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CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS FOR THE JECI-MIEC      STUDY SESSION

Key Facts

Cost: Everything is covered, meals, hotel and travel costs for just 50€ participation fee

Topic:´“Shaping our World across Generations: Understanding the past to create a democratic and sustainable future”

Location: Budapest

Date: 23-29 April 2023

Dear friends and partners,

We have the great pleasure to invite your organization to nominate candidates for the JECI- MIEC Study Session “Shaping our World across Generations: Understanding the past to create a democratic and sustainable future”, which will take place in Budapest, Hungary 23^rd -29^th April (including arrival and departure day).

This Study Session is designed for youngsters from European Organizations and JECI-MIEC members, who are actively involved in projects at local/national level. Participants should have a good knowledge about their National Organization. They should be motivated to learn about different ways of political participation that leads into a democratic and sustainable future and also become multipliers back in their organizations and local environment. 

Participants are expected to:

• be young people (students), active members of their National Organizations;
• be 18 – 30 years old;
• be able to work and communicate in English;
• be motivated to participate actively in the Study Session;
• be willing to share their experience and the outcomes of the Study Session to their National Organizations;
• be able to participate for the whole duration of the activity.

To apply for this activity, please fill out the application form. The application deadline is 27^th March 2023

Application Form 

We will inform every applicant within 1 week from the deadline. Selected participants are going to receive all additional information once their participation has been confirmed.

This Study Session is organized in partnership with and financed by the Youth Department of  the Council of Europe.   

What is a Study Session?

Study sessions are international youth events lasting between 4 and 8 days which bring together members of youth organizations or networks and experts for discussions on a specific subject leading to conclusions relevant to the priorities and programs of the Council of Europe Youth sector.

What is our Study Session about?

As citizens of European countries, members of youth organizations and individuals we are
concerned about the future of politics, both national and European. As Youth members and future leaders, we noticed that the trust in democracy and current European political systems is decreasing. 

As a European and Catholic youth organization, JECI-MIEC is specifically interested in using this Study Session (an activity based mainly on non-formal education and learning methods) to raise awareness and educate the participants. 

Also, as decision-makers to rediscover the true meaning of politics and how to contribute to sustainable development. This is accomplished through the importance of commitment to the common good. 

Highlighting democratic, ethical values and active participation we expect the participants to reflect on how their everyday lifestyle it’s a form of political action and its impact on society. Hopefully, this will motivate the participants to question their decisions and implement concrete action to promote positive change and consequently involve more active youth members in the decision-making process at the local, regional and national levels. 

This Study Session is going to touch on several aspects to support youth work as indicated in the Committee of Ministers’ Recommendation, such as coordination of and access to youth work in Europe, strengthening the dialogue between youth work, youth policies and youth research, supporting the development of appropriate forms of review and evaluation of the impact and outcomes of youth work and by reinforcing the dissemination, recognition and impact of the Council of Europe Youth Work Portfolio in the Member States.

What do we want to achieve with our Study Session?

The aim of this Study Session is to support young people participate meaningfully in sustainable democratic processes and reinforce their trust in democracy.

CONDITIONS OF THE STUDY SESSION

Travel Expenses:

According to the Reimbursement System, the travel expenses of the participants will be 100% reimbursed, according to the following criteria:

• Participants must attend more than 80% of the activity.
• Participants are expected to travel between their place of residence and the town in which the activity takes place and back. If for personal or professional reasons participants travel to the meeting from a place other than their place of residence, or return to such a place after the meeting, preliminary agreement must have been obtained from the Youth Department Secretariat and conditions of reimbursement agreed before the meeting.
• Return tickets must be purchased before the start of the journey. If no return ticket can be provided, the reimbursement of these expenses will take place after the meeting by bank transfer after receiving the missing ticket(s).

Enrolment-Fee: 50€

Further Information: For any further information, please contact us via e- mail: jcmpagel@gmail.com

Dear friends,
we are happy to invite you to our Study Session that will take place in Budapest, Hungary, from the 1st to the 7th of May 2022 (including arrival and departure days).
We are going to work around the topic “Active peace – students strengthening peace through Human Rights’ Education”
Please, read the following document carefully for additional information:
Call for Participants Study Session Budapest May 2022.pdf
And fill this form until the 31st of March 2022:
https://forms.gle/tAfjoL69JeyPzXXY6

This Study Session is organised in partnership with and financed by the Youth Department of the Council of Europe.

Best regards,
European Team 2022

Best practices roadmap is a tool created by the participants of the Training Session ” Today’s students= Tomorrow’s Responsables; Capacity Building for Students’ NGOs in Europe” that was held in Malta in September 2021 and was supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe.

It is a tool with best practices chosen during the Training Session based on the thematics of Communication, Organisation, Mental Health and Project Planning. Since there is always space to find innovative practices, feel free to suggest anyhing new. At the pdf version there is space to add your own ideas!

We hope that this tool will be useful for the youth trainers!

You can find it here at our documents and specifically here: JECI-MIEC BEST PRACTICES ROADMAP (jecimiec.eu)

*This publication was produced by European Coordination JECI-MIEC with the support of the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe. It does not necessarily reflect the official position of the Council of Europe.

In 2021 despite all the struggles, we managed to make a new start in our Coordination and to meet physically to learn and grow together! 

It has been a great year and we thank you for being with us! 

We wish you a wonderful 2022 full of faith, health, love and happiness! 

with love

European Teams 2021&2022

Eirini Freri

Anna Holtkamp

Carolina Carreira

Fr. Sergio Fenech

Paul Sopon

Eduardo Martin

David Sopon

From the 3rd to the 5th December 2021, approximately 30 delegates from the National Organisations gathered online to take decisions for the present and the future of the movement. The agenda of the meeting included narrative and financial reports, creation of budget and work plan 2021, discussion on communication strategies and election of the new European Team 2022. The results were the election of the Anna Holtkamp from KSJ Germany as the European Coordinator and the election as executive board members of Eduardo Martin Ruano, Carolina Carreira, David Paul Sopon and Jonathan Pagel, representing JEC Spain, MCE Portugal ASTRU Cluj Romania and KSJ Germany respectively. 

The Team will be accompanied by Fr Sergio Fenech, the European Chaplain, as he was assigned in the European Committee 2019.

The 26th United Nations Conference on Climate Change, better known as COP26 has gathered during the first two weeks of November in Glasgow (Scotland) governments, companies and organizations of all kinds to raise awareness and commitments that seek, among other things, to reduce carbon emissions on the planet and curb another dangerous curve, which is the rise in global temperatures. JEC Spain is not indifferent to this problem, and has been representing JECI-MIEC Europe along with more fellow IYCS-JECI members from all over the world. In the Church we had as a roadmap the Encyclical “Laudato Si” of Pope Francis, and since a little over a year ago, also “Fratelli Tutti”. Both give us many keys for the care of the common home and all living beings that inhabit it. From student environments we have a great power to change our small plot of land and make the world aware that it is not a property to be owned, but a gift from God to be cared for.
rate better.

Dear friends of JECI-MIEC,
Hoping that this post finds you well, we would like to warmly invite you to register for the Interfaith Youth Convention on the European Green Deal, which will take place on 25 November 2021, from 11:00 to 12:30 CET on Zoom. 

The online Interfaith Youth Convention on the European Green Deal will gather up to 300 young people representative of Bahá’í, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish and Muslim confessions to exchange on the European Green Deal with European Commission’s Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans. 

Young delegates from different confessions will enter into dialogue with Commissioner Frans Timmermans and share their proposals on how the EU could respond to some of the most pressing ecological challenges. They will focus on key areas of the European Green Deal: Housing and Energy, Mobility and Transport, Agriculture and Food, Production and Consumption and Education, Ecology and Skills.

The Convention is open in particular (but not exclusively) to all young people (18 – 35 years old). You can register under this link and kindly find the Programme of the event attached.

Looking forward to seeing you at the Convention.

Please find here the programme of the Convention

JECI-MIEC Training Session: Today’s Students = Tomorrow’s Responsables support by the European Youth Foundation, which took place in Birkirkara, Malta from 5th to 12th of September 2021 sought to equip representatives of youth organisations from across Europe with skills and knowledge necessary for the promotion of positive personal mental health and in ensuring the positive mental health of the members of their respective organisations. The training session identified best practices across several key domains that when contextualised and adopted will allow individuals and organisations to better promote positive mental health, while also combating pressures that pose risks to mental health of members and volunteers. This report first outlines the main themes explored during the training session including mental health awareness, communication, funding partners and resources, and it will conclude by outlining the best practices regarding each of these themes identified by the participants.

On 6th of September we officially opened our Training Session. We had the opportunity to discover the participating organizations and how they work. We delved deeper into that by making a SWOT analysis of every organization and later we found out ways to collectively correct the weaknesses and to grow our strengths. In order to ask for the presence of God throughout the entire week, our chaplain, fr. Sergio Fenech, celebrated Mass in the evening. At the end of the day we got to discover the countries from which the participants came at the Intercultural Market of Organizations.

On Tuesday our first topic that was discussed was Mental Health Awareness. Our first guest was Melvin Calleja from Richmond Foundation Malta. In his presentation we found out many things about mental health such as how mental illnesses appear, how we can prevent them and how to relate to people who experience these illnesses. We also got to talk about a few of these diseases such as anxiety, depression and psychosis. In the afternoon we got to talk to Valentina Bezzina from STEPS Malta about empathy and we delved deeper into relating to people suffering from anxiety and depression. At the end of the day we enjoyed a fun Escape Route that showed us how competitive our participants are.

The following day we talked about communication skills. First of all we learned from Karl Vella a few theoretical things about in person communication and how to give a successful speech. After that Mauro Fenech, also from STEPS Malta, gave us a course about graphics design showing us how to create a poster or any kind of promotional materials. In the afternoon we had the opportunity of putting into practice the skills we received in the morning. Divided into teams, our participants had to create a podcast about our Training Session, to make a video about Mental Health Awareness, a presentation about anxiety, social media and posters advertising future events. The day was concluded with a cooperative research game.

On Thursday we got to relive past JECI-MIEC moments and to learn more about IYCS and IMCS at a global level through expert panels. First we got to talk virtually but also live, with Maria Koutatzi who was our European Coordinator from 1991 to 1994, Johan Vanhove who worked for our organization’s office in the 90’s , Mihai Floran and Maximilian Niessen, both former European Coordinators, who joined us on a video call. We found out beautiful and interesting things about their period in leading JECI-MIEC, their motivations to get involved, their greatest challenges and how they managed to solve them. We received lots of advice about how to work both on an international level but also on a national and local level. The next panel introduced us to the global reality of IYCS and IMCS with the help of our guests, Innocent Odongo (IYCS Secretary General) and Ravi Tissera (IMCS-Pax Romana International President). They encouraged us to get involved as much as possible in our movements and not to hesitate to get involved on an international level. The afternoon took us to La Valletta, the capital city of Malta. There Mr Kurt Cortis  presented what Malta European Services is, how they help the maltese people and ways to access European Funds. And, since there was no day in this Training Session without a fun part, we discovered the petite capital of the country through a Treasure Hunt that brought us to a lot of points with touristic interest in La Valletta. The fun continued as we took dinner out and socialised a lot.

In the last two days our participants had the opportunity to use all the information they received in this Training Session. After an online panel with Mrs Kiia Huttunen from the European Youth Foundation on Friday morning, our activity was concluded by project writing. Divided in teams, our students had to imagine an European Activity and to write the requested project, finding out opportunities to receive funds, partners and ways to implement their ideas. After each team presented their work, we thanked God for all the things He offered us this week at the Mass. The Closing Ceremony was followed by a fun Awards Ceremony where some of the participants found an amazing award for everyone.

Even though this week ended, the Training Session doesn’t end here. Every participant now shares the information in the national organization as he or she now implements the best practices gathered this week. We thank God for helping us in this important journey and for being with us at this Training Session.