Young Voices

Youth work should be an important aspect of international cooperation, especially within the Baltic Sea Region, one of the most dynamic parts of the world today.

Young Voices conference. The Young Voices of the Baltic Sea Region conference held in Kalmar, Sweden on 15^th-18^th of May 2003, hosted around 100 young people active on the local level and civil servants dealing with youth issues. The participants came from 8 countries and 34 cities and 7 young people from the Lake Victoria Region in Africa. The conference was launched by the City of Kalmar, together with UBC and the Baltic Sea Secretariat for Youth Affairs.

The main objective of the Conference was to highlight issues important for youth in the Baltic Sea Region, and to discuss the possibilities of youth participation in the UBC.

During conference preparation a questionnaire was sent out to 20 UBC member cities, asking what they, as young people, consider the 5 most important issues for youth living in their city.

The conference also presented an action plan for youth involvement:

1. A youth network - connected to the Baltic Sea Secretariat for Youth Affairs, which is to become a co-ordinating body.
2. A Commission on youth cooperation and participation - it will consist of youth as well as civil servants dealing with youth issues on the local level.
3. Annual UBC Youth Conferences
4. The young people consider it of great importance that the UBC Executive Board get in contact with young people of every city in which they meet in.
5. Cooperation between the UBC and youth - The conference also wishes the UBC Secretariat to work towards the nomination of a youth contact officer in every UBC member city.
   

You can find the complete summary of the conference on www.kalmar.se.

At the Executive Board meeting of the UBC, held in Rostock, Germany, 18 June 2003, the executive deemed that the UBC Youth network would have to be coordinated by a member city rather than by the other organization. The executive also expressed that the concept of Network is more suitable for youth involvement than that of a Commission.

What will happen next? The question of co-ordinating a Youth Network has been addressed to Kalmar. The future of youth participation within the UBC, will be raised in a seminar during the UBC General Conference in Klaipeda, Lithuania.