Director’s editorial – May issue

Dear friends and readers,
I renew my hope that you are all well.

Two months have passed since our last issue, and so many things have changed.

The times we are experiencing are forcing us to adopt new paths, new habits, new ways of living and working. Thinking of all our readers who have been affected by this period of confinement has influenced our mindsets. In the best-case scenario, we have all had some more time to think about our activities. My feeling is that we can get something positive out of it.

This is the reason why we have asked you to contribute with your “reactions” to Covid-19, meaning the alternative ways you are creating and inventing so as to ensure your project missions can continue.

I therefore thank all of you for your interest: I am sure that we are moving in the right direction and new perspectives will arise. It is with pleasure that I invite all of you to visit our section “nice to meet you” and see the new initiative “SOS Mentoring”, coming from project YES!

Furthermore, I have to thank all the single projects – together with their partners – which collaborated to create the set of “reactions” and thoughts related to the Covid-19 pandemic; here you will see also the contribution of our colleague Iván Martín. In addition, our colleague and friend Thomas McGrath came back to greet us by offering and sharing with us his interesting personal analysis and reflection on the times we are all going through. I am sure you will enjoy reading more from him.

Last but not least, it is with great pleasure that I announce some great news, a big surprise and something positive we all needed.

As you recall, the main idea behind and the core goal of the Youth Employment Fund is to help entities across Europe to pool their efforts to find new ways of addressing youth unemployment and the related challenges. This is in line with the Europe 2020 strategy and the EU cohesion policy, which takes into account the crucial role the regions and cross-border cooperation play for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Now we are also called on to respond to the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic on European job markets. More and more effort and resources are needed to face a global unemployment crisis.

With this in mind, we are pleased to announce that a new Call for Proposals,in the framework of this Youth Employment Fund, is expected to be launched in Autumn 2020 (from September onwards).

With all these positive thoughts, I hope that you will enjoy this reactiveissue of our magazine.

Gian Luca Bombarda

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