Q&A with EYCA President Jarkko Lehikoinen

• What is happening with the youth card in Finland right now?

To mention just a few things, we have done a big discount campaign with lots of new discounts and services for young people. We have also done for the third time a youth survey for the youth cardholders on the Structured Dialogue questions with very interesting results on social inclusion to back up the feedback given by the youth work professionals. And we have also started to plan what we as the national youth council should do for the European elections next year, and I’m excited to think what could be the role of the youth card in Finland to activate young people to vote.   

• Why do you think youth cards have an important role for young people in Europe now?

At this moment, we live in a Europe that is so different to what it was some 20 years ago when I started my youth work and youth card life. If you look e.g. at the youth unemployment figures all over Europe, it is no wonder that many experts talk already about ”a generation betrayed”. The youth cards still have their traditional tasks to provide young people with quality discounts, services and information as well as to encourage them for mobility. But that is not enough, we have to do more in the field of youth policy. Youth organisations represent young people on the national level and in European institutions, and I agree with that. But the youth cards could and should have an important role to play as we have direct contact with such a large number of young people, many of which are not necessarily members of youth organisations.     

• You have been President of EYCA for 1.5 years now, what has changed in EYCA in that time?

I would definitely want to start with internal and external communication as we have done so much with that. Also the maximizing impact work has proven to be a valuable procedure as we really want to help our members to be stronger. Financially, we are not wealthy but we are quite stable at the moment. We have built quite a lot our relations with the European institutions and other European youth networks, but also we are working on many corporate partnerships. We have made some important decisions like the new contribution scheme or moving the office to Brussels. In general, I would say that the Board and the office work very well as a team with clear long-term and short-term business plans, and I hope that the members have been able to see that.   

• What are the biggest challenges facing EYCA right now?

In addition to those I mentioned before related to youth policy, I think some things are not moving as fast as we had hoped; for example the Youth on the Move initiative. With white territories, we have worked extremely hard and with some good results. But unfortunately with the priority countries (Germany, France, England), we don’t have anything concrete yet. The economic situation in many European countries may also reflect on the working conditions of some of our member organisations, and we have to be able to support them. The same thing may also affect the future of our Partial Agreement with the Council of Europe. In the next months, we are not only moving but also restructuring the office, and it is of course a big challenge to maintain and even to improve the service level of EYCA. But I’m very optimistic that we can overcome these difficulties.       

• How will you lead the Association through these challenges?

First of all, by assuring that all of us in the Board and office will continue the hard work for the benefit of all the member organisations. I want the members to have the feeling that EYCA is above all a service organisation. That they get some added value by being part of it. We are all very different organisations across Europe, but we share some basic values, and we can all do our work better by co-operating and having a dialogue with each other. In addition to the wide expertise we have in the Board, I also wish to call another President’s commission before the Mollina conference in order to tackle some specific issues, important for the association.

• What can EYCA member organisations expect over the next 1.5 years of your current mandate as President?

More chances to meet, share ideas and discuss, which has been a wish of so many members in the last years. In fact, there are already two opportunities for this before Mollina. We will also continue to strengthen the financial situation of the association. I also hope that we can see at least one of the priority white territories to sign the protocol of Lisbon. This list could be much longer, but maybe I stop by saying that I really hope that Youth on the Move will be a reality in 1.5 years.   

• Where will you be on EYCA business in the next couple of months?

Tomorrow taking off to Andorra for the CoE mobility seminar, Board meeting in Warsaw in March and Young Scot seminar in April. Probably some other things that I’m not aware of yet before Mollina.
 
Photo: Jarkko with participants of the “The European youth card as a tool to support youth mobility” seminar organised by INJUVE, Comunidad de Madrid and EYCA in Madrid (December 2012).

VOLUNTEERS SCOUTING DISCOUNTS

Auctus, the Bosnian member organisation, has successfully involved volunteers in developing and promoting the European Youth Card in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH).

In October 2012, twenty young people were chosen for a two-day training after submitting their CV and letter of motivation. The team of young people, together with the trainers developed a plan how to approach businesses as well as schools and municipalities to get them on-board the project. In the future, this group of volunteers would also like to work on youth policy and initiatives with local governments.

Currently, there are European Youth Card discounts in Sarejevo and Banja Luka but as volunteers come from ten different cities, Auctus hopes to include five to six new municipalities in the network. Their „discount hunting“ was already successful in the first phase, as they added several local shops and a country-wide chain of sports clothes to the list of EYCA benefits. The volunteers are also involved in updating the Auctus website and Facebook page with all information about discounts and card promotions in BiH.

As part of this project sponsored by the Mozaic Foundation and the World Bank, six of the volunteers together with coordinators Maja Starčević and Ognjen Saje visited EYCA and the Slovak member organisation CKM SYTS in Bratislava. Thank you for all your enthusiastic questions and creative ideas.

PROMOTING MALTESE CULTURAL HERITAGE

Heritage Malta is the Maltese agency for museums, conservation practice and cultural heritage. As it operates a large number of sites and museums all over the Maltese Islands, its cultural dimension was immediately identified as being in line with that of the European Youth Card.
 
Agenzija Zghazagh started negotiations with Heritage Malta to become a discount provider even before the official launch of Karta Zghazagh. Heritage Malta already offered discounts to Maltese students and senior citizens, and it was proposed that the same terms be extended also to European Youth Card holders.
 
After an exchange of correspondence, a meeting was held with a representative of Heritage Malta to explain the aims of this card and the Association it forms part of.  With over 4 million card holders and the various communication channels in place, Heritage Malta were able to understand how their participation would benefit not only young people but also their organisation in terms of added exposure and signed the agreement in November 2012.
 
Apart from being able to visit over 20 different sites and museums around Malta and Gozo, cardholders can also purchase tickets in blocks, benefiting from more savings. Discounted prices range from Eur 3.50 to Eur 27.00. Each site and museum offers particular experiences, among them:
 
- the Ggantija, Mnajdra and Hagar Qim Temples, which date back to 3600 BC
- the Hypogeum that enjoys an individual listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site
- The National War Museum, which focuses on the relatively recent two World Wars
 
Agenzija Zghazagh has since also had the opportunity to market the European Youth Card on a local TV cultural programme broadcast from one of these historic sites namely the Domvs Romana, which is a richly decorated town house of the Roman period.

THIS VALENTINE’S DAY, GO FOR CULTURE

A special Valentine’s day offer from CKM SYTS are discounted tickets for Slovakia’s biggest music festival! The Bazant Pohoda open-air festival takes place in July (11.-13.7. 2013) near the city of Trencin and among this year’s confirmed headliners are Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Thom Yorke and The Smashing Pumpkins.

European Youth Card holders can buy 3-day tickets with a 10 euro discount (79 instead of 89 EUR). The Slovak member organisation has extended this offer to all cardholders outside of Slovakia.
They closely cooperate with members in the neighbouring Czech Republic and Austria who run competitions to win tickets and promote the special offer.

 In Slovakia, the sales are made through an online system, which verifies whether the cardholder has a valid card. As EYCA does not have a fully functioning common cardholders’ database yet, the Slovak member is asking cardholders from abroad who would like to make use of the discount, to send them a scan of their card. In return, they will receive a unique code, which they will be able to use online.

YOUNG PEOPLE’S OPINIONS COUNT

Five workshops with high-school students were organised by the EYCA member in Serbia, with the aim to gather information on their perception of the financial market. Evropski omladinski centar (formerly EURO26 Serbia Association) conducted discussions with students to help them define what are the best ways to promote the European Youth Debit Card.
Schools in Serbia are very open to educational activities of not-for-profit organisations and even more so in the case of the European Youth Card, which has a well-established cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development. Students receive a free card as a thank you for their participation in the project.
The general outcome of the consultation is that the youth population under 19 is not familiar with bank products and that they would like to learn more. After analysing the results of the workshops, the Serbian youth card will develop a strategy for the distribution of information about the co-branded bank card. At the moment, there are approximately 3,000 debit cards in circulation and the organisation’s goal is to double this number in 2013.

Similar to Auctus in Bosnia, the Evropski Omladinski Centar (European Youth Centre) in Serbia organised a training for volunteers to be involved in discount development. Fifteen young people from outside of Belgrade have been recruited through an online open call and through contacts with local youth offices in targeted cities of special interest (large youth population - small number of benefits). Two staff members held the training presenting card activities, the concept of benefits and practical tips when it comes to negotiating with businesses. Discount manager Dubravka has been traveling throughout the country to help the volunteers achieve maximum impact. All young people involved will become part of the youth card network and will be encouraged to take part in other projects as well.

PARTNERING WITH THE BEST

Apple Europe approached CJP Netherlands for a possible partnership in their so-called Education Commercial Affiliate (ECA) programme.

In this programme, a limited amount of partners are entitled to join the online Apple store. As an affiliate, you get your “own” online Apple store, where the buyer is granted the Apple educational discount (6-8% depending on the product). CJP.nl will serve as a landing page, from which cardholders will be taken to a CJP-branded Apple web shop. The Dutch member will earn a partner commission on sales generated through the CJP Apple store.

CJP was chosen because of their professional communication channels, the online verification system and the amount of students in their database. Apple will give the card organisation a 6-months trial to start in April, for which CJP has to propose a communication strategy. As part of the PR, CJP will also promote apps with cultural content from the Apple app store.

EYCA member organisations in Switzerland and Sweden are also part of Apple’s “Store for Education”.

NEWS FROM MEMBERS IN BRIEF

- The European Youth Card in Luxembourg has used the opportunity of the new co-branded European Youth Card/Hostelling International Card issued by the Centre Information Jeunes in association with Youth Hostels Luxembourg to distribute re-designed leaflets, magazines and documents providing information about the cooperation.
 
Following a growing number of countries in Europe that have increased the age of cardholders up to 30 years, this new collaboration is at the same time a good occasion to promote both networks to young people aged 26 to 30. A new partnership contract was also developed for existing and new discount providers in connection to presenting the new card. As a result, over a dozen new offers and benefits were contracted and announced.
 
- Allianssi in Finland have worked in close contact with the High Schools Student Union, which has active members all over the country. For a symbolic fee, students helped negotiate local discounts and their campaign was so successful, that the Finnish member organisation will add a thousand new benefits to the 300 currently in their database.
 
- European Movement Estonia (EME) has been successful in their negotiations with the government to become a long-term partner for the provision of youth information services. A contract for 2 years (2013 and 2014) has been signed with the government just before Christmas and there is a lot of work ahead of the organisation. A new full time staff member has joined the team, to coordinate the work of EME as the main youth information provider in the country. The project will be implemented on the existing noorteportaal.ee, which is also the website of the European Youth Card in Estonia.

NO HATE SPEECH CAMPAIGN

After the successful “All Different, All Equal” campaign, which the Council of Europe carried out in 1995, there is a new pan-European initiative about to be launched. On March 21, 2013 the Secretary General of the Council of Europe will announce the NoHateSpeech movement. 
 
The slogan of the campaign is “Young People for Human Rights Online” and its purpose is to raise awareness about the risks and damages of hate speech online.
 
What does hate speech on the internet include? All expressions, which spread, incite, promote or justify racial hatred, xenophobia, anti-Semitism or other forms of hatred based on intolerance. You have maybe encountered it yourself, as racist posts on social networks, hateful comments in reaction to newspaper articles or online bullying because of a perceived difference.
The campaign will advocate a culture of democracy and human rights online – the internet is also a public space and the same rules apply here as in “real life”. It also aims to mobilise young people for promoting human rights online.
 
Freedom of speech is a central theme of the campaign. The campaign seeks not to limit freedom of speech but to reinforce it. There will be a central NoHateSpeech website for supporting the campaign or reporting hate speech, offering several online and offline educational and awareness-raising activities. The campaign will run for a year and there will be many ways to get involved, for example by using the logo and banners on your web site and social networks.
 
National campaign committees are being prepared all over Europe and we will keep you informed about how to join them. In Serbia, there are already intensive consultations on national level to support the NoHateSpeech movement, where the European Youth Card organisation will play an active role and is considered as one of the key partners.

STRUCTURED DIALOGUE

As in the previous rounds of Structured Dialogue (SD), many EYCA member organisations have been involved in asking young people questions of the Irish Presidency. The current Trio Presidency – Ireland, Lithuania and Greece – together with the European Commission and the European Youth Forum have agreed „social inclusion“ as the overarching theme for the next 18 months from January 2013 to end of June 2014.

- Czech Republic: A training seminar for 40 young activists entitled „Participate in the Structured Dialogue“ took place in November 2012 in Prague. On the webpage of the Czech Structured Dialogue – Have your say – young people can vote on priority issues for this year’s national version of the Structured Dialogue. The proposed issues are: politicians and their in(competence); corruption and opportunism;  extremism, racism and nationalism nowadays; the influence of media on society; unemployment.

- Luxembourg: The EYCA member organisation CIJ (Centre Information Jeunes) is part of the Structured Dialogue working group (WG) together with the National Youth Council (Conférence Générale de la Jeunesse Luxembourgeoise), the Ministry of Youth, the National Youth Service and the Youth Parliament.
Within the issues raised by the Irish Presidency, the working group decided to reformulate the questions and then submit them in the form of interviews to youth workers to collect their views on different aspects of social inclusion.
In the second and third phase, the WG will focus on a more elaborate consultation of young people at grass roots level. It will consist of focus groups with young people of different social, ethnical and cultural backgrounds. Especially for the second phase, it was decided to mainly target unemployed young people and those who are not in a learning process.

- Poland: From 28th January till 5th February Polish Euro26 card ran a big campaign on the Structured Dialogue. They have prepared a questionnaire for cardholders and to grow the motivation of young people to engage in SD, they offered attractive rewards, such as a trip to the European Parliament and packages for learning English (fiszki.pl).

YOUTH WORK AND BENEFITS COMBINED

Like many other EYCA members, the Polish Youth Projects Association (PYPA) was founded as a not-for-profit organisation, which also corresponds to their intense work on youth projects and initiatives. However, because of their extensive discount network and strong cooperation with an insurance company, they are at times being perceived as a commercial subject.
 
To make a clear distinction for both discount providers and partners as well as cardholders, they decided to divide their communication online into two portals: eyca.pl being dedicated to information for cardholders and the non-profit activities (mobility projects, cooperation with NGOs, local authorities, youth policy and Structured Dialogue) and euro26.pl as a website about the different insurance packages they offer. “For an individual cardholder, this division does not really matter,” says project manager Kasia Ziemann from PYPA. “When young people enter euro26.pl to choose a card with an insurance and then they look for the discounts, they are automatically forwarded to eyca.pl and vice versa.” The association had over 300,000 individual users on both sites in 2012 and over 1,600,000 visits throughout the year 2012.

“The Polish youth card has been cooperating with the AXA insurance company for almost 10 years (known as Signal & Duna before), so there is a lot of mutual trust,” Kasia explains. Young people can choose from a wide range of insurance packages (accidents, civil liability, costs of medical treatment) and currently, the partners are expanding the offer to also include home assistance, surgery assistance, etc. that can be chosen by a cardholder or by their families. For every card with insurance sold, PYPA receives commission, which depends on the kind of insurance (the highest commission received is from a SPORT insurance card). For 2013, the association hopes to combine the insurance deal with a co-branded bank card.

Another novelty, which the Polish youth card is testing this year, is to offer a bigger single discount for a short period of time. “The discount will be sent by mail to cardholders and presented on Facebook as a special on-line voucher. The vouchers will have unique numbers, so the cardholders will only be able to use the discount once,” specifies Kasia. The promotional campaign started in February, so fingers crossed for the Polish Youth Projects Association and their innovative ideas.

A SCANDINAVIAN SUCCESS STORY

Interview with Tomas Hansson who is in charge of communication at EYCA’s member organisation in Sweden. Mecenat is also the license holder for Norway where they are about to launch the European Youth Card.

• How did Mecenat come up with and start the idea of running an online sales portal and issuing the card to students for free?
We have been promoting discounts since 1985, long before the internet era. When Internet became generally available, we saw very early that it was a perfect channel to reach young people and we have been promoting discounts online since the mid 1990s.
To be able to negotiate a good discount with attractive brands that young people wanted to have, we needed to offer the companies channels to communicate to a lot of young people. And to get a lot of young people to use the card we distributed it for free. And the equation worked; we got one million young people with our card and a lot of attractive companies that offer discounts.

• How do you select which discounters to approach?
We always select them from young people’s/students’ perspective and look for discounts that are needed by or attractive for them.

• What role do the young people play in running your business? What ways of hearing their opinion do you use?
We use Facebook comments on all our partner pages where our users can say what they think about the discount. We also compile the opinions we get trough our customer service and analyse it together with regular surveys about what cardholders want, need and think about discounts.

• Do your partnerships with companies go beyond providing discounts?
The basis for our cooperation is always the discounts but we work very closely together with quite a few of them, specially when it comes to developing tailored technical functions or campaigns.

• What would be your three tips to other EYCA members, for negotiating attractive strategic discounts for young people?
I think one tip is enough: and that is to always have the user in focus. If you can create a discount that young people want you will get happy young people who buy the products or services that you market. You will then get a happy company who have increased their sales. Then it’s easy to come back and set up a new discount with that company or use it as a case when you talk with the next one in line.

• What do you think is the future of discount cards? What is the next big step for Mecenat?
I think we are about to experience a big technical leap when it comes to marketing discounts with loads of ideas connected to mobile communication. Mecenat will create or catch these great ideas and implement them in a way that benefits both young people and Mecenat. Our next big step is to expand into the rest of Scandinavia and make use of what we have learned so far.