Yesterday, it was made official that ECYC's Andrea Casamenti, who has been our Project Manager since 2014, is one of the 11 candidates for the position of Board member of the European Youth Forum, the platform of youth organisations in Europe. To read his application for the position, click here, while if you want to know who the other candidates are, click here.

Andrea is mainly interested in the Youth Work and Volunteering portfolio. He claims that youth work has never received as much attention from national governments and EU institutions as it does today. Having recently completed writing a Masters’ thesis on this topic, he strongly believes that the growing interest in youth work at EU level represents a crucial opportunity to include the messages of youth organisations in the decision-making process. Now is the time to advocate for better validation of the competences acquired through youth work, for more recognition of youth work as a profession, for better funding for youth work and youth organisations and for other youth-work related issues. Youth work needs to be firmly connected and embedded within the wider youth policy debate, where it can provide a critical contribution. Andrea is convinced that, in the framework of its work plan for the next three years, the European Youth Forum must influence the debates and decisions on these topics, for instance through meetings with representatives of the European Commission, events targeting MEPs and consultations with Member Organisations.

Concerning volunteering, on the one hand, he welcomes the creation of a European Solidarity Corps, which Juncker announced in his 2016 State of the Union address, as this will lead to the opening of a policy window. On the other hand, he believes that the European Youth Forum must do its best to ensure that the extra 200 million Euros allocated to the Erasmus+ programme for 2017-2020 will not be used solely for this new initiative. EVS and volunteering opportunities in general need not only to be properly funded, but also to be implemented in the right way and to be acknowledged as rewarding experiences for the community and for the volunteer's personal development. Not to mention, the important role of volunteers within youth organisations needs to be properly and adequately recognised.

If you would like to show your support to Andrea or ask him questions, contact him at ecycsecretariat@fcjmp.be

And do not forget to support him and tell others about him!