fYOUture of YOUth EcoSystem

The entire resolution addressing the needs for each of the six features of the Youth Ecosystem is available HERE. More relevant information can be found in the presentation of the process HERE.

We, the stakeholders of the Youth EcoSystem,

1. Fully aware we are living now at a difficult time in history - trying to understand what were the real effects of the pandemic while looking at the worrying situation of the wars around the world and now again in Europe and all the humanitarian crisis and trying to understand the impact of the climate change, as the multidimensional crisis is dramatically affecting young people and youth transitions and is endangering young people’s future,
2. Disturbed by the obvious vulnerability of the youth, as revealed by these multidimensional crisis,

consider that

It takes an Ecosystem to harness the present and future of the youth sector — an aspirational term that suggests increased connection across the multiple elements that compose the youth sector. The concept of the Youth Ecosystem is inspired by the ecological ecosystem, which is a complete set of organisms, their environment, and their interactions. Like an environmental ecosystem, the youth ecosystem requires a diverse and healthy set of components to function.

Placing the young people in the center of the Youth EcoSystem is essential to look at all its features.

For us this includes:

1. Youth VISION (legislation, policies, strategies, work plans, programs, coordination),
2. HUMAN RESOURCES for youth (youth workers, volunteers and paid personnel, managers, facilitators, experts, policy makers),
3. Youth WORK, youth INFORMATION, COUNSELING and OTHER SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES (including projects and trainings to increase the participation of the young people in community life and to develop youth organizations capacity building),
4. Youth STRUCTURES (youth NGOs, authorities and public institutions, resource centres, youth councils, consultative and deliberative bodies, clubs, informal groups, National Youth Councils, youth movements),
5. Youth INFRASTRUCTURE (youth centres, friendly spaces to engage young people in a comfortable manner (urban or rural / physical, mobile or virtual)
6. Youth FUNDING (public, private, crowdfunding / based on competition, direct funding or participatory budget).

This resolution is adopted to ensure all the needed support for the Youth EcoSystem in its entirety. And for that, we believe that FUNDING is that element of the Youth EcoSystem which gives the necessary fuel for the development of the other five.

Acknowledging the need to preserve and develop the EU by the young people, the EU itself should take a more active role in the youth field, even though the national and local governments should also be accountable for their contribution to the youth field. Therefore, the future and cohesion of Europe should be more decided by the whole European community and request to EU institutions to ensure complementarity of all EU funds so that the development and transitions of young people will have a well supported path and youth structures in the Youth EcoSystem will also be supported in all areas of their work.

If you are representing a organization, please mention the name of the organization in the why this resolution is important for you section !