PEOPLE TO PEOPLE INTERNATIONAL EUROPEAN COUNCIL Workshop on Youth Engagement PTPI European Conference Roman, Romania 10 September, 2016 Place: Roman Plaza Hotel Roman, Romania Date: Saturday 10 September, 2016 14:30 to 16:30 Reporting: Angel Dimitrievski Attending: Representatives of youth chapters in Europe Peace through Understanding Chapters representatives Other attendees 1 Varna SC Bulgaria 1. Hans- Dieter Robel-Berlin 2. Provadia SC Bulgaria 3 Katowice SC Poland 4 Roman Romania 5 Skopje Macedonia 1. GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER (THE STORY OF OUR SHOES) As we all knew our names, chapters and countries from before, we used a more creative method of personal getting-to-know each other in pairs. The introduction exercise was called The Story of My Shoes. In pairs the groups were discussing the stories of their shoes, starting from basic information about how they bought their shoes, where they bought it(maybe on a trip), what important life events have these shoes attended...the groups were mixed by countries and chapters. 2. DISCUSSING COMMON TOPICS OF INTEREST FOR PTPI YOUTH 4 relevant topics that concern the youth in PTPI were discussed through the fishbowl method. Explanation of method: A fishbowl conversation is a form of dialog that can be used when discussing topics within large groups. Fishbowl conversations are sometimes also used in participatory events such as conferences. The advantage of Fishbowl is that it allows the entire group to participate in a conversation. Several people can join the discussion. Four to five chairs are arranged in an inner circle. This is the fishbowl. The remaining chairs are arranged in concentric circles outside the fishbowl. In an open fishbowl, any member of the audience can, at any time, occupy the empty chair and join the fishbowl. When this happens, an existing member of the fishbowl must voluntarily leave the fishbowl and free a chair. The discussion continues with participants frequently entering and leaving the fishbowl. Depending on how large your audience is you can have many audience members spend some time in the fishbowl and take part in the discussion. When time runs out, the fishbowl is closed and the moderator summarizes the discussion. PTPI European Office Schillerstr. 59 10627 Berlin Germany +49 (0)30-88916433 phone +49 (0)30-88916434 fax europe@ptpi.org PTPI World Headquarters 2405 Grand Boulevard, Suite 500 Kansas City, Missouri 64108USA +1 816 531 4701 phone +1 816 561 7502 fax
Question 1: How can PTPI youth be more involved in the decision-making processes of PTPI Europe/PTPI? There should be higher number of young people involved in the decision-making bodies in the organisation (such as the EEC, Board of Trustees, Board of Directors) Having an independent structure only consisted of youth, that should meet and communicate regularly and pass on the ideas to the EEC, Board of Trustees and Board of Directors The forming of this structure/committee can be with selecting the most active youth members from each chapter (one representative per chapter) Participation on the conferences (making it more affordable and cost friendly, so there are not many underrepresented youth on each conference, especially during events as the European Council Meeting) Youth members should me more informed about PTPI first, because otherwise they would not know how to make a decision or they won t be sure and afraid when making one Question 2: Which channels of communication do we want to use, so we can encourage more young people in Europe to engage with the organisation? Facebook- as platform mostly used by our young membership. We can distribute information here because our experiences show that the members are most responsive here. Now, with the new options we can even note who has seen the information (it should not be the only parameter to rely on as the information is received only if Facebook shows seen ). *When using Facebook, we should take in consideration the sponsored adds option. Some chapters used it. For small amount of money the information can be distributed to certain number of people (you target by age, gender, location, interests etc) TV Channels- make our own channel and post videos with our personal experiences with PTPI. We mentioned video blogs (vlogs) as a tool for sending short, useful information through video. Snapchat- a tool for internal communication between the members. Snapchat video stories are relatively short (3-10 seconds) and don t take much time. Exchanging snapchat contacts would only strengthen our relationships. It will give an insight of our countries and volunteer life. Instagram- very useful for visual promotion of our activities. When using instagram we should all agree on one hashtag we will all use (the hashtag #ptpi has been already used, so we can continue with that one). Social media has big impact on our studies, so we should be careful on how much we spend time there. We should also not forget to distribute the information on email for the members that prefer this kind of communication. 2
Local work is also very important, so we should consider ways of how to engage our local media (such as newspapers) in covering our events. Initiate debate teams on local level. Discussing our common concerns can lead to provoking youth to join PTPI as an alternative for solving those problems. Question 3: How can we further encourage youth mobility among PTPI members? We should consider that youth don t have their own money for travel within our programs. Mostly, this is provided by their parents, if not covered with a scholarship or sponsorship. For that reason, we should also maintain a relationship with the parents of our youth and provide them with a set of information of why is beneficial for their child to travel with PTPI. Consider cooperating with teachers on local level. Most students find it very useful when they get information and advice from their teachers. For example, we can cooperate with English and Geography teachers who can emphasize PTPI as an organisation for improving the English skills of the students or experiencing the culture of a country studied on Geography lessons. Homestay should stay the priority program for travel within PTPI. We still have limited information about the homestay opportunities in terms of which chapters can currently host, what kind of program they offer, how can we organize a homestay between chapters and what are the benefits of participating on this program. More sponsorships and scholarships for young people. Give something more than money, a know-how techniques on how can we fundraise on our own and possibly use the money gathered for travel. Question 4: How can PTPI build the capacities of its young membership? Organize workshops/exchanges that offer concrete set of skills for the young members. Combine that with travel and experiencing local culture. Work on increasing the knowledge of the young people about the organisation European/Global Youth Forum should be back on PTPI s agenda regarding youth More open space for learning from each other (students to students, elders to students) 3
3. SITUATION SOLVING: COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PTPI YOUTH The participants were split into two groups, consisted of equal number of members. Their task was the following (this was just a hypothetical situation, from which we can extract a lot of useful directions for the future work): You are all invited to participate on PTPI s European Conference again in exactly 365 days, on 10-th September, 2017. Your role at the conference will be to articulate the voice of the young people who are underrepresented at this event, that can t participate on the conference due to various reasons. Your task in the next one year will be the *Get in touch with youth from PTPI Chapters from different European countries. Define which communication channels are you going to use for staying in touch (Facebook, Instagram, Skype, Viber, Whattsup, email etc). *What question are you going to address to people that did not have/will not have the opportunity to attend European/global events such as this conferences? *How will you make sure that you are going to integrate their voice when we meet next year on a conference? Group number 1- results: 1.The channels of communication that this group defined for communication were the Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Viber, Whatsup, letters and emails Phone calls- in some cases this is necessary Video inserts about what happened last time Visit each other more frequently 2.The questions that the group will address to the people that can t participate on the conference: Explore more why this is happening (many reasons come into consideration, such as: money, medical problems, school, parents allowance, distance of the hosting conference country) Find ways on how can we discuss topics that are important for the members that won t attend the conference (distribute a short questionnaire few months prior the conference) 3.Integrating the voice of the people that won t attend the conference: For the people that can t participate on the conference, we should consider live streaming the most important events, such as the European Council meeting. We can announce the time and the link to the live stream two months ahead, so more people can join. The group suggested to use the platform www.twitch.tv for online streaming (that is for free). The members who will attend the conference should communicate with the ones that won t be able to attend and make a short presentation or play a video with their projects/ideas/concerns of their friends who are not on the conference. 4
Group number 2- results: 1.The channels of communication that this group defined for communication were the A structured internal system for communication only between PTPI members. This should only be limited to PTPI members worldwide with logging on the website. With the log in at the system you can chat, share pictures, make video conference calls and report on your recent chapter activities. Updated website for PTPI Student Chapter Group conversation on WhatsUp and free calls Snapchat (the MyStory option) 2.The questions that the group will address to the people that can t participate on the conference: What are the reasons why members are not coming to the conference? Is this conference important to our members? 3.Integrating the voice of the people that won t attend the conference: Live stream the conference Post youtube video from the conference (for example if we have a video from this year, it can serve as good motivational point for attracting more participants for next year) Post many pictures Build relations and represent the members who are not on the conference (Be the representative and the voice of your friends who could not attend) Reporting: Angel Dimitrievski Youth Coordinator and Workshop Facilitator Roman, Romania September 2016 5