Director’s editorial – January issue

Dear Family,

with this first issue of 2021, we are beginning another year together.

While the pandemic we have been facing during 2020 is not over yet, I, together with my colleagues of the Youth Employment Fund, would like to go beyond. Let’s talk of positiveness in other terms… and not only to communicate the results of a test.

We have started learning how to be better prepared and most of you already have demonstrated to be able to reinvent the offered services and activity.

With this new year, as said, I would like to “turn the page”. That is why we decided to ask your perspectives and projections for this new period. Together with you all we will try to give space to your ambitions, which are all published here in order that we do not miss our funding principles: knowledge sharing and inspiring practices.

Few of the family projects will unfortunately end during 2021, while most will stay with us also in 2022 and above! And… why not starting this year by announcing the enlargement of our Family? With a warm welcome to our next members and readers, I would like to spend some remarks about the second Youth Employment call for proposals launched by the EEA and Norway Grants in the framework of Unlocking Youth Potential. Please let me introduce some initial numbers: 138 submitted full proposals, 573 entities participated as beneficiary partners from beneficiary countries, 210 entities participated as beneficiary partners from additionally eligible countries and 176 entities participated as expertise partners. In total… 1097 entities.

It is, for all of us, a great result which is above all demonstrating that the Youth Employment Fund can make a difference. You all, as project consortium, are the tangible proof that your activities can transform ideas (and consequent) efforts into concrete actions and results.

That is why, sorry If I am always insisting, we won’t stop to ask for your energy. Disseminating the results of your actions is one of the most important way to be known and, especially, to demonstrate to your/our audience that bringing about a change, even if minimal, is possible!

I hope that this issue can be for you a reason to continue your challenging, but great, work to find innovative solution to common challenges. I believe that you will have the chance, comparing yourselves with the ideas of all your colleagues, to reflect on what you can change, ameliorate, propose during the next months.

For this (just started) year I would like to propose you another challenge (which is at the same time taking into consideration the reasons for which this Fund is born): let’s use this Mag as a springboard to extract and show the added values you can bring to the Family (and beyond).

I hope that you will be able to feel the positive energy that we tried to put black and white on the pages of this new issue.

The FO Director
Gian Luca Bombarda

 

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