– PRESS RELEASE –

 

100 young people will flock to Leeds this Friday evening to participate in a National Youth Meeting ‘’Young Pride’’ in order to share and evaluate the projects they have experienced over the last six years thanks to European Commission funding.

 

Many are coming from Yorkshire, but we will also young people from all around the UK. They don’t yet know each other, they all have very different backgrounds (young people with high levels of social exclusion will join with graduates) but all share a common point: they participated in an international project during the last six years supported by the European Commission either through the Youth In Action or the Lifelong Learning programme.  Some volunteered in African hospitals, others participated in a training or vocational workshops in Europe or Latin America, the experiences, like the participants have been diverse and Young Pride will give these young people a chance for Evaluation and Celebration followed by the opportunity to make Recommendations to the European Commission for the future Youth and Education programmes which will commence 2014.

 

Rebecca Gosh from Huddersfield, 29 years old, went in India in 2011 to volunteer for 1 month. She says: “My dream was to work with children but I didn’t have the skills to fulfil this. After my one month volunteering project in India, I now have developed the skills to pursue my dream.”

 

Azeem volunteered in 2004 in Norway. Eight years after he said:  “Most of all my time In Norway further cemented my future goals, aspirations, and where I wanted to be in life as the trip greatly increased my confidence. I am originally from a tough council estate and my life could have ended up very different I hadn’t had the determination to succeed in life.”

 

During this two day event (1st and 2nd March), organised by Everything Is Possible and supported by the British Council, young people will be invited to share their experience, celebrate their achievement and discover ways to capitalise on it. They will be many different workshops to help them: Poetry Slam; International CV writing; celebrating through Drama, Graffiti impact clocks; Radio workshops, and many others.

 

But the objective of this event is not only to celebrate the achievements these young people have made but also to show to EU policy makers that these programmes really work and have had huge impact on the lifes of young people. Information will be collected to inform them of direct youth recommendations relating to these two programmes.

 

Clair Brown, co-founder of Everything is Possible, said: ‘’For the past 12 years Everything Is Possible has helped young people specifically but not exclusively with fewer opportunities, to gain self-confidence and increase personal and professional skills by participating in international opportunities supported by the European Commission and the UK National Agencies ECORYS and the British Council. We hope these opportunities will continue and have arranged this event to ensure that the young people we support have the chance to have their voices heard”

 

For more information or if you want to come at this event and have the chance to interview some young people, please contact Raphael Harfaux raphael@everythingispossible.eu. We will publish pictures of the event from the 1st March on http://51youngpride.blogspot.co.uk/p/press-release.html

 

Notes to editor:

Everything is Possible (non-for-profit organisation based in Leeds)  specialise in offering international opportunities to individuals aged between 18-30 years old, specifically but not exclusively targeting young people with fewer opportunities.