The EYCAtcher is the bimonthly newsletter of the European Youth Card Association.
EYCAtcherEYCA_logo.jpg September 2012 - Cooperation with governments

Introduction from Director Bob Forsyth


Summer is over! Let the real work commence!
 
This edition of EYCAtcher is full of stories from member organisations about building partnerships with government at regional and national levels. Partnerships between EYCA member organisations and government are a good thing because it helps raise the overall profile of European Youth Cards within that country. Effective partnerships with government can increase the sustainability of EYCA member organisations.
 
But most importantly, by developing programmes in partnership with governments, EYCA Member Organisations are able to make a much bigger impact on youth mobility and active citizenship for young people than they would be able to make by themselves. Promoting integration for young refugees in Malta, working with schools to promote better access to culture in Netherlands or cooperating with the Federal Ministry in Austria to promote careers and training in the tourism sector are only three examples of EYCA Member Organisations working with governments to utilise European Youth Cards to improve outcomes for young people. In this truly international edition of EYCAtcher there are reports on members across Europe from Finland to Ukraine.
 
On a European level EYCA continues to develop relationships with Governments through its involvement in the European Steering Committee for Youth (CDEJ) with the Council of Europe. Partnership with the European Commission includes ongoing contribution to the development of ideas for Youth On the Move Card Package. With the Impact Assessment phase completed an announcement of possible ways forward will be made later this year.
 
Partnerships need to include more than governments. EYCA’s partnership with HostelBookers is reported in this edition of EYCAtcher. The EYCA Board is working to identify other significant partnerships for EYCA to support members to achieve more for youth mobility and active citizenship. More on that and on EYCA’s 2013 learning programme will be reported in the next edition.
 
Interviews with two Board members give insights into some of the future directions for EYCA’s strategy.
 
Finally and importantly: EYCA members are working together to exchange knowledge and information with each other. Study visits are planned involving Member Organisations from Serbia, Catalunya, Poland and Scotland. Hopefully we can extract reports from these initiatives for you soon.
 
See you all soon. Happy autumn!
Bob

Country feature: Malta


Aġenzija Żgħażagħ, a public agency established by the Prime Minister of Malta, became an EYCA member in February 2012 and will launch the European Youth Card in Malta in October. The card design has been finalized, window stickers are being printed and a discount booklet is planned. The card will be promoted to 7,000 young people during the first week of University and to many more young people through Maltese youth organisations. Enquiries have already been received from interested young people on Aġenzija Żgħażagħ’s portal and Facebook page. More than 100 benefits are uploaded to the EYCA database.
 
Apart from the Youth Card, Aġenzija Żgħażagħ runs two activity centres, one in Marsaxlokk and one in Dingli. These centres are for youth organizations, associations and groups to organize exchanges, seminars, meetings and workshops, group sessions, indoor and outdoor activities. July saw the opening of the first Youth Cafe in Malta at Qawra. The Agency also organised an art exhibition entitled Divergent Thinkers, bringing together the work of young artists in Malta.
 As part of its empowerment programme, Aġenzija Żgħażagħ is teaming up with the organisers of the Malta Music Awards to create space for an upcoming singer or band. Its project with SOS Malta, Youth Upbeat, aims to promote integration between Maltese young people and young refugees.
 
Isabelle Mallia is the new youth officer for the youth card. Davynya Grech who has together with Miriam Teuma worked on the card from the beginning is going on study leave. Good luck, Davynya and welcome, Isabelle!

Partnerships: HostelBookers


Throughout June to August, EYCA member organisations cooperated with HostelBookers.com - the number one website on accommodation in youth hostels and cheap hotels in over 3,500 destinations worldwide - to help young people get mobile in Europe by having access to inexpensive accommodation.

With the European Youth Card, young people got a 50 % discount on the prepayment of the booking. During the three months pilot project, a total of 455 bookings were made through HostelBookers cooperation with EYCA member organisations. A big thank you goes out to all card organizations who promoted the discounts and especially to those who were successful in reaching large numbers of cardholders: Austria, Spain-Catalunya, Finland, Poland.
Bob Forsyth will shortly meet the HostelBookers team in London to discuss how to continue and expand this offer for young travellers in future.

The cultural card back on the scene in the Netherlands


Following the very successful Cultuurkaart project, CJP invested much time and effort into negotiating with their government to sponsor cultural participation projects aimed at the target group of 12-18 year olds and Cultuurkaart 2.0 project has already been awarded large-scale support by the parliament for the upcoming school year 2012/2013.
 
“CJP introduced a new and smart business model of the Cultuurkaart after the government terminated the previous contract,” says Walter Groenen, CJP’s Director. “The Cultuurkaart will continue as a voluntary cooperation project between schools and cultural institutions, where the costs are divided.”
 
Schools will pay 2 EUR per card with the possibility to add a 10 EUR cultural budget from their own resources. If they do so, schools will get a 5 EUR bonus added to the budget and the cardholder will have 15 EUR on his/her card to spend on cultural events. The 5 EUR bonus will be paid by cultural institutions, CJP and private partners. The government has contributed 600.000 EUR to this plan. CJP hopes that following the elections, the new government will commit to the Cultuurkaart 2.0 project with long(er) term support.
 
“This model was introduced in June and more than 500.000 students have registered so far,” Walter sums up. “CJP collected over 4 million EUR from the schools, and over 1 million EUR through private donations, which can be spent through the Cultuurkaart payment infrastructure at cultural institutions.”
Moreover, CJP will launch a new website in the upcoming weeks, to introduce new web applications for handling almost all aspects of card distribution (such as duplicate application, change of address, update membership status, payments etc.). CJP will also introduce web services to enable automated data upload for institutional partners such as banks and schools.

Young Scot amplifies the voice of young people


Young Scot plays a key role in supporting partners to engage and consult young people across Scotland, helping them to influence the design and delivery of policy and services. A key ambition is to go beyond consultation, involving them more systematically in co-designing solutions. Below are some of the different approaches Young Scot has used. 


National Consultation Surveys

Young Scot consults with young people both online and in face-to-face surveys. Online surveys are delivered through a unique digital platform ‘Young Scot: Say’s Who’ which starts with a basic ‘Survey Monkey’ and makes it more interactive and young people friendly. Most recently, Young Scot has been seeking the views of young people on behalf of the Scottish Government on the Children and Young People Bill, which embeds the rights of children and young people across the public sector and in line with the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
 

Youth Commissions

This highly participative approach involves providing young people with training and support in order to investigate a specific issue with their peers and experts, in order to develop informed recommendations. In 2010, Young Scot completed a unique 12-months study with the Scottish Government to examine Scotland's relationship with alcohol. 16 young Commissioners were recruited and spoke to experts from a wide range of organisations. They identified 38 key recommendations to improve Scotland’s relationship with alcohol, covering topics such as education, social marketing and treatment. They presented their final recommendations to the Public Health Minister, Shona Robson MSP (March 2010). 

National Discussion Days

National Discussion Days aim to bring local groups of young people, who have carried out research on a particular issue, together with key decision makers in order to make recommendations for policy and practice. For example, Young Scot was approached by the Scottish Government to deliver a consultation with young people seeking their views on the Low Carbon Scotland Strategy, to gain an understanding of what young Scots think about the issue of climate change. Young Scot worked with five teams of young people over six weeks, and hosted a National Discussion Day where the groups presented their findings to key policy and decision makers, including the Minister for Climate Change.

Advisory Panels 

Young Scot works with groups of young people on specific topics so that young people can share ideas to shape Young Scot’s information services. Recently, Young Scot and sportcotland, the national agency for sport, have launched a Young People’s Sport Panel, which will ensure Scotland’s younger generation play active and significant role in developing and influencing policy in sport. The sixteen panel members aged 14 to 25 will also focus on raising the profile of sport within this age group, including through the provision of digital online content.

Austrian apprenticeship card


The „Glücksbringer-Lehrlingskarte“ (approximate translation „lucky charm apprentice card“) is a new EYCA co-brand card in Austria, given exclusively to young people who do an apprenticeship in tourism. The card goes together with an image campaign of the Austrian tourism and leisure industry, to publicise careers and training opportunities in the tourism sector.
 
Markus Albrecht is responsible for European Youth Cards in Austria since August 2012. He explains: “After a regional pilot phase, the card will be launched on national level in autumn 2012 as an EYCA co-brand for currently 12.000 apprentices in tourism in Austria.”
 
The card is issued by the Austrian Economic Chambers, responsible for vocational education and recognition of acquired professional qualifications of apprentices. The new card is supported by the Department of Tourism in the Federal Ministry for Economy, Family and Youth, which also finances the EYCA function of the card through direct cooperation with Jugendkarte GmbH (www.jugendkarte.at), the Austrian licence holder for EYCA.

Interview with Board member Milos Milenkovic, Serbia


EYCA’s globetrotter and Group Board Member for members in the Mediterranean and Balkan region, Milos is a former student leader of the Otpor movement in Serbia.
 
- How did the cooperation between the youth card and the Ministry of youth and sports come about in Serbia?
 EURO<26 and Ministry of Youth and Sport have started cooperation immediately after the founding of the Ministry in 2008. We have received in average two grants per year, which were directed at advancing specific card features (information, mobility, financial education of youth). An additional boost was the EU-financed project “Developing National Strategy on European Youth Card in Serbia”. After its implementation, we signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Ministry, which defines our common goals and guarantees support of the Ministry for card development.
 
- What are the main benefits for you and for them?
We receive institutional support and access to local youth offices (youth responsible bodies in almost every municipality), while the Ministry uses the youth card as an information channel reaching non-organized youth and works with a reliable partner.
 
- Are there any pitfalls in cooperating with governments, be it national or regional?
It is always necessary to take care of the organisation’s independence and self-sustainability.  
 
- What kind of activities do you conduct together? What was e.g. the content of the celebration of International Youth Day organized by Ministry of Youth and Sport?
The Ministry organised a sports event and invited several of the largest youth organisations to contribute and present their activities during the event. We have also issued free cards to all participants.
 
- Serbia is partnering with the Azerbaijani member in organizing EYCA seminar planned for April 2013, financed by Azerbaijan Youth Foundation. What will be the content/focus of the event?
The conference “Investing to the youth e-participation: models and initiatives” will gather approximately 50 participants. Those will be representatives of the European Youth Card organisations, which are developing e-participation and European Youth Card holders as youth representatives from at least 10 Council of Europe countries. It is also planned to invite representatives of EYCA countries, which are not developing new information and communication technologies yet, in order to present them existing model and encourage them to approach more actively to this issue. The conference will be organized in panel discussions and workshops. We will invite speakers from the Council of Europe and EYRICA.

- As regional board member, you are in charge of the Maximising Impact work with Croatia, Greece and Italy. How is the work progressing and what are the plans?
At this stage we are analysing existing situation(s) and are searching for the best way to support members in question - either by good practice examples, by joint project applications or in any other way. The goal is to help members to produce sustainable national development plan with measurable criteria. I believe that diversity of our members and their experience is one of our greatest assets - and we have not been using it efficiently in the past. By learning from each other we will be in better position to develop EYC on national level and make EYCA a credible partner.    
 
- Last but not least: What are your expectations by 2014 when this Board will finish its term? What would you like to have achieved?
That’s very simple J. EYCA as the network of strong member organizations cooperating as a team in fulfilling needs of young people all over Europe. At the same time, EYCA being a strategic partner of the Council of Europe and the European Commission. 

National student card in Hungary


The Hungarian member organization is about to re-launch the card in Hungary as a national student card supported by the government, with a major press conference and many innovative features for discount development and promotion. Diakkedvezmeny Nonprofit Kft and its new management is approaching big companies as new discount providers. “The negotiations are still in process but one of the first on board is the Hungarian Savings Cooperatives. It is a nation-wide group of smaller banks and credit institutions - they will be our exclusive strategic partners,” explains David Mako, card manager. Other key discounters include CBA, a Hungarian chain of food stores, and Tesco.”
 
An innovative system of discount development has been introduced, where some of the discounts providers will pay to join the European Youth Card network. The scheme will consist of three different levels.
“The first one are the big partners like banks, store chains etc. whom we get in touch personally,” David outlines the differences. “The next level are other kinds of shops, services that will be recruited through a company specialized in building provider bases and sales. They work with huge numbers, so the core of the system will be brought in by them.”
The third level will be small shops, which will be approached by the card organisation’s own sales person. The partners of the second and third levels will pay a yearly fee. What do they get in return? “They will be advertised on our website as well as on Facebook and in our monthly newsletters that will go out to more than 500.000 students in the higher education.
 
The website of the revamped card was launched at www.diakkedvezmeny.hu. The Facebook page will be activated paralell to the website. Development of a mobile phone application has already started and is expected to be available to cardholders in November.

News in brief from Greece, Croatia, Finland, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Serbia


Greek summer projects

To reach as many young people as possible, Youth and Lifelong Learning Foundation (EYCA’s member in Greece) launched a commercial campaign which aired on all nationwide television networks as well as being featured in metro and railway stations of Athens. The General Secretary for Youth gave interviews to TV and radio stations to provide information about the benefits of the European Youth Card.
 
Youth and Lifelong Learning Foundation participated in the "Career Day" organized by the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, in the European Music Day and in the Ejekt Festival of Athens during the summer to promote the European Youth Card. Cooperation with the youth centers of Egaleo and Haidari municipalities in Athens aims to jointly inform and stimulate young people to involve in European programs, initiatives and youth mobility.
 

Educational and networking events in Croatia

The Croatian Youth Hostel Association (CYHA) has signed an agreement of cooperation with the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports to organise presentations in high schools about youth travel and youth cards. So far, CYHA have organized more than 20 presentations in high schools around the country. The presentations will continue until the mid of next year.
 
As a member and founder of the Croatian Youth Network, CYHA was actively engaged in creating and introducing to the Ministry of Social Politics and Youth the “Rules and Criteria” of national non-governmental associations and youth umbrella organisations. This is a very important document that aims to change the existing model of providing financial support to national and umbrella youth associations.

 
Youth policy matters in Finland

Allianssi hosted the Nordic and Baltic national youth councils’ meeting on September 7 and participated in the Structured Dialogue of the Cyprus presidency. The questionnaire on social inclusion was sent to all cardholders and 1723 answers were received, which are included in the Finnish report.

The Czech card – check it out

The Czech Council for Children and Youth (CRDM) is steadily advancing with developing European Youth Card in Czech Republic. Their new website www.eyca.cz is about to go online and they have already their first one hundred fans on Facebook. They also have a profile on Twitter and a Google+ account.
 
Together with a PR agency they have designed a communication plan towards discount providers and card distributors. The designs for both the classic and a student card are ready for printing together with promotional posters and info folders. They have finalized an attractive proposal with Vodafone for young cardholders, are negotiating with a bank and a major travel agency about a co-branding card. The are also going to issue a co-branded membership card for the Czech Scout organisation “Junak”, for more than 30 000 scouts.
 
CRDM cooperates closely with the Czech Ministry for Youth and Sports on projects such as Structured Dialogue. CRDM recently supported the “72 hours” volunteering project by offering the youth card to participants at half price.
 

The Students’ Republic of Ukraine

The Ukrainian card was an official partner of the Studsrepublika (short for student republic) event that took place in August in the Crimea. During three days almost 1000 participants from all over Ukraine united in a quasi-state youth organization Studrespublika, with its laws, government body, territory, currency, political parties, election campaigns etc. The culmination of the event was the election of the Student’s President and Deputies of the Ukrainian Student Parliament.
Workshops and discussion with public figures and experts took place on communication, philosophy, political science and other topics. President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych sent his greetings to the participants of the Studrespublika and football player Andrii Shevchenko visited the opening ceremony, thanks to which the event received broad media coverage.
 

Members’ study visits

In June, the Serbian member organised a study visit for youth office representatives to Croatia with the purpose to introduce the youth work and hosteling activities of the Croatian Youth Hostelling Federation (CYHA). EURO26 Serbia are also planning a second study visit to Catalonia (Spain), which should take place in October, where youth office coordinators will have a chance to observe one of the best performing EYCA card organisations.

Interview with Board member Vladimir Jedlicka, Slovakia


A father of three, who has been involved with the youth card since 1993, Vlado goes by the nickname of Imris(h)ko.
 
What made you stand for EYCA Board elections?
I had the feeling that EYCA started becoming too political and we have forgotten about the basics, which for me are the discounts because that’s what the card brings to cardholders. Once there are discounts in place as a solid base, then an organization can do other activities and projects. I joined the Board to contribute with my experience and know-how. Other Board members represent in my opinion areas of expertise such as youth policy more than the discount area.
 
Your portfolio in the Board is Maximising Impact. What are the aims of the working group?
The target is to work with member organizations helping them outline their priorities, challenges and objectives. Every organization must have tools (such as a strategic business plan) to fulfil these objectives – only when these principles are defined and followed can a member’s work be sustainable. The Maximising Impact group motivates card organisations to build a firm ground for their work – not castles in the air – and advance in a structured way.
 
What does that mean practically?
With every organization, we reach a common understanding of the process and then ask them to submit a vision and a development plan. The office and regional Board member assists members to create a strategy because many elements are general and all cards have them in common. The real, hard work, however, remains with the member because only they know the local market well enough to develop a detailed scheme.
 
What’s next?
After all the countries have submitted their progress reports and development plans, the Board will evaluate whether they are realistic and will help the members to grow. In the following months, we will look at whether the members stick to their plans and how they’re advancing.
The Maximising Impact criteria were also used to adjust the tender document – organisations who apply for the EYCA license are also evaluated based on what they want to achieve and how.
 
How would you like to think of this Board at the end of its term in 2014?
I would like the Board to become stricter, consistent in their decisions. Not to accept repeated apologies from members for their non-performance. We have to strongly encourage members to reach the 3% market penetration and become sustainable with diversified income sources, not a dependency on grants. The “C” in EYCA stands for card, which is what we have to develop. Young people will not buy the card because they want to attend a seminar once a year; they want discounts which they can use every day.
 
Last but not least: what is new in the European Youth Card in Slovakia?
We are developing a co-branded card with three municipalities where the existing high-school and university cards will be combined with a city card. It will probably take another year until it will be launched.
There is a steady increase of co-branded European Youth Card EURO<26/ISIC cards, which we issue to students of 250 high-schools. As an incentive to re-validate their card at the beginning of the school year, we issue a coupon pack with 42 additional discounts including the Shark online computer store, Reserved&Cropp Town clothes shop, McDonald’s and other. A new discount is 10% off tickets for the hockey team Slovan Bratislava: KHL (the Continental Hockey League) and we also have a new deal with the mobile phone operator Orange (130 minutes and unlimited SMS for 19,99 EUR or 110 minutes and unlimited SMS for 9,99 EUR).

The Italian youth card goes local


Carta Giovani is one of the pioneers of issuing the card in cooperation with both local and regional governments in Italy. Currently, they are cooperating with three regions (Piemonte, Lazio and Sardinia), six provinces and ten municipalities.
 
The motivation of the provinces and regions to support the European Youth Card are not only Italian and European discounts but mainly the know-how of the card organisation. “Firstly, Carta Giovani builds up new projects providing partners with innovative ideas,” says card manager Angela Dato. “Secondly, we take care of the whole process including printing and sending out cards and other material such as the weekly newsletter with competitions and giveaways.
 
Almost all the cards issued by Carta Giovani are co-branded with regional or provincial authorities and 90% of the organisation’s budget stems from this cooperation. Besides contributing financially, municipalities promote the card among young people, help with distribution and provide discounts with cultural institutions.
 
A significant element of the regional card is that it builds a sense of belonging, of local identity. Angela Dato explains that the graphic design of the card material and the project content are tailor-made. “In the Lazio region for instance, there is a project for the promotion and better knowledge of the area, old crafts as well as work opportunities for young people.” 
 
Young people are directly involved by suggesting services or creating local projects. In Sardinia, Carta Giovani worked with young people in 13 focus groups to find out what they expect from their region and whether they are aware of the available services. The role of the card organisation has been to pick up the proposals and present them to the Region. Here are a few examples of the successful cooperation between the youth card and authorities on different levels:


Lazio Region card: special features

-       free card for all young people under 30
-       reimbursement of travel expenses for those who take part in job interviews, language courses and volunteering projects.
-       45 workshops have been carried out between March and December 2012, free of charge, focus on: how to face a interview, how to write a CV, communication skills
-       there are more than 10 “Officine dell’Arte” (arts councils) which offer training in music, dance, drawing, offer a recording room, and other services. 
 

Sardinia Region card: special features

-       photo competition and exhibition
-       cultural vouchers
-       cooperation with the university of architecture in Cagliari and Sassari awarding the best thesis sustainable architectural projects
-       still to be carried out: a conference on green economy and job opportunities in the region
Copyright © European Youth Card Association

This EYCAtcher is published by the EYCA Office
European Youth Card Association
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81106 Bratislava
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tel. +421.2.5292.1655;
e-mail: mail (at) eyca (dot) org
web: www.eyca.org

With the support of the European Commission. The information contained in this publication does not necessarily reflect the opinion or the position of the EC.
The European Youth Cards are supported by the Council of Europe in the framework the Partial Agreement on Youth Mobility through the Youth Card.

Contributors: Markus Albrecht, David Mako, Miroslav Jungwirth, Sasa Petrasova, Isabelle Mallia / Davynya Grech, Fiona McAuliffe, Angela Dato

Editors: Bob Forsyth, Stani Gajdosova

Pictures:
Sasha Petrasova, EYCA member organisations