Dear Friends,
Talking about mental health is never easy. It is even more difficult when one has to talk about youth mental health, especially considering the negative effects of the pandemics.
I won’t use long introductions, since I believe this is a delicate topic, that however we had to take into consideration, sooner or later, being member of the Youth Employment Family, where young people are the protagonists.
I would like to reflect on the term ‘effects’, since one may wonder why we are talking about this issue only now. Well, I believe that ‘effects of something’ in general, derive from a problem that has settled, some way, in some dimensions of our life. Sometimes they remain hidden (but this doesn’t mean they don’t exist) other times they suddenly ‘pop’. But their causes have always been there. And we all know how difficult it was, mentally, for so many young people to go through the pandemic.
I am even more convinced if I have a look at the contributions we received. I saw, this month, a strong engagement. Which doesn’t mean that our Projects are not contributing the rest of the year. This can mean, in my opinion, that all of us, during these 3 past years, at least once, have had to deal with a young person who brings with him/her the effects of the lockdown, the lack of freedom, of sociality, of the relationships facilitated by school, and, as if that were not enough, the consequent economic crisis (lack of incentives, stimulus or job opportunities).
These words, reflecting specific conditions, reminds me of the Direction Employment conference organised by Lai-momo in Bologna. Their event was mainly dedicated to NEETs (a target group we know very well), with the title ‘Young generations and the NEET phenomenon – From intersectional needs to transversal skills’, but while I was there listening to the different reflections, I heard some thoughts that made me think about our actual topic. In Italy, in addition, we have some structural problems, but I am sure that by reading the contents prepared by the Project Partners in the following pages, you will agree with me. And when I think about it, I feel sometimes sad, since I don’t have direct weapons to combat those situations.
What ‘I have’ or better, what I always try to do, is to continue working to stimulate new activities, policies, programmes, able to help those young people, which are persons first than a simple target group.
Related to that, since we always try as well to give you real inputs for concrete actions, I would like to share with you – with the preliminary agreement of our FMO – a new EC initiative, Active Youth Dialogues, that you can find at this link: ‘Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe (NDICI)’. In turn, you are free to share it with your networks, since for sure you have heard about the Youth Action Plan and, in general, the tools of the EU External Action Service.
In general, the reasons behind our topic proposals and the inputs we try to give you, is because – to say with our Friend Tom’s words, it is ‘Time to Defuse the Ticking Time Bomb’. And we appreciate that you are part of this process, even by sharing in this online space, our Mag, your human stories, which are enriching our attempts through concrete thoughts.
I am happy, as well, to see that some of the issues that we are covering through the Fund for Youth Employment Online Mag are analysed also – while horizontally if you prefer – by our colleagues of the Fund for Regional Cooperation. I have been a participant of the Gala ‘Women in Economy – Day by Day Heroes’, the largest and most remarkable event in Romania dedicated to female excellence, which took place on the 6th of March 2023 at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, organised by our Project WINGATE.
Not only this gives me the opportunity to tell you that I am very excited to see how our unique Mag will look like, starting from April, but I am happy to use their term to create a common thought (and I hope they will agree with me). Related to that, just announcing a little news, please see the most recent news coming from the Fund for Regional Cooperation, since the FRA held a hybrid Roundtable with NHRIs, the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI), inviting also its National Liaison Officers and the EU Charter Focal Points, to discuss challenges and opportunities with regard to the application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and monitoring the fundamental rights aspects of the rule of law.
Heroes. Heroes are our young people, our excellent women, people suffering from mental health issues whichever is the case behind that, all possible vulnerable/fragile groups we are working for, in general all our ‘target groups’ included into the scopes of both the Youth Employment and Regional Cooperation, which as I was saying are first of all persons, whatever is the Fund, or the area of intervention, we are talking about.
With our Mag, which will be one soon, we want to talk about Heroes. And we want you to be the voices for those Heroes that cannot directly tell their stories.
Enjoy our Mag and thanks for being the voices of our ‘Heroes’
Gian Luca Bombarda
The Fund Director
