Connecting youth to society

CONNECTING YOUTH TO SOCIETY May 9th – May 12th, 2014 | 1

CONNECTING YOUTH TO SOCIETY

May

9th

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ay 1

2th,

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Powered by IDEA, Rode Hoed, DIA Hungary, Slovak Debate Association

CONNECTING YOUTH TO SOCIETY May 9th – May 12th, 2014 | 2 CONNECTING YOUTH TO SOCIETY May 9th – May 12th, 2014 | 3

table of CONTENT 4 EUROvISION to connect youth to society

6 CONNECTORS share what’s on their heart

12 KEYNOTES in church

14 MY CITY REAl WORlD goes global

18 WORKOUT workshops

24 IDEA Nl towards a joint european

26 NExT STEPS

27 TOURIST TRACK

28 CHAIN Of ClOSURE

29 MOvIE RElEASES



during this eurovision song contest weekend, idea nl felt honoured to welcome over 100 young to young at heart profes-sionals from all over europe to share visions on how to connect youth to society and celebrate idea’s 15th anniversary from the 9th till 12th of May. this international meeting with a focus on debate suitably took place at debate centre de rode hoed in rainy amsterdam. luckily, for all of us, it also rained ideas.

the exchange ‘connecting youth to society’ was a link-ing-and-learning event. we aimed to build a ‘community of practice’ and, looking back, we succeeded. the participants were young debate practitioners, youth workers, police officers, local government officials and youth from over european 12 coun-tries: slovakia, hungary, the uk, the netherlands, spain, france, greece, portugal, romania and other countries like tunisia and the united states. they were all very inspired to cooperate together in order to give european youth in disadvantaged posi-tions a voice.

the programme was divided into two tracks. one track focused on the european exchange of debate in the neighbourhood (din) projects, the other was a taster training to launch the toolkit My city real world (Mcrw). during the meeting best practices were shared, long-term relations were established, and the understanding how to engage the views and experiences of youth from across the continent was deepened.

thanks to the energetic participation, commitment and energy of the participants and support from youth in action and the open society foundation this eurovision didn’t have just one winner. we found plenty of new collaborations to make you(th) win!

this weekend was not a moment, but a journey. we invite all of you to take the next steps together. you can start by sharing your tweets on your experiences on #idebatenl and exchange and find your photos on: www.facebook.com/ideanl?fref=ts. this magazine is a memory to ourselves that we can make change happen together for young people worldwide.

eurovision on CONNECTING YOUTH TO SOCIETY

‘This Eurovi-sion didn’T

havE onE win-nEr. wE found

nEw collab-oraTions To makE youTh

win!’

Yvonne Heselmansexecutive director

idea nl

https://www.facebook.com/ideanl?fref=ts



CONNECTORS share what’s on their heartSix of your colleague answered: Six of your colleague connectors answered questions like: How do they connect youth to society? If they could meet anyone, who would this be? What their key message would be? And what project they’re most proud of?

‘a balance should be found be-

tween youth and the police.’


césar soares (42): Listen to each otherThis youth leader at Kras Youth Work in Antwerp con-

nects youth to society through projects like the IDEA

project Changing the Neighbourhood. Last year, they

focused on the topic of youth and their relationship

with the police. César is particularly proud of the two

debates they organised with IDEA on the topics of ed-

ucation and youth and police, to support youth to be

heard. According to him: ‘A balance should be found

between youth and the police.’ He would tell his may-

or in Antwerp that you have to listen to the stories of

young people instead of using the current repressive

approach the municipality and police are taking now.


tarik ait chrif (14): Lots of changeafter his first peek at his community centre in the dia-mantbuurt in the ‘pijp’, tarik was immediately interested in the debate activities combiwel organised in cooper-ation with idea. only two months ago he participated for the first time in a big debate: ‘we debated on heavy topics like criminality.’ if he would meet his favourite soccer player daniel andrés chávez, he would now like to hear his opinion about debate, since he wants to hear other people’s opinions on this.

‘we debated on heavy topics like

criminality.’


‘war is no longer a solution. Money

can be better spend on foods, building schools, hospitals and provide liveli-

hood for youth.’

christoph damalie (52): Livelihood for youthwith his organisation third way christoph tries to em-power youth by promoting human rights in education. his organisation works in the netherlands and ghana and has virtual offices in america and france. according to christoph flex-work represents the ngo of the 21st cen-tury. third way wants to make youth aware of their rights and responsibilities by using a combination of methods including debate. if he met obama, he would argue to ban all military hardware like nuclear bombs, apaches and jet fighters. according to him: ‘war is no longer a solution. Money can be better spend on foods, building schools, hospitals and provide livelihood for youth.’

raluca negulescu (26): Empower Roma youth in bucharest raluca works in one of the poorest neigh-bourhoods: ferentari. here her policy center for roma and Minorities tries to create alternatives for school drop outs. their alternative education club which is created by three schools offers children a safe haven and a creative space with sports, cultural activities and debates. the centre is also involved in the debate in the neighbour-hood programme in which they offer a mix of different communication skills like debate and street dance. since (roma) children will make the difference the coming years, she would explain her prime Minister how she wants a change for them by youth mobilisation and critical debate. she would kindly invite politicians to learn from youth how to debate better in politics and listen to roma youth.


‘when people can’t share what’s on

their heart they be-come frustrated.’

souraya kichouhi (21): Share what’s on your heartsouraya works for combiwel, where she connects youth to society through educative methods like debate training and diverse games. they invite professionals from mu-nicipalities to be engaged in their trainings, in order for young people to learn to talk to them and vice versa. she is very proud of the project changing the neighbourhood. she started working with really shy youngsters two years ago. now here they are talking publicly and in english. one of them even went into politics. she would love to share thoughts with a communistic chinese leader to explain why openness works. ‘when people can’t share what’s on their heart they become frustrated.’ she would also like to know what we can learn from their system.


‘engaging young people in society is a

necessity, oth-erwise they

alienate from it even further

than they al-ready did.’

Maryanne olson:Youth as equals inspire usThis meeting felt very important to Maryanne from

the Open Society Foundation to get a better under-

standing of the My City Real World methodology,

organisations and young people. According to her:

‘Engaging young people in society is a necessity,

otherwise they alienate from it even further than they

already did.’ Maryanne can hardly wait to hear the

opinions of a police officer and youth in the MCRW

track. This cultural exchange also feeds her curiosity

to hear from young people from the UK and France.

What are their experiences on the streets? How do

they want things to be? She’s very proud of the My

City Real World and DIN portfolio, especially of how

lessons learned from one project are used in the

other.

‘engaging young people in society is a necessity, other-wise they alienate

from it even further than they already

did.’


KEYNOTES in churchThe programme kicked off on the Saturday in the old hid-den church of the Rode Hoed. The day was closed on the church couch with a public debate on My City Real World and the launch of the project’s toolkit.

CONNECTING YOUTH TO SOCIETY May 9th – May 12th, 2014 | 13CONNECTING YOUTH TO SOCIETY May 9th – May 12th, 2014 | 13

KEYNOTES in church

‘With my passion to link people through communication I’ll only be

satisfied if Diederik and I’ve man-aged to guide the group process in

a way that everybody felt listened to and if concrete results are met

through our methods.’

Nadia McArthur (DOCK20)

‘Young people in society shouldn’t feel neglected, but connected. The goal of our weekend is to share amongst ourselves, both youth and professionals, how we can support youth who grow up under difficult circumstances to raise their voices.’

Yvonne Heselmans (IDEA Nl)

‘Saturday we will be down-loading, Sunday uploading and on Monday consolidating information about what it means to link youth to socie-ty. We’ll co-create our vision through collaborative learn-ing.’

Diederik Bosscha (DOCK20)

‘I challenge the group to think about the radical aspects of the concept of youth

participation. Being young, means being in transition and is not easy at all. What if

young people don’t want to participate? What if they intimidate each other? What

if they protest against government or even organise terrorism? And how can

you involve non-educated young people to debate?’ Be aware of this tension field.

Take a positive approach by motivating and educating through dialogue.’

Dr Judith Metz (lecturer on applied sciences at HvA)

the triggering questions im-mediately led to confessions on youth participation by the participants. one of them said: ‘laughter is necessary to make youth participation suc-cessful.’ another participant added: ‘participation should be non-violent.’ and last but not least: ‘participation is learning how to adapt, behave and do the right things.’


MY CITY REAL WORLD goes global

the track ii participants learned all

about My city real world (Mcrw).

facilitators Maartje and talmud gave

them a taster training with exercis-

es from the Mcrw toolkit and the

participation of police officers and

youth from Mcrw gouda.

Tackle ethnic profilingit is not a secret that youth and police sometimes have a tense relationship. there can be a lot of anger and emotion between both groups. Mcrw started in the uk to tackle ethnic profiling of youth by the police. although brief encounters had been organised before, a project like second wave where police and youth met each other over the course of a year was new and more suc-cessful. so successful, that the example was brought to gouda in the netherlands, where riots between youth and police had broken out previously, by the open socie-ty foundation, in cooperation with idea. police officers, a youth worker from gouda and Mcrw facilitators talmud and Maartje shared the success of that project on saturday with the whole exchange group. giovanna Midgley of idea uk launched the Mcrw toolkit after that, with methods to integrate youth and police in order for them to improve their often troubled relationship.

‘To meet each other personally and really getting to know each

other helps in our daily work.’

Arjan Kasius (Policeman MCRW)


Talmud Bah & Maartje van Amersfoort


‘Games and compe-tition help to connect

youth and police.’

Maartje van Amersfoort (facilitator MCRW)

Good cop, bad copMaartje (nickname: Mother of Mcrw gouda) knows from experience, both young people and cops love to win so badly that they forget their differences. once you have laughed together, you can take feedback more eas-ily. she is proud to hear police officer lilly say that she experiences the advantages of Mcrw every day. lilly: ‘we are seen as the good cops from the project now.’ co adds: ‘i have been freed from my negativity. it was also a mirror for ourselves. we have to treat everybody the way we want to be treated.’ a change of behaviour is seen on both sides. the police listens to young people more. although the youngsters in gouda didn’t want to be greeted by their names on the streets, they did great the policy by name at the yearly fun fair: ‘hi arjan!’ it was the quietest fun fair in years.


‘My City Real World should go global! It’ll

work everywhere!’Talmud Bah

(facilitator MCRW)

A tremendousjourneyat the beginning of the project it was a great challenge to convince both youth and policemen to be in one room together. the gouda youth joined only because of their trust in youth worker Mohammed. according to deputy chief arjan, some of his colleagues were reluctant to take a first step as well: ‘due to their negative expe-riences. through our participation in Mcrw we also started an internal discussion and had to make internal changes to succeed.’ in the uk new recruits learn from second wave and in antwerp they are educated by police how to work with youth. though more hard data are necessary for funders, small changes can be seen at this early stage. according to jaap noorda in the Mcrw movie: ‘an atomic reaction starts with two molecules. the explosion has huge effects.’ when talmud asks po-licemen, youth and participants to imitate an explosion during an energiser, a window breaks. proof enough of Mcrw’s power?! belgium and france committed to start with Mcrw over the weekend. talmud and the track ii participants feel Mcrw works everywhere and should go global!


‘A rap is like a poem to a

rhythm. In rap you can share

reality.’

MC Excellent


WORK OUT workshops

Not only the uncountable stairs in the Rode Hoed offered a good work-out, the workshops too presented a range of both energising and ex-ercising methods to digest food for thought.

The participants arrived on Friday the 9th of May and started the event with icebreaker games like speed dating to get to know each other.

the saturday workshops all tackled different sides of debate programmes. one looked into the issue of sus-tainability of debate in the neighbourhood programmes with examples from din hungary, uk, the netherlands and slovakia. advocacy was made simple by giovanna of idea uk. in another workshop participants brainstormed on how to integrate people with disabilities which brought thirty-seven new ideas. ‘Mc excellent’s rap workshop was excellent.’ furthermore, people learned about debate, film and moot courts.the participants discussed questions and successful experiences in the afternoon during an appreciative inquiry. while real conversations happen at the bar and not in the conference room afterwards, the following questions were answered in world cafés: what are challenges for youth

today? how can professionals support youth? how can debate be promoted at the international level? the partic-ipants thought a project worked best if it was executed locally by creating a learning space for youth with a focus on skill building, listening and openness. they felt it impor-tant to embrace different ideologies, broader than debate. there was a call for the creation of an international network with a clear aim and where results could be shared through meetings and online connectivity.

participants were offered an open space on sunday to present their work in two rounds. this resulted in work-shops on debate championships by tunisia, youth participa-tion by idea nl, the balloon game, a taster training on My city real world, ‘belleville for real’ on sharing experiences in france and workshops on how to use theory of change and planning, Monitoring and evaluating by jan brouwer and arjan luijer. five new projects were designed in the afternoon.

MC Excellent



‘Film and debate can be used by youth to talk about difficult issues. Film has a different impact and adds to words.’

‘We have to support youth to make their dreams explicit and let them inspire us for change. For mon-itoring and evalua-tion you need a clear plan. And you have to navigate: nothing in life is a straight line, we are working in complex circum-stances.’

‘Debate structures are a good means for advocacy. You can find allies even where you don’t ex-pect them.’

Ivet

Jan en Arjan

Giovana


André en lucas

‘We see the fruits of debate in Hungary

ripening. We engaged young people in poli-tics. They learned rea-

son, openness and citi-zenship.’


‘Get closer! A label is just a label. Let’s cre-ate a place where young people and disabled youth can meet each other, because this isn’t happening enough.’

‘Doing active de-bate exercises and sharing tips and tops about IDEA NL’s financial in-clusion project ‘Mind your Wal-let’, not only the participants but also the trainers were inspired to share their ideas and construct ar-guments in a SEXI way.’

Juultje en Anita

Joost en Roos


as member of the idea nl advisory board yvonne was asked to work as executive director and started out in february 2011. at that time a successful debate in the neighbourhood (din) pilot was already initiated by doutzen langhout. it was their dream to enroll din in different european cities. also idea members integrated the din concept in their programmes in eastern and now also western europe. their dream came true.

narrowing the gap between young people and authorities through debate is the driving force why yvonne heselmans works for idea. a debate in kiel (belgium) between youth and police was therefore very motivating for yvonne. especially, the words one guy spoke, she will never forget. he said: ‘i don’t want to pass the hatred my parents feel, on to my little broth-ers.’ this boy wanted to make a change in his behavior towards the police and wanted that the police and other authorities listened to the voices of young people. now, in more than 15 locations young disadvantaged youth have learned to debate and to interact with authorities. yvonne adds: ‘i’m also very proud that our Mayor of amsterdam will visit combiwel to see their results of the debate for change project.’

thanks to energetic youth, the wise partners, her strong team, the (advisory) board and all other peoplethat supports idea nl, idea is able to facilitate young people in making their change. yvonne thinks it’s great that during this exchange weekend a lot of people felt inspired to be trained by idea nl to execute debate in the neighbourhood themselves. she concludes: ‘i’m happy with our joint european network and friendship, because change is driven by trust, commitment and experience.’

IDEA Nl TOWARDS A JOINT EUROPEAN NETWORK to connect youth to societyAn interview with Yvonne Heselmans on her dream for a joint European Network to connect Youth to Society and the in-troduction of the IDEA NL team.


Anne valkering (33). this debate advocate and former world champi-on dares to act and figure out later if she should have been afraid. she works with debate organisations in lots of countries to improve young people’s debate skills and promote their understanding of european issues. yet again she is inspired by the potential to spread uses of debate to more and more places and settings.

Roos Keja, (32) takes playing more seriously than most other things in life. by giving accessible debate trainings with simple ex-ercises around financial problems she hopes to connect youth to society. this conference has inspired her to fight for meaning-ful youth participation, not only in idea projects, but way beyond.

Joost leys (32) ) is very brave in confronting his own fears. he tries to connect youth to society through the Mind your wallet program of idea nl by getting them into debate whit stakehold-ers about financial inclusion. the din weekend was a true inspira-tion for him and really opened his eyes to what was already going on in our field.

Roeland Hemsteede (26) just loves debate. for idea he organises trainings and events to (mainly) connect (1st/2nd/3rd) generation migrant youth more to mainstream society. he enjoyed co-organizing this exchange because it transcends borders and inspires people to cooperate and make a meaningful impact in young people’s live. it has been very motivating for him to see so many people from different back-grounds dedicated to this cause.

IDEA Nl TOWARDS A JOINT EUROPEAN NETWORK to connect youth to society

‘I had a dream for a joint European net-

work before. With this exchange and through your par-

ticipation and com-mitment this dream

came true.’

Yvonne Heselman

Kiza Magendane (22) is a polit-ical science student and above all a connector. he likes to follow the african inclusion advocacy programme and organise dinners. at the exchange he connected with new people, exchanged ideas and got new inspiration.


NExT steps? Participants used Monday the 12th of May to

consolidate the information by connecting the

dots and formulating the next steps.

they discussed ways in which debate, focused on skill development, could be stretched out more with other methods like art, dance and journalism. they sought other ways to broaden debate as well: by finding new partner organisations, a net-work with clear aims and online connectivity.

the discussed and thought through five new pro-jects and will now develop them further. idea will support partners with their proposals and hopes to find even more partners in the future.

please start by joining our facebook group and following us on twitter (#Idebatenl and #iDebate).

Simone Bommeljé (37) has a passion to jump into new chil-dren’s rights and communication adventures like alice in wonder-land. she can’t think of a better way to start her new challenge with the idea nl team than meeting you all at this exchange. as new din programme manag-er she can’t wait to start pro-gramme designing, fundraising and communicating for idea.

Samantha Siewertsen (30) is a creative and out-of-the-box think-er. she approaches strangers and puts in extra effort to help people. samantha organised the din exchange weekend. for her the weekend flew by. to her the fact that some felt it was their best weekend ever alone was worth all the effort. she hopes that all participants enjoyed the event and amsterdam. she got a lot of positive energy from the meeting.

Nikish vita (25) stands for a world where each youngster (in congo and the netherlands) lives in security. she advocates at idea to give african youth a voice in europe. political participa-tion is a must for her and them. she learned to collaborate with youth from different countries at the conference. exchanging information and good practices is very important. therefore, she believes that connecting 500 european youngsters with 500 congolese is a good start of in-ternational cooperation for peace and development.

Sabine Koppes (24) got involved with idea nl through her partic-ipation in the project inclusion of african youth. recently, she also started working for the organisa-tion ‘we are here’ to help undoc-umented refugees. she tries to involve refugees and get them interested in politics through debate and by giving them tools to change their position. she isn’t afraid to contact politicians and ask them critical questions about their policies.

Methodmix (kinga, andi, raluca, filip, jacob and lucas) an unconvential mixing of methods based on the interest of roma children and teenagers to connect them closer to society, e.g. volunteering, slam poetry, juggling and debate.

Hotblood: delphine and nouri together with project caller yosri jerby designed the project hotblood to stop violence on streets and univer-sities in tunesia. they will organise a platform and debate training and competition on the topic of violence.

Debatechange (david, Mariana, roos and simone) idea nl will call for a project where young people participate in changing the world to one that suits them better, by debate and other methods.

Act local, think global (jakub, banik, souraya duja, flora and tomas) a skill development project through debate in the neighbourhood and change the neighbourhood to make small changes in their own community and eventually in society.

sabine of ‘we are here’ will be project caller for Debate for change for undocumented refugees.

PROGRAMME designing:


NExT steps? THE

TOURIST track

PROGRAMME designing:

We started out on Friday evening with dinner in Bel-gian restaurant Lieve. Here some of you didn’t know half of what was on the menu: Pork cheeks? Beer chicken? The menu on the Pancake boat was easier to grasp. Unfortunately, our boat only left shore during the dessert because of strong winds. On Sunday after-noon after the presentation of Anne Frank’s debate pro-gramme Free2Choose by Maja Nenadovic, participants were free to visit the Anne Frank House.

‘This was the best weekend of my life!’


chain of ClOSURE

We checked out this ex-change, with the chain of closure. What do you bring back home?

‘The DIN lessons will help with my work. As US national speech and debate organisa-tion I would have liked to add another track on competitive

debate.’

‘My former scepticism quickly disap-peared. Debate can be a use in itself. I felt the presentations on DIN were im-

portant. There were two highlights: how young people were involved as equals during this exchange and the focus on ideas. I hope I can give back, because I

received a lot.’

‘A lot of games’

‘We came to a great idea and found a new

partner.’

‘I found the moot court workshop really

inspiring.’

‘I was amazed by the di-versity and easiness how

everyone tapped into each other’s lives.’

‘I like to thank Sa-mantha for organis-

ing this event.’

‘I grasped the full poten-tial of debate. As non-de-

bate organisation I’ll include it in our work.’

‘I only knew debate as form of competition, now I’ve seen it is also useful

for inclusion.’

‘This was one of the best programmes I’ve

ever been on.’

‘It’s not about how fast you grow, but about the journey that you follow.’

‘Despite my different expectation, it was

very inspiring and we had fun together.’

‘I like to thank for this opportunity of people of Africa to be included. Tune-sia only just now has a right to speak freely. We are on the road, let’s keep driving! I invite you all to Tunesia!’

‘I will be taking almost 7 kilos of books and will implement the learned

skills in my classes.’


‘we are not the only jungle fighters. there are dreamers worldwide.’


partner.’

‘I’d like to see the de-signed projects material-ised and hope we don’t lose the momentum.’


partner.’

‘If one or two designed projects make it, this

would already be a great achievement!’

‘I’m surprised and happy to see that debate is used successfully as method in

countries.’

‘A big thank you to IDEA Nl! The new skills I learned, will come in

handy.’

‘I forgot my task list thanks to the high quality of the programme. I will

bring the small talks.’

‘I understood why debate is so important and will re-establish our debate

club.’

‘If we keep in touch, we can do a thousand

projects together in future.’

‘Due to the structure, flow and various meth-ods, this was one of the best events I’ve been at.’

‘Beautiful memories will remain about dreams and

amazing Amsterdam.’

‘I only knew debate as form of competition, now I’ve seen it is also useful

for inclusion.’

‘I gained renewed strength to continue my work as youth worker.’

‘This was the best weekend of my life! I’m very thankful and hope we’ll meet again soon.’

‘If we keep in touch, we can do a thousand projects together in future.’

‘This was my first inter-national exchange. Be-

sides our differences we had loads in common.’

‘I’ve never participated in anything like this

before. It was awesome, I’ll have a lot to digest.’


second wave in goudayoung people from the ‘alouan’ youth centre and of-ficers of gouda started project My city real world in the autumn of 2011 to rebuild trust between the two groups. they met every month for 10 months in workshops run by external facilitators to learn about one another, discuss concerns, and find solutions to the hostility that had been playing out between many dutch-Moroccan young people and police officers in the streets of gouda. this video shows their story. check it here.

in name of my friendshipis a fictive movie made by combiwel youth during the 2013 debate in the neighbourhood project changing the neighbourhood. in name of my friendship tells a story about friendship and choic-es. choosing the right or the wrong path? will there be a happy end?

neighbourhood in changean introduction of changing the neighbourhood, an idea project in deprived neighbourhoods, held in cooperation with d’broeij, kras, combiwel. by coaching and training youth and using debate to influence policies in different ways, youth and their youth workers got confidence that they can make a change at schools and in their neighbourhoods. what changes were made?

connecting youth to society exchange, the movie a compilation of the exchange made by ivet pieper, starring yourselves as movie stars.

MOvIE releases

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBa0DPdEznU


Read for more information on IDEA Nl and IDEA international: nl.idebate.org and idebate.org.

Share your tweets on your experience on Twitter #idebatenl

Join us and check your photos on facebook.

Ono-ono, magazine on the spot: www.ono-ono.nl.ono-ono is japanese for: so many men, so many words.

the ono-ono, magazine on the spot team will capture your event and the participants in words and photos in your own magazine, which will make your event, last even longer. Contact for your ono-ono magazine and/or inter-

active magazine making with you(th): simone bommeljé: +31 6 41 50 99 62.

This time, the ono-ono team consisted of:Editing: simone bommeljé, www.simonebommelje.com

Photography: richard van herwaarden, www.rvhfoto.nl and ton sonneveldt.

Graphic design: Martinique salomons

COlOPHON

MOvIE releases

https://www.facebook.com/groups/646414898761455/?fref=ts

Documents

Connecting youth to society