Four ways to make the most of your experience at the World Council, after you've gone home

The jet lag has passed, inbox cleared, and I’ve began putting together our Christmas campaign in the middle of this heatwave. It’s easy to return to our day jobs, but I needed to take five minutes to ask myself a question.

In what other organisation, could I, as a 27 year old fundraiser, have an opportunity to sit side-by-side with CEOs, trustees and other young people, and discuss issues that matter?

The answer is none.

The World Council was a forum that allowed me to discuss (and to be listened to), to learn, and at times even challenge. I’m lucky to have experienced it, but how can you and I continue to make the most of these opportunities, after it’s all over?

Make the most of meeting those within your own delegation

I have got a bag full of business cards, and I bet you do too. Now is the time to use them.

For me, meeting colleagues from across the country was invaluable. I was able to find out what they do for young people in their YMCA, what projects they run, and learn about why they are passionate about this movement. I’ve started to plan visits to YMCAs I’ve never been to, and now I know which of my colleagues I can contact, I’ve already got two meetings in the calendar!

 Make the most of having made international contacts

You can experience YMCA anywhere in the world – seize the opportunity!

In Chiang Mai, I met the Chair of the National Board of Korean YMCAs who invited me to meet him during my holiday. Days after the closing ceremony, I was sitting in Seoul, with Anh and Kim of the Korean National Council.

We enjoyed a delicious meal together whilst discussing the campaigns going on in England and Wales, and Kim told me how his father fled the North aged seven, and that the ban of crossing the border had prevented him from meeting his paternal family for his entire life.

Our Korean colleagues explained their hopes to bring a YMCA into the North of Korea. The government forbids South Koreans to cross the border to the North, and vice versa, so there had been meetings in China with North Korean Church leaders. They were passionate about giving the youth of the North the same opportunities as those in the South, who were already able to access the YMCA youth clubs. Their excitement was touching.

They also proudly told me that the current South Korean president, Moon Jae-In, previously worked for YMCA!

With YMCA175 being hosted in England next year, we will all be able to have an international experience at home.

Continue to feel inspired.

Remember what gave you that ‘wow’ moment.

I met a man from a Pacific Island whose main source of income for his YMCA was selling chickens. I met a seventeen year old girl from Hong Kong who came from family living in poverty, who was being supported in her education by YMCA. I met a gentleman from Palestine who talked about the impact of conflict on the young people in his country and how his YMCA was there to support them.

These people are facing different challenges to us, but meeting them made me realise that we’re the same. And we’re all linked by one movement. That was my ‘wow’ moment.

Realise our impact

Our work has an impact on the rest of the world… be proud!

People would explain that in their country they are facing issues such as dealing with an HIV epidemic, child marriage or living in a war zone. I’m ashamed to say I had started to think that people would not be interested to hear about issues being tackled in my country.

But then, Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda's keynote speech changed my mind. She spoke about injustices facing young people including poverty, sexual violence and exploitation. She then went on to discuss that she feels frustrated that tackling mental health difficulties is not prioritised in her country. This stopped me in my tracks - it hadn’t occurred to me that this was a worldwide issue.

We are fortunate to have the resources to do something to help in this country; something that can be shared with the rest of the world. I started to notice people from all continents posing for photos with a circle drawn on their hand, and felt moved.

YMCA’s work in this country is amazing. It took going halfway across the world for me to realise that. And I’m so grateful that I did.

Small Seeds by Stephanie Hillier

We came from all over the world

Into a group we were hurled

We explored stories untold

And watched the ideas unfold

Young people need to lead our service

It’s essential as our communities deserve this

The theme was young people in the driving seat

We welcome their learnings to talk, to greet

Let’s guide them and watch them grow

And their ideas and passion will clearly show

They are the key to prevention

The possibilities too many to mention

Education and mental health to meet Individual needs

Big change will come from these small seeds

With heart at the centre of all we think

We will ensure young people don’t sink

Connect, listen, trust and empower

Young people can stand as strong as the tallest tower

In any language  empowerment sounds like opportunity and hope

Young people, YMCA can throw you that rope

Grow strong and claim your right

The world needs your insight

By Stephanie Hillier

YMCA Norfolk

An empowering Massage (Message)

I was pummelled yesterday afternoon! Taking advantage of a break in the programme and inspired by Duncan and Emma (YMCA England and Wales Board members) I decided to go for my first Thai Massage. Entering the shop near to the conference centre I was ushered into the room where there were other people receiving their very own treatment. An hour later I had been pulled, pushed, thumped, twisted and stretched. I had bones crack that I didn’t know could be cracked and I found soreness that I didn’t know existed until it was worked on. However, despite the workover I emerged feeling relaxed, energised and motivated to return with vigour to the conference.

In some ways the World Conference has been a bit like a good Thai massage. We have been thrown into a room of people we don’t know, we have been challenged about youth empowerment and had our opinions stretched by people from different countries and cultures. We have learnt about things that we didn’t even know were issues but in so doing we have been motivated to return to the UK in the next few days with a fresh energy and vigour. 

So as we approach the end of this wonder World conference I wonder what your ‘take homes’ will be. What is it that you will return to your work in England and Wales with that you have learned and gained from your time in Thailand that you then want to share with your friends and colleagues. For me personally there have been several key things, some of which I thought I would share with you here:

1. This is an exciting movement to be part of. Whilst many of our Associations in the UK are over 100 years old the work of the YMCA is still expanding and reaching new countries and communities around the world. I was particularly struck by the story of the YMCA in Kosovo which is now older than the country itself, having been established by a 23 year old young lady just 10 years ago!
2. Mental Health is a global issue: In our small group we have shared the challenges around mental health and how different countries are trying to respond to the challenges. We have talked about how the YMCA can achieve a greater impact by working together, sharing resources as well as a focus to make a difference
   
3. Inspired young people create inspiring events: the opening ceremony and the facilitation of the small groups are just two ways I saw the global Change Agents add some creative skills and compassionate heart to the conference. As a English and Welsh movement we need to make sure we continue to put young people at the heart of what we do.
   
4. It is our turn next: the next global YMCA gathering is in London in just over 12 months time. YMCA 175 is set to be an important event in London that will connect thousands of young leaders from across the world. We need to follow in the footsteps of the YMCA Chiang Mai in looking to put on a quality event that will have a legacy that builds towards 2044. 

There is much more I have enjoyed, not least the many dozens of YMCA stories from people from countries such as Malaysia, Czech Republic, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Germany, Hong Kong and Japan.

Just as emerged from my Thai massage with fresh energy and I am now empowered to take the message from this land of smiles and conference back to my YMCA in London knowing that there are many others doing the same to all the continents across the world. I hope you do too!

My first YMCA World Council

Written by Richard Hughes

YMCA World Council is a difficult to thing to express in words. But I’m going to give it a try, so here it goes.

The sheer size and scale of the YMCA is truly phenomenal.

I often find myself going through the motions of writing down in reports that we are largest and oldest youth charity in the world and talking about the millions of people we work with each year.

But it is only when you come to World Council that these words truly come to life.

In what other spaces in the world can you sit with colleagues from Liberia to talk about your different experiences of developing a youth manifesto for an election?

In what other spaces in the world can you catch up with colleagues in Uruguay to talk about the stigma that still surrounds mental health difficulties?

And in what other spaces in the world can these conversations happen within a few minutes of each other?

Of course every country faces their own unique circumstances.

But what has been both eye-opening and amazing from World Council so far has been uncovering the common issues and challenges that young people face across the world.

The more conversations I have with my colleagues around the world, the more determined I am to do more.

The next few days I just need to work out how!

Richard

Inspiration & Creating Change

I cant possibly start this blog post without mentioning our defeat in the World Cup last night. As much as it was disappointing, watching the game with YMCAs from across England & Wales created a real sense of unity as we were collectively rooting for England. This made me think that this is similar to all YMCAs working towards the same mission to Empower our youth for good.  It was an experience I will never forget.

Day 4 of the conference started with our group sessions. I know i may be bias but I have been blessed with a wonderful group who are equal parts passion and drive. Today we started by discussing those that we have met through the YMCA that have inspired us. This posed quite the conundrum as so many people have inspired me during my time at YMCA Birmingham.
My managers and colleagues have always believed in me, encouraged me to progress and have the confidence to try new things.
I have been completely inspired by my group at the world council. We have all shared amazing stories about our YMCA and have many similarities regarding our mission to Empower. I have been humbled by the difficulties that some YMCAs face yet the drive and compassion to support their communities, does not waiver. It has made me appreciative and inspired me to want to work more closely with other YMCAs to ensure we are able to achieve the biggest impact.

We also discussed how important it is to ensure we maintain contact and we have even discussed visiting other YMCAs to share our particular expertise.

I am excited to announce that we have created a WhatsApp group in order to maintain contact and continue our conversations after the conference. We will all be returning to our YMCAs to share best practise we have learnt. We want to encourage inter-YMCA communication at all levels. We spoke about owning who you are and what you know and sharing this.

I was also fortunate to pin trade during the group...which I love doing and was gifted a Bombay YMCA t shirt. I love a souvenir!

 

After group sessions we attended the 'Our Journey Together' and the partnership forum. This was regarding the partnership with YMCA and the Harlem Globetrotters. The presentation was brilliant and what I learnt is that they too have a mission much like the YMCA to Empower people. I especially liked that there is an awareness of gender equality and now one of their most popular stars is a woman. Howard Smith said that they aim to 'create memories worth repeating'. This really resonated with me. To top it off we listened to the stars and how the ymca impacted on their lives in a positive way. I believe we do not always know the impact we can have...it does not necessarily take an army to bring about a positive change. 

The icing on the cake was a sweatband...remember I love a souvenir. 

We have been working hard on our presentation...now I won't be giving away any spoilers, but we believe our presentation is symbolic of what we are trying to achieve. Watch out for group 14! 

One of my favourite parts of the day is when we get to meet and network with other YMCAs. I find it very powerful and inspiring to listen to others and it spurs me on and makes me proud to be a part of the YMCA movement. This is also a fabulous opportunity to pin trade. 

Would you get the offer of free hugs at any other world council...i don't think so!

The final forum I attended today was Movement Strengthening...specifically about our mission. I left there thinking about why I do the work that I do, why my YMCA does the work that we do. The answer is that we have the drive and determination to make a positive impact on the youth we work with. 

Group 14 #DreamTeam

I cannot wait to get back to my YMCA and share all the ideas I have. This has been a truly inspiring experience, I have a renewed desire to become involved in more campaigns, to build strong networks and to better the work that I do. 

I believe everyone should have the opportunity to attend a world conference. 

Thank you 

Adele Biddle 

Wow what a day!

Wow What a Day

It is now 21:00 and after a very quick shower this is the first opportunity we have had to sit down and think about our blog.

Where to start, well if we are doing things in chronological order we had better start with the group meetings.  For Peter this started with a fascinating discussion about how the YMCA in Chennai are supporting the Tamils, ether returning from Sri Lanka as returners or refugees (it is important to understand the difference between the two) with the refugees needing a lot of support with conflict resolution and training.

Peter was also inspired by Gritt (from Denmark’s) passion to get the young people of Denmark involved in recycling.

Beth felt her group really bonded today.  When talking about the problems facing the young people in YMCA’s globally and the challenges local branches are feeling, the group discovered that from England to Peru, Panama to Sweden, across the pond to Canada and back to Germany and Romania many of the challenges are the same.  Many YMCA’s are beginning to open doors, invite the community in and become more inclusive, but for a lot of the group, really understanding our young people and what they need is a challenge. 
Olivia’s group agreed and recognised that mental health is a real issue across the globe. Feeling as though a high standard of training is a must, to understand the different areas of mental health, but also how to support those who have a mental health illness.

After lunch the YMCA party, which consists of 6 of us, all headed off in different directions to join the group excursions.  After a tour of Chiang Mai walls, Peter’s group went to a temple where he was honoured to plant a tree and as a result become wedded to that temple.

I say honoured but this was not a ceremonial placing a spade full of dirt on prepared plant but 15 minutes of proper graft in the hot sun.  Still it’s a good job done and Peter says he will now need to make regular trips back to Chaing Mai to check on its progress.  I wander if our YMCA will pay for this?

Beth’s group visited the Mon Tha Than Waterfall in Doi Sutep – Pui National Park, followed by a visit to the Buddhist Palad Temple.  Beth really enjoyed visiting the national park and getting out of the city for a few hours.  The nature trail (although muddy) was great fun and the group managed to spot butterflies, dragon flies and some great fluffy caterpillars.  However, the highlight of Beth’s day was the visit to the Temple, hosted by Prof . Dr Wasan Jompakdee from Chiang Mai University and one of the Temple monks.  The Temple was in the middle of the forest, surrounded by natural beauty and the group were taught how to correctly enter and leave a Temple, praying three times, and learnt how to sit correctly, keeping your feet facing away from the front of the temple.  Beth’s favourite quote of the day was from the Monk she met at the temple who said ‘Nature is an international language, listen to the waterfall, birds and forest and hear them, let them become your friends’ – Beth is taking this back to Fairthorne Manor to use with her Forest school group!

Olivia, Georgia and Katy’s group got the opportunity to visit YMCA international centre Chiang Mai where they had a presentation on Human trafficking and how they have been helping to tackle this problem since the new law was brought in, in 2008. They have come up with a great approach to this piece of vital work. After the presentation they got to have dinner with all the delegates in their group and watch a fantastic performance from the change agents.

Before they Visited the YMCA centre, they had a great time at the Elephant PooPoo paper park where they were taught how to make sustainable paper using Elephant poo. They were all very surprised that it didn’t smell bad and no chemicals or machinery were used. They then got to make the paper themselves and decorate their own note book to take home. Overall, they had lots of fun and found it very knowledgeable. This has given them great ideas on how we can use the same approaches within their own, early years and housing, work.

A final thought to end on

That’s it, its getting late and we need to prepare ourselves physically and mentally for tonight’s game.

Come on England

The Fairthorne Team

Soul in the YMCA Machine?

My perspective on World Council 2018 is perhaps a little different to most.

My main focus in attending the World Council has been to promote and encourage as many of the delegates as possible to view the play 'Soul in the Machine', a project that has lived with me for more than three years.

The play tells the story of Sir George Williams and the beginnings of YMCA.

As I reflect on the 3 years of developing this project, I can't quite believe that what started off as way unpacking our history for the team working at YMCA Humber has now found its way to Chiang Mai!?

That being said...whilst spending most of my time this week on the exhibition stand it is clear to see that this story is one that wants to be heard.

Conversations with Change Agents, Officers, Managers, Directors, Trustees and Presidents have highlighted just how rich  is in the 89 nations present, each YMCA demonstrating cultural and locally relevant services and programmes each with life transforming potential.

Such diversity and long standing unity across the world could not be maintained without a firm foundation and the interest in understanding how this was laid has great.

I write this blog during the first of six screenings, tonight showing in English, German and Korean, and tomorrow in Spanish, Japanese and a second screening in English making our story available to a greater audience whilst we are all gathered together.

If you want to know more about the play follow it on Twitter or Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/YMCASoul

https://twitter.com/YMCASoul

The council has focussed greatly on youth empowerment, and certainly with young people front and centre at this conference there has been a vibrancy I've never experienced within YMCA before.

How apt, that 175 years after 12 young men began this movement, we as YMCA are placing young people at the heart of the planning and delivery of our World Council.

I hope that this is just the start of YMCA genuinely allowing Young Men and Women to lead us within YMCA.

I best get back to the film...

19th YMCA World Council 2018

Blog written by Emma Osmundsen. Trustee YMCA England & Wales

It may be hot, it may be humid but as we gather as a YMCA family, it feels like paradise.

A kaleidoscopic of nations rejoined this morning for day 2 of the 19th YMCA World Conference. In anticipation of another busy day, I invested some small local currency to release a small basket of finches - for luck ....apparently!

Releasing the finches for me was not luck, it was enabling the finches freedom. 

Today’s theme is ENABLED FOR GOOD and the mornings devotions set the tone. The reading from 1 Timothy 4: 4-5, 7-12 recalled St Paul encouraging young Timothy to be an example, to be a leader that others emulate, and that his youth should be no barrier. Paul’s advice is to prepare yourself, be enabled, so that you can serve others. When we allow our skills, our abilities to be used by God ..... Paul says, we can do all things, through Christ at work within us.

The programme today has been packed, powerful and poignant, and that is before the evening’s entertainment starts! It has also been hard work as the morning was largely spent in working groups, discussing and debating the issues affecting young people across the globe. Sharing a working space with colleagues from every corner of the globe adds a degree of depth and experience unimaginable. From youth injustice in Zambia, unemployment in Japan, poverty and lack of education in Bangladesh, and poor self-esteem and youth mental health challenges in Germany, Denmark, Australia and the UK. Sadly many of the themes were uniform to all YMCA nations but the working group provided the space to share experiences, highlight opportunities for joint working and no doubt as the week progresses enable us to shape a common approach to dealing with some of these challenges for our young people. 

The challenges facing young people were reflected in the early afternoon’s presentation by Prof Marek Rymsza on the follow up research he has been conducting for the YMCA movement on ‘One Million Voices’ 2. This is follow up research on the original One Million Voices research conducted across 55 countries culminating in the largest survey of young people ever. Marek shared with us some of his preliminary findings highlighting 4 areas of concern for young people; employment, health, human rights and environment. Of particular interest was the recognition that young people identified 3 aspects of health: physical, psychological and spiritual and that they sought a balance of each. With regard to mental health, young people identified 5 main reasons for mental illness and disorder:

1. Stress

2. Internet and social media

3. Loneliness

4. Addictions to psychoactive substances

5. Unsafe living conditions

The conference stage welcomed Nyarrsdzayi Gumbonzvanda, a Human Rights Lawyer and former YWCA member for an inspirational speech on youth empowerment and active citizenship. She challenged us all to SPEAK UP! And SPEAK OUT! To go beyond the status quo,to deliver a clear and transformational agenda; to lead with impact; to harness the power of the rootedness of the YMCA movement and it’s legacy of never giving up and to further the evidence base for this work with more research and liberation of technology. 

The afternoon concluded with a Council Business Meeting featuring acceptance of the Safe Space Learning Report, the YMCA’s 2018-2022 Strategy and rememberance of former YMCA stalwarts including John Casey, Desta Girma, KM Philip, Erika Tysoe Duelken and  Phil Denison.

The day has certainly lived up to it’s theme, enabling for good, there is certainly lots to do but somehow being part of a global Christian movement gives you the sense that anything is possible.

Here’s to another evening of busy conference activity - I think the Harlem Globetrotters are in town!

First Morning at 19th YMCA World Council

Following a fairly early rise for breakfast at 7am with our national delegation, we crammed into a local red taxi to be taken back to the Empress Hotel. It was here that Purity Kiguatha led what seemed to be almost the whole World Council in a morning devotion – a time constituting fantastic worship, meaningful prayer and a powerful message on our creation for good purposes. This was begun by another traditional Thai dance.

Particularly poignant moments of the devotionals included Ernestine’s awe-inspiring rendition of Sinach’s ‘Waymaker’, as well as the morning’s inspirational art, which was an Indonesian sculpture placed underwater to help create a new coral reef, at a time of shrinking coral populations; truly important reminders of the consequences of our choices, and of our place as humanity.
An almost seamless transition into Johan V. Eltvik’s final speech as Secretary General ensued, during which, Johan took the entire room on a journey through his experiences of the last 4 years in his now-concluding role. Citing the 4 year old Our Way strategy, emphasising the incredible movement for youth empowerment and recounting fascinating memories of his time as Secretary General, it was indisputably a speech of global proportions, with memories from all across the planet, united by the YMCA. Through the videos, the ambiguous essence of the slogan “YE [youth empowerment] 4 Good” was really driven home, as the lasting impact of our work was demonstrated, whilst the powerful metaphor of seeing through the eyes of George Williams (our founder) was cleverly used with the presentation of the glasses themselves, even despite them not quite fitting Johan :)

Following this, a short coffee break, and then for voting delegates and observers, the business agenda. This is a time for tabling amendments to the constitution, and then for those voting to do so. While this overran, eventually helping to contribute to the group photo’s cancellation, it extension initiated an impromptu hokey-kokey, call and response activities, and singing. (much to the amusement of all those too 'boring' to join in!). However, any disappointment at its postponement was surely overcome by the prospect of lunch, anticipation for A/C, and high expectations for the afternoon. The photo shoot took place shortly afterwards.
 

(Joseph Clay) England & Wales

Monday 9^th July 2018

And I'm here.....19th World Council

After a long journey with not much feeling left in my pins & needles legs and not much sleep either it was all made better by a simple beaming smile from one of YMCA’s Chiang Mai’s volunteers greeting me as I walked through airport arrivals. The realisation struck me that I had arrived to the 19th World Council, something I had been looking forward to for so many months.
A short hop down the road I arrived at a grand Hotel and was grateful to start to settle into what is going to be my home for the next week. The next day quickly came and before I knew it, it was time for me to put my glam-rags on, grab my name badge and head off to the Opening Ceremony.
As I turned the last corner to the Centre doors I was instantly taken back by the large queue. Not by the size of the queue because of course us English love a queue, but by the wide range of coloured t-shirts representing so many YMCAs, 120 countries to be exact!

The atmosphere was buzzing as I walked through the large glass entrance doors, people smiling, hugging old YMCA friends, and just as important people introducing themselves to new faces, new friends. I strolled around the exhibition section speaking to YMCAs such as YMCA Kenya & YMCA Sri Lanka. YMCAs thousands of miles apart but all here for the same reason Youth Empowerment.
I took my seat in the main hall as the countries were introduced, each stood proudly, while everybody else across the world clapped and cheered loudly. Each country was of course announced by World YMCA President Peter Posner & Secretary General of the World YMCA Johan Vilhelm Eltvik. They were fantastic, their speeches informative and uplifting. They created fun & laughter as they later took to the stage, through the crowd in true Thailand style in small Tuk Tuk’s, creating YMCA’s very own Ant & Dec entrance!

However my favourite part was the Change Agents who flew us back in time and took us forward on a journey, explaining how Youth Empowerment was first set as a key YMCA priority for the future. How to action this is by YMCAs unifying for a collective impact to reach the 1.8 billion young people on the planet today and to turn the giant cog to build a World that empowers present & future generations. Of course this message was done a lot better than me, words on a screen. This was clever, vibrant performances of song, dance & acting that kept everybody engaged, spirits high and truly excited for the future.

Finally was the meal and as I came down the escalators I watched the world break bread together and in that moment was overwhelmed with pride & happiness that I was part of an incredible movement!

4 Years with YMCA Bimingham

I realised recently that I celebrated my 4 year anniversary with YMCA Birmingham. I’ve put together a few of my favourite moments so far in my journey. Thanks to all that have supported YMCA Birmingham and me so far! 

1. United Nations Economic Social Forum – Representing World/YMCA England & Wales as a Youth Ambassador at a United Nations Social Economic youth forum in New York. The forum provided a platform for youth to engage in a dialogue with Member States and to discuss the policy frameworks and promote innovative, approaches and initiatives for advancing youth development.
2. Parliament Visit/General Election Hustings - Organising a visit for young people to visit Parliament to speak about issues affecting them, helping shape a youth manifesto for the local area and arranging Hustings events which all promoted further opportunity for young people to have a voice in political matters.
3. Take-away Chefs - The project – Take Away Chefs – was a resident led programme which produced a booklet with healthy and easy-to-follow recipes, alongside a competition for two local schools to provide the artwork for the booklet. The project was highly commended from both the Money for Life Challenge and local MP Jack Dromey.
4. London Marathon - I have also ran London Marathon twice for YMCA Birmingham& England, that’s a bloody hard run but what an unbelievable feeling that you have conquered 26.2 miles and raised vital funds for vulnerable young people!
5. Unify - I was fortunate enough to be selected to represent YMCA Birmingham at the first Youth Unify conference in Lublin, Poland, I took a young person and lead my own small group of young people from all around Europe and it my role to facilitate time to consider and reflect upon YMCA’s Christian mission.
6.  Youth Matters Award - I was lucky enough to be put forward by the management team at YMCA Birmingham for the YMCA Matters Award. It was just an honour to be nominated, let alone win it. From winning the award I was promoted to the role Training and Employability officer in our brilliant Training team within our Social Enterprise
7.  Y-Care International, JAI Olive Picking Programme - I attended & took two young people from YMCA Birmingham to a 10 day project supporting Palestinian families in the villages of Wad Foukin, Beit Sahour, Teqou', Walaja and Beit Jala within the Bethlehem area, and tour within the Jerusalem area. This year, the program came under conditions of escalating settler attacks and Israeli army measures, which caused an increase in riots and popular resistance movements by Palestinian youth in various cities and villages throughout Palestine.
8.  Change Agents – The YMCA Change Agent programme is a World YMCA global leadership development programme to empower young leaders as change makers in their own communities, I’ve so far been on training programmes in France and Portugal. As part of the programme we build a project in our local community to support young people and help facilitate YMCA’s World Conference in Thailand.
9. Opening of the Chris Bryant Centre - The training team was fortunate enough to meet Princess Anne at the opening of the Chris Bryant Centre in Erdington. Princess Anne participated in a employability workshop and was great fun!
10. Princess Fiona - Many of my colleagues and friends from the gym will remmeber when I dressed as Princess Fiona to do a zumba class to raise money for residents at the Orchard, thanks Eileen and Emma for the makeup and dress!

It's not every day that you receive an email selecting you to represent YMCA at the UN

Blog written by Charlie Smith, Youth Ambassador from YMCA Norfolk, who represented YMCA England & Wales as part of World YMCA's delegation at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum, in New York, on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 January.

It is not every day that you receive an email, stating that you have been selected to represent not only your local and national YMCA, but the World YMCA at the United Nations. Yup, the UNITED NATIONS. This is not small stuff but the big time. My immediate reaction was to pinch myself just to make sure that I was in fact awake and this was really happening.

After a long day of travelling, we were there! Checked in our little pod which would be home for the next few nights. Walking through the streets of New York to one of the many YMCA buildings they have providing affordable use of gyms, was just incredible. I am a short being but I felt so tiny walking in between buildings that had floor after floor! YMCA's Westside Building was equally as incredible. For a city with such modern construct to have this little gem of history was amazing.

Tuesday morning, the UN visit has arrived. And it was as incredible as I had imagined. The weather was questionable with snow and high winds, but that made for a wonderful backdrop to the views around the grounds of the UN. I had the great privilege to sit amongst the delegates from across the world, one of the best seats in the house. This just added to the experience.

It was great to hear in the opening section of the United Nations ECOSOC Youth Forum how the youth voice had a great role to play and that young people are the ‘innovators’, that we should allow all young people to ‘make noise’ at all times by removing those gatekeepers that they often come across.

Round table speakers gave me a great insight into what was achieved from so many across the world in various ways from fighting radical elements from the United Arab Emirates to educating young people in agricultural colleges providing them with a computer each in Cameroon.

To be perfectly honest, my knowledge of the ECOSOC Youth Forum was limited but this whole experience has opened my eyes to the vast knowledge and experience that could be utilised from various countries and that we should in fact share information rather than boast about ‘what we are doing’. It was an opportunity to raise concerns about different areas of work but to also provide advice on how to engage with young people who may be hardest to reach. 

This was evident in the breakout session I attended on the first day. I was able to meet and chat with various individuals about using science, technology and innovation to build engagement, to develop skills in this area but also most importantly build resilience and to help those that may have faced tragedy of some sort. As part of the group speaking mainly about resilience we spoke about the importance of having concrete foundations in place to then assist young people further with their development and how science and technology could assist with this. Conversations were based on improving ICT skills with young people and wider access to internet especially when a crisis had occurred.

We then had to report back our discussion to the rest of the breakout group. Without even thinking about it I placed my hand in the air to volunteer myself as tribute (Hunger Games reference for you there). So I had just said that I would speak in front of many on the main points we had made for future work- yeah I do not know why either. But I did it! I got up and spoke about our three main points to consider:

1. Building Science, Technology and Innovation infrastructure and improving literacy through local needs assessments as each country is different and requires different areas of technology.
2. Training of trainers to encourage community based interventions to identify specific skills and interests such as volunteer innovation hubs
3. Building data from all avenues in both public and private partnerships but from also those in the community to leverage big data. Also to ensure that the need of this data and the results are communicated those it would have a large effect on.

So I did it. I spoke at the United Nations, representing World YMCA! To say my mum was proud is an understatement.

Wednesday, Day two. This was as good as the first. Learning so much more than I could ever do by reading through information. I was able to get a real feel for what delegates wanted to express from their countries and organisations.

The breakout session around what is happening in Europe, North America and other states was as equally as interesting as the breakout session the day previously. We spoke about the European Youth Forum and shared vast knowledge of various government policies and how to engage young people further in the importance of their government and policies.

Having YMCA at the United Nations for the ECOSOC Youth Forum was really valuable. Many of the comments on how to engage young people and how to build and develop their resilience was something we were already aware of across the different YMCAs in attendance, or we were already working on this. We were then able to share across the delegates our own insight to this and often some of our suggestions had not even been thought of prior to the youth forum. We were able to give a youth voice at a global youth event which was invaluable.

This whole experience has opened my eyes to a larger picture and the importance of ALL YMCAs in the development of our young people as rightly said by one of the delegates ‘young people bring solutions rather than complaints’.