End of 2019: Message from Executive Director

Dear EYPers,

At the end
of a busy year, let me use this opportunity to extend my warmest wishes and
greetings to all of you, on behalf of the EYP’s International Office in Berlin.
What a successful year 2019 it has been! When compiling our end-of-year
newsletter, we felt truly blessed to recollect all these memories of activities
that EYPers have made happen throughout the year.

In this year again, the EYP has further evolved as a lively ecosystem, granting spaces for all of us to build goodwill, better mutual understanding, and personal growth across the continent.

At several
events throughout the year, I had the privilege to interact with EYP
participants and volunteers. In all my conversations, it was obvious that EYPers
want to continue raising the bars:

• They are ready to pull together so that EYP can provide transformative experiences for all young people in Europe, making the organisation more accessible and welcoming to participants, no matter where they come from. More and more EYPers are working to make this a truly inclusive, diverse organisation – and it will be exciting to see this become a reality!
• Today more than ever, it’s obvious that there is a lack of spaces in society to adequately discuss the “grand challenges” we are facing as humankind. EYPers are playing an important role in addressing this gap – our activities serve as a platform for people to jointly address what’s important to them, whether “big picture” issues or day-to-day challenges. To that end, we are innovating the formats that are used in EYP, inserting new topics, and working with an increasing number of strong partners who help us bring current topics to our events.
• Finally: in a world that is facing tough challenges, we need to fundamentally transform the way in which we collaborate and tackle problems. A set of “global citizen skills” is needed. The cool thing is that the EYP has a long track record of fostering that exact skillset – problem-solving, empathy, respect, and so many more… Already now, EYP is a real powerhouse of “active citizenship” capacity-building – and we’re on track to pursue this even more pro-actively!

It’s inspiring
to see that in all of these fields, we’ve departed on a journey together – and
we would like to thank all who are supporting us on that journey.

Big
heartfelt thanks go out to all who have contributed to the EYP’s impact this
year: the Governing Body and BNC Board, all officials in our sessions, all NC
board members, all trainers and volunteers, the amazing team at the
International Office, the Schwarzkopf Foundation, our partners, the
participants of our events, and everybody else… Thank you, keep up the great
work, and “see you somewhere in Europe”!

On behalf
of the International Office

Lukas