Inclusion


Youth in Europe - Better Europe | Conference on the role of youth organisations in supporting refugee inclusion

On 2-4 November 2017, the National Youth Card Association - the EYCA member organisation in Bulgaria - teamed up with the National Youth Forum, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the European Commission representation in the country to organise a conference on how youth organisations can help to support the better inclusion of young refugees in education, the labour market and society.

Entitled "Youth in Europe - Better Europe", the conference provided around 60 participants from 20 countries the space to discuss topics related to refugee inclusion and to put forward ideas to European policy makers on how to improve access to social rights for young refugees.

The aim of the conference was to bring together the stakeholders in the field and support them to:

  • develop a common concept of good practice in supporting the affected group, including the role of youth organisations;
  • open a dialogue between policy makers and youth organisation;
  • create a follow-up action plan in 2018.

The conference allowed for various perspectives to the presented and debated. Participants included representatives of national youth councils, international youth organisations, the Red Cross Refugee Migrant Service, trade unions, the Department of Youth & Community Studies of the University of Malta, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the Ministry of Youth and Sport of Bulgaria, UNHCR, European Youth Forum, the National Youth Forum of Bulgaria, etc. The special guest of the conference was Madeleine Maxwell Hart, Project Coordinator from the Amel Association International, Lebanon.

The international conference was the second phase of the project "The role of youth organisations for better inclusion of refugees in education, the labour market and societyā€¯. The project started with an analysis of the problem at the national level and ended with a final report which summarised all the information both on the national and EU levels.

The Conference report is available here.