAN ONLINE DISCOUNTS

EYCA is taking another step forward towards developing Europe-wide online discounts in partnership with member organisations. Building on a European agreement with Mecenat, the EYCA member in Sweden, the next step will be to pilot partnerships with individual member organisations. These partnerships will identify how Mecenat’s existing discount platform technology can add value to members’ existing opportunities and services.

Participation in the pilot initiative will also focus on building member organisations’ capacity to communicate discounts and opportunities more effectively. “Developing quality discounts and benefits is core business for many EYCA member organisations. But we operate in an increasingly competitive discounts environment. It is important that EYCA discount development supports a Unique Selling Proposition for EYCA and European Youth Cards: discounts need to clearly reflect EYCA mission and values and be directly connected to youth mobility and active citizenship,” explains Jonas Levin the managing director of Mecenat.

Building EYCA’s online discount capability needs to develop hand-in-hand with the development of CCDB technology. Equally, communicating EYCA discounts needs to be integrated with the brand development strategy. EYCA Board and Mecenat are currently drafting partnership agreements and identifying criteria for selecting pilot partners.

EYCA SUPPORTING GOVERNMENT RESPONSES TO INCLUSIVE YOUTH MOBILITY

Youth mobility is a current priority for policy makers with an interest in youth issues in Europe. With youth unemployment reaching crisis proportions in many parts of Europe, policy makers on a European level are concerned about the long-term impact on young people and on future economic success for all.

Some national policy makers have deep concerns about “brain drain” as young people leave in search of new opportunities, whilst companies in some parts of Europe report skill shortages and the need for more suitably qualified young people.

But it is not only economic or labour market agendas that drive policy makers’ concerns about youth mobility. Non-formal learning from mobility experiences also impacts on young peoples skills and attitudes towards other cultures, minorities and social norms. Mobility serves to broaden young people’s horizons and to help contribute to tolerant societies.

Political unrest within Europe, sometimes – but not always – connected to economic challenges, also has many potential impacts on youth mobility. We are yet to feel or understand the full, longer-term impacts on youth mobility in Europe from political unrest in Europe but also other parts of the world, including near-neighbour developments such as those unleashed in the Arab Spring. Youth mobility affects all young people, including those with fewer opportunities.

Youth mobility has an impact on other stakeholders across civil society and in the business sector. To a large extent, these stakeholders also have a strong commitment to creating a better understanding on youth mobility issues. Governments want constructive opportunities to encounter thinkers from these sectors and debate youth mobility issues more widely and devise more effective solutions.

EYCA has a long history in Europe supporting youth mobility through the youth cards including cooperation with the Council of Europe since 1991 to deliver a work programme related to the Partial Agreement on Youth Mobility through the Youth Card.

In October this year, the Partial Agreement Coordinating Board approved a two-year work programme “Inclusive Youth Mobility 2014-2015”. The emphasis for this new work programme is supporting governments to develop better knowledge and policy responses to youth mobility issues.

The work programme, which EYCA will deliver, includes seminars for EYCA member organisations along with Governments and other partners. Seminars will also be used to generate more evidence and case studies relating to youth mobility issues. The intention is that this work programme helps support EYCA member organisations in their work with Governments and other partners to have more impact on young people.

Detailed plans for this programme will follow in the new year.

Jarkko Lehikoinen
EYCA President

NEWS AND SHORTS

EYCA PHOTO COMPETITION WINNERS

We are proud to present to you the five winners of the EYCA "Mobility in the Mind" photo competition that was held in October among all European Youth Card holders.

Here are cardholders from five different countries who were the best at capturing what mobility represents to them.

• Sara from Italy
• Larisa from Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Beti from Spain
• Julita from Poland
• Anastasiya from Ukraine

Their photos are also illustrating this EYCAtcher newsletter in the order of appearance as listed above. 

These five young people win a Hostelbookers travel prize worth 100 euros and can book accommodation for that value at any travel destination they choose.

Visit EYCA.org website to see all the entries. Thank you for everyone who sent their photos!

Winners have been contacted by e-mail.

Online Activists from EYCA Member Organisations Supporting the No Hate Speech Movement

The Council of Europe Youth Centre in Strasbourg hosted at the beginning of November a seminar for the No Hate Speech Movement online activists to recognize and celebrate their work and to plan together the activities for the rest of the campaign in 2014. 

Five young activists from EYCA member organisations in Slovenia, Poland, Luxembourg, Spain and Finland worked together with 30 young volunteers across Europe on a vision for secure hate free online spaces for young people.
 
Željka Sokolić from MOBIN Slovenia who was one of the participants explains “Online activists are young volunteers for the campaign who are divided into several task groups. Their main role is to create and maintain an active community around the campaign online platform and to support the campaign to reach out with its initiatives to as many young people as possible”.
 
Mobin, Institute for Youth Mobility and Information, which provides the European Youth Card in Slovenia, is a part of the national campaign committee of the No Hate Speech Movement.  Zeljka tells “We are active in online and offline activities, publishing articles on actions, promoting the movement at our events. MOBIN made a video clip with a Slovenian “ambassador” of the movement – famous rapper Zlatko. We were also involved in organizing a flash mob with Zlatko on the main square in Ljubljana. And last but not least we launched a special edition of the European Youth Card with a No Hate Speech Movement design, as EYCA is also actively supporting the implementation of the campaign”.
 
By now the campaign is promoted in 37 member states of the Council of Europe where the governments have created a national coordination committee (NCC). In many countries besides Slovenia EYCA members belong to the NCC to fight against hate speech in partnership on an organized level.

Željka Sokolić
MOBIN
Institute for Youth Mobility and Information
Slovenia

SPECIAL EDITION OF NO HATE SPEECH EUROPEAN YOUTH CARDS

STRUCTURED DIALOGUE WITH YOUTH UNDER GREEK EU PRESIDENCY

The Trio Presidency – Ireland, Lithuania and Greece – together with the European Commission and the European Youth Forum agreed Social Inclusion as the overarching theme for the 18 months from January 2013 to end June 2014. Many EYCA members have contributed to the outreach of the consultations to European Youth Card holders throughout the whole process.

Now Greece is concluding the 18-month cycle with the third phase of the structured dialogue by focusing on concrete recommendations for policy actions for the social inclusion of all young people. Greek Presidency is emphasising youth entrepreneurship, including in the area of cultural richness and creativity, as a means to achieving young people’s autonomy and contribute to their social inclusion.

In most member states the third consultation round will be launched within the period of December and January with a view to submitting the national consultation results to the national governments by Tuesday 11th of February 2014.

For more information contact the National Youth Council in your country or visit the European Youth Portal!

COUNCIL OF EUROPE ROMA YOUTH ACTION PLAN

EYCA took part at the Council of Europe Summer University held in August in Kosice in Slovakia concentrated around Roma Youth in Europe. It was a chance to learn in-depth about this important but difficult subject and see practical examples of innovative projects in action. The issues of Roma young people are a priority for CoE and you can find out more about it in the Action Plan for Roma Youth in Europe.

EYCA MEMBERS WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUTH MOBILITY AND ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP

Our main programme activity in summer was the Council of Europe sponsored study session, Partnerships for Youth Mobility and Active Citizenship, held in the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg for four intensive learning days in July.

The purpose of the study session was to support EYCA member organisations to consider youth mobility and active citizenship and to provide better information and opportunities to young people across Europe.
Thirty participants from ten countries came together to explore practical ways their organisations could work in partnership with governments, National Youth Councils and youth information providers to raise the profile of youth mobility issues.

The full report and presentations can be found in EYCA intranet under the section of events.

NETWORKING

Three networks – Presidents and Directors of the three networks met in Brussels and agreed to meet every six months to share information.

EYCA office met with the European Youth Forum to look at co-operation on Structured Dialogue, European Parliament 2014 elections and potential involvement of EYCA in the future European Youth House initiative.

EYCA GENERAL ASSEMBLIES

EYCA GA 2014 will take place in Croatia from 15-18 May. The focus will be on strategies for EYCA brand development and for future communication of our vision and mission. GA 2015 will be held in Göteborg, Sweden.