The foundation of the EYP Alumni network goes back to the year 2017 as Europe was hit by steady rising populism, nationalism and tendencies to question the idea behind European Unity resulting in Brexit. A group of highly motivated alumni EYPers guided by the wish to revert the ongoing trends founded the EYP Alumni network uniting thousands of active citizens worldwide.
EYP Alumni form a unique network of Europeans representing a powerful example of collaboration and friendship across borders as well as the values of tolerance and diversity. The Alumni network has immense potential uniting professionals from across the globe working in diplomatic services, public sectors of their countries and in the EU institutions; in business consultancies and legal affairs; IT, nonprofit sector & NGOs; PR & Communications and many more fields.
For the last three years the Alumni Network has been working on the strategy and mission that should guide our work. First ideas from EYP alumni were gathered at the first reunion next to the 30th anniversary of EYP in Brno (2017), followed by the brainstorming sessions at the Alumni Reunions in Berlin (2018) and Hamburg (2019). As a result, the ideas of hundreds of individuals were summarized in the Massive Transformative Purpose (MTP) of the Alumni Network by the EYP Alumni Coordination Group spanning several generations of EYPers from 1995 (yes that old!) to those that only started a few years ago. In this article the main results of the work are presented.
What’s a Massive Transformative Purpose:
Why are we here? What’s our purpose? These are questions that individuals and organisations struggle with. One thing research has shown is that successful organisations are those that are clear on their purpose, and the most successful organisations have what’s known as a Massive Transformative Purpose or MTP. Think of it as a mission statement – but bigger! It’s a highly aspirational tagline that defines a global issue the organisation aims to address. It provides an organization with focus and direction. Examples include the World Wide Fund for Nature’s “A future where people and nature thrive” or the Red Cross’s MTP of “Helping people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are”.
Massive Transformative Purpose of EYP Alumni Network:
EYP Alumni at the events mentioned above identified several themes of problems around opportunity, engagement and challenges in democracy and politics including concerns around:
We also considered what makes the EYP Alumni network different and what we could offer:
Combining the common themes across the problems that resonated and key capabilities of the network we crafted the MTP as:
“Connecting global citizens to enable and empower more democratic,
inclusive, and engaged societies”
This statement encapsulates both issues we care about and how we can leverage our strengths as a network to address them. The MTP is always bigger than what an organisation can deliver. What we will do next as a network is decide which elements of achieving this purpose we’d like to work on.
What do you think?
Does the MTP resonate with you? Would you be happy to share it with people to say that’s what the EYP alumni is about? We’ll be using this going forwards and seeing how people connect or react to it, and adjusting as needed. If you are interested in contributing to projects or being part of the coordination group please do let Helena (info@eyp.org) know. You can always get in touch with the EYP Alumni Network Coordination Group by either reaching out to Helena or any of the CG’s members! You can reach out to Soul (lead soulpatel@gmail.com ) and Maria (vice-lead mariamanolescu.eyp@gmail.com)
To understand more about Massive Transformative Purposes please see the articles below:
https://singularityhub.com/2016/11/08/the-motivating-power-of-a-massive-transformative-purpose
