YE Festival 2013: I love to live for this stuff

In 2007 when I was asked to attend the Prague festival I was not in a position to go. After being involved in our movement for years and having been to international experiences that helped shape who I was, I had turned my back on the YMCA in favour of a hedonistic passage into my 20's, I was doing my own thing and that was that.

In the weeks after that festival, friends who returned were beaming from their week in the Czech Republic, seeing friends old and new and experiencing something that perhaps they couldn't fully put into words. I knew I had missed out.

Some years later things had become hectic for me in London, I was working in a job going nowhere with no real qualifications to draw on so I decided to leave London and come back to Newcastle. On my second day "home" I paid a visit to my old YMCA and spoke to my youth worker about volunteering and getting back into youth work. A few meetings that flew over my head and a chance conversation later, I landed a job in YMCA England and have been involved in the movement ever since and now work for Y Care International as well as being part of ILP and GLYN.

When the time and opportunity came to attend the 2013 Prague festival, I signed up. I was sure that I wouldn't miss out this time.  So after looking though the photos and reliving the experience that happened just a few weeks ago, I've realised I live for this stuff. I love to live for this stuff. I’m not going to give you a day by day account but more of the feeling I took from the festival.

A typical day might consist of seeing an old friend who has been nothing but a status update or an uploaded photo for the past five years and finally hugging them and catching up. On my way to lunch I’d maybe see a young group of Colombians facing off on a basketball court against a group from the US. If I got thirsty, I’d throw some shapes and get a refreshing mocktail from the Calypso bar. If I needed a pick me up I’d head over to the café and get a quick espresso and find myself chatting to the wonderful and industrious team. And on any given day I’d side step countless faces recognising me as "the Y's best talent guy", I mean not everyone said hello but sometimes seeing a celebrity in the flesh can phase people...they're only human ;)

In seriousness this festival has embodies the YMCA, sure we are in a bubble, sure it's sunny and it's a great time but something nuanced is threading through all of this. Some collective spirit, being on the same page, being supportive of each other, that all comes from an innate human nature and doesn't stop or start in the festival.

I understand now why those friends in 2007 couldn't put into words what they had experienced in Prague, because I can't quite either. But everyone feels something. Perhaps the reason we have a shared and mutual sense of our lives being altered is that through this experience, we see the world in a different way and so in turn we see ourselves in a different way. We don’t have to describe it. Just know that new possibilities await, possibilities that transcend culture or language. Keep the momentum going. I'll be looking out for that young Robbie who doesn't think it's for them and telling them that they missed out. 

Particular thanks to

The teenage Russian rock band on the Forest Stage
Cedric dancing like a mad man in cross bar
Tom and Ian smashing countless Big Macs
Vladi directing me and Y’s Best Talent
Ken making me us like a giant
Ben wearing that bandanna and just being himself
Romulo dressing up as a Village Person who doesn't really exist (seriously.. where is the sailor in the YMCA video?!)
The thunderstorm
You

One month to go...

One month to go… 

Well. My last piece was just before the YMCA France General Assembly. As predicted it was extremely hard for me to keep track with what was going on but it was nice all the different people from the French YMCA’s. 

It has been a sad couple of months because I have had to say ‘Auf Wiedersehen‘ to three Germans. Tim the bully, the silly Sophie & the crazy man Dominik. After a good part of a year together, even if I didn’t show it, I was truly gutted as they left one by one leaving me and Clara (the laughing cow).  Soon there will just be me... For like 5 days till the new volunteer comes and I set off home. So it’s cool, I can handle it. 

Works been the same as always really so I’ll fast forward to my tri-national pre-Prague trip to the YMCA House at Salm. This was one of them moments where I get asked to do something and say yes without even thinking or asking about it. Also Cedric went from I have to pay half the fee to just the train ticket to nothing at all to get me to go because my plans had changed for Prague. So yeah, quite interesting being the only English guy but I’m used to that now so it was no biggie. All members from all three nationalities (French, German &  Hungarian Romanians) were all really down to earth and keen on taking part in all the activities. My least favourite being the all day hike. Yeah it was cool doing it but my days did my legs hurt in the morning... My favourite, as always, the international evening!  Each country did a presentation, song and supplied specialities from their country.  

France: Stinky cheese, Wine and Ricard. 

 Germany: Bratwurst, Pasta dipped in apple sauce and German dark beer 

Hungarian Romanians: Sadly only had found out about the trip 48hrs earlier and brought nothing with them, made a sausage out of biscuits. Which infact was quite nice but I wouldn’t advise it in large quantities! 

My last day with the Tri-national crew was spent in Strasbourg. Loved it! Guided tour of the European Parliament, boat ride down the river and a meal with a free bar.  The meal ended up with me, Floriane & Cedric doing the Llama Song for the only YMCA France pin badge. Was probably not my finest moment but was well worth it! 

Now the big one! The Festival itself. Oooooooooh man. You should have been there! First day, as expected, was all the hard graft setting up all the Team Ken shops. First the T-shirt emporium (Martine & Johnny) & YMCA Shop (Rahim & Kelly), then the Tower Café (Rachel & Jack) & finally the Calypso Bar (Me & big lad Tom). The next day was stock up and kick off the festival. Was going smoothly until the storm hit and cancelled the rest of the day... One person injured and two tents destroyed... Not the kind of bang I imagined the festival to start with but a bang nonetheless!  

I could probably go on for pages about it but I'll just hit up 10 of my favourite moments. 

Ken's pre festival 'standing on the shoulders of giants speech' 

Me & Tom SMASHING our 18000 Koruna target by 90000 Koruna 

All the amazing people we met 

Robbie & American Eric's rap duets 

Cedric's dancing skills (In & out of the festival) 

All the nights at the cross! 

The crazy Danish 

Tom's Selfies 

Final night/morning 

The all round feel good sensation throughout the whole time. Rain or shine. 

In all it was a blast. Yeah me and Tom worked all day everyday but we loved it. Without Tom the Calypso Bar would have been an epic fail so thank you ever so much for being part of it! Both of us have gone back with collections of T-shirts & Pin Badges & we would like to know what makes you a collector? 

Would have loved to see a lot more of Team Bolton but we were 40 minutes away from each others hostels so that was the only downside but stuff like that happens you know. 

All in all I will be truly gutted if I don't meet some of these amazing people again & will make it my mission to do so! 

Well. I guess my next post shall be my Post-France blog. Bound to be full of mixed emotions. I still do not know what lies ahead after my time here but I do hope a certain opportunity comes reality! 

One more month to go, 

One more month till the next step on the spiral staircase of life...

Berlin, Germany, Youth Politics and the YMCA in Europe

Well, I am back in the UK and after a good 12 hour sleep Wednesday night I am ready to tackle, reflect and tell you about my fantastic 5 days in Berlin for the European Youth Policy Seminar 2013.

Now there really wasn’t time in Berlin to drop a quick blog on to here so I apologise in advance for the length of this but I will let the words do the talking as it shows what I got out of the Seminar.

 
Having never really travelled on my own to another country I had a few nerves but everything seemed to go smoothly till arrived in Berlin train station and got a bit lost around Berlin but finally arrived at the YMCA Hostel mid-afternoon Friday.
Friday evening began with introductions and something that a lot of people enjoy doing! Eating of course! Getting to know everyone who had arrived and seeing the diverse range of nationalities and languages in a room was amazing!

Saturday morning began with Cees Bremner, National Secretary of YMCA Netherlands who has stepped down at the start of July running a morning session on the Institutions of the European Union. Firstly, those who have met Cees know he is a truly inspirational, knowledgeable and committed man whose positive work for the YMCA on all levels really has inspired a generation of YMCA members past and present.
Finding out about the Institutions of European colleagues throughout the morning was very interesting and I personally didn’t realise there were so many different parts to the Policy side of the European Union and how decision making processes affect the different institutions and how before something is passed it goes through many routes before the final decision of change is made.

 Saturday afternoon Sigrid Muller of the German YMCA and host of the Seminar took us on a City Tour of the Jewish Quarters which involved Tracing Jewish Life in Berlin many decades ago. This tour was personally one of the highlights of my 5 days in Berlin, Sigrid took us round some fascinating streets and buildings in which Jews used to live and one thing that stood out to me was the golden plaques placed on the floor outside buildings Jews used to live before being arrested and taken to Concentration camps during the war. In one street alone nearly every building had at least 4 outside the front door which I found extremely moving that whole streets of friends and families were completely wiped out. We walked past buildings that still exist from the War and saw an old café that still has the bullet ridden walls outside. This really hit home that I am stood in a place where people lost their lives.

Saturday evening’s session covered EU Youth Policy and ‘Erasmus for All’ which is replacing Youth in Action funding from 2014. Points we covered included discussing who the important players to change policy on local, national and European levels. The latter session was really good as we played a re-arranging game to understand how Youth in Action is changing to Erasmus for All and understanding how the process works which I found interesting as I did not know this before. 

Sunday involved Morning Mass at the Beautiful cathedral in Berlin followed by a Boat Ride through Berlin looking at famous landmarks and the parliamentary and government buildings dotted around Berlin.

Following a packed lunch we headed to the Berlin Wall Memorial, I can’t really put it into words how moving this place really is until you visit there yourself and see the monument yourself. It really does make you realise what Germany was like only 25 years ago, and how much it really has changed since.

 

The afternoon continued with preparation for the talks on Monday with the politicians, a highly enjoyable session where everyone involved had a different question on many different subjects to ask the two politicians who would come and visit us on Monday.
After dinner, we had an evening session with the one and only Juan Simoes Inglesias Secretary General of YMCA Europe to talk to us about the YMCA in Europe. We discussed how ‘WE ARE EUROPE’ and that the people of Europe are the politicians!
This session was motivating for all involved as it gave a great overview of YMCA Europe but also how young people involved with YMCA Europe can improve and grow through the YMCA in Europe. Juan’s focus was on the term ‘WE’ and that ‘WE’ are all together in everything we do both YMCA related and non-related and we can make a difference not just on a local level, regional level, national level but an international level if we really want to!

Monday was once again a full day of activities as we started with breakfast and went straight into talks with Alexandra Thein, a German politician and member of the European Parliament and we learnt that her passion for Politics is mainly through helping Families and housing across all member states of Germany and the European Union. Alexandra had been in Politics since 2009 but she was a very proud and resourceful woman who enjoyed her job and was passionate about making a change in Europe. This was passed on to many of us as we all felt it had been a great session with many coming away feeling inspired.

The afternoon session involved learning about the European Youth Forum and how we can become involved in the Forum and how we can implement and make ‘Europe’ an issue of youth work.
Following on from this we had question and answer sessions with a politician from the German Bundestaga. 
I asked a question to Marlene a politician soon to retire who you would say has definitely seen lots of changes through her career and has lots of experience in the many years she has been a politician.
The question I asked Marlene was as follows: “At current in the UK with have 1 million young people aged 16 to 25 classed as NEETs, as we know unemployment is a major issue in Europe currently. What does your party currently have plans to do if they are elected in September?” She told me that they are looking at ways of tackling unemployment and that 50% of country’s youth are unemployed and her party plan is to learn from them and others to make this figure decrease in the future and she told the group that 10% of young people in Germany fail school. She believes this is a waste of potential and that this is important to her and awareness needs to be raised not just in Germany but Europe in general.

The cultural evening commenced after dinner and I feel like myself and Alex made YMCA England proud in doing this, it was great for us both to show what both our YMCAs do as we are both so different on complete different scales and types of work. Everyone came along to our stall to try the Cadbury’s chocolate and fruit pastilles and to find out more about our YMCAs which was great!  Hopefully many people went away understanding the diversity of YMCAs across England.

Tuesday morning we visited the Federal Presidents Office which was a great experience as it’s not every day you go to such an important place and have the German chancellor Angela Merkel drive past you!

In the afternoon we had a presentation on the legal youth structures in Germany and how young people aren’t coming together to work in Germany and start up their own projects due to problems with policy at a local level which I found fascinating. We discussed how Young People are very active in society and active in youth groups in Germany and how youth work is starting to become privatised which is seen as major problem by the government as criteria and needs are not being met.
Tuesday finished with a farewell night at the Hostel including singing and dancing, a quiz and a devotion before we headed out into Berlin but with a 5.45am wakeup call it was an early night for me but gave me good time to reflect on the past 5 days.

 To finish off (not long to go don’t worry!) and going off subject a little, I believe that with events like this it makes you think as a person and remember who you are why you are involved in the YMCA. It makes you realise that you 'get it'. You can explain and explain to a member of the public about our work but the term 'get it' is something else. 

A trip to the Brandenburg gate which was once a huge monument in the history of Berlin and a 30 minute talk with Alex from Barnsley followed by a couple of cold drinks with the group really did ground me to be honest.
It is times like these where you speak to those people like Alex who really are the life and soul of their work in the YMCA, the YMCA is not just a job. It is a part of your life and once you are in, you are in for life.

There are many new things, subjects, ideas that I have learnt this week but one thing that really struck me is that everyone has issues in their country that everyone can relate to. There is no one who is different. Everyone together as one and doing their best to try and move together forward on youth policy both on their local, regional and national levels but learning fantastic knowledge about youth policy on a European level at the same time.

I have met some wonderful and knowledgeable people throughout my 5 days in Berlin and I am more than grateful to be involved in Youth Policy for the YMCA. Being only my second international experience, once again having creating more links with people and YMCAs from all over Europe all it does is make me grow and make me even more proud that I am a part of such an Amazing and Growing Global Movement.

 So to finish something struck me on Tuesday night, I sit in a bar after a brilliant 5 days and look around the room. There are 8 people here from 7 countries from all over Europe.

It's a time to reflect when you look round the room; you look at everyone one by one.
You recognise all these people for who they are, you see that in the room, sat around you are a group of young people who have the passion, the fight, the determination to make a difference in the YMCA. At whichever level they want. Once again you realise, wherever your YMCA is or wherever you are from, this passion and fight is common in everyone and a series of conversations on the YMCA, life, views and personality throughout my time in Berlin I realised that these conversations are some of the best I have had all week with a group of very passionate young leaders from

YMCAs all over Europe.