Our previous intern, Sara Sechi from Sardinia is now member of our pool of youth representatives.
Here you can read her testimonial : 

"The General Assembly of the European Youth Forum took place in Novi Sad, Serbia (22th-24th November 2018). This was my first experience as Don Bosco Youth Net’s delegate. A heap of energy and hope, a space where young people from different countries and realities can meet and have their voice heard, a stimulating dialogue about youth rights: this is the European Youth Forum. I had the opportunity to be part of a value-based cooperation, to discuss about current youth topics as fair-paid internships and the right to conscientious objection to military service in Europe. I realized how important it is that young people fight for their rights and take part actively in the European youth policy process. As Federica Mogherini said in her video message: “The future begins today, not tomorrow”.
Many thanks to DBYN which trusts me and let me live this great experience!"

Sara Sechi

Gabriele Giovagnoli, one of our members of the Pool of Youth Representatives, represented DBYN at the European Youth Forum.
Here you can read his testimonial of his experience:

"It's always possible to go further, no matter how small seems the step taken or how far is the goal." I deem it as one of the most important lessons I learnt from this experience at the YFJ.

During those three days, as representatives of several National Youth Councils and International Non-Governmental Youth Organizations (Wosm, Ymca, Obessu, Nayora, IFM-SEI, Iynf, Ojv, Esib, YFJ, DBYN), we've shared experiences, dreams and aims of our own projects and organisations, recognising ourselves united under the same spirit despite our operational differences.
Beginning on Friday afternoon with "getting to know" activities (both on ourselves and on the topic of the meetings) we got deeper into the core of the event, also through joint sessions with the EYF grantees, sharing our activities in the field of social inclusion, volunteering experiences, refugee-related projects.
Then we analysed the role our target groups plays within our projects, both in the making and in the implementation (especially focusing on refugees), and also the level of their participation inside the organizations (through useful tools as the 'ladder of participation'), keeping in mind and inspecting the functioning and the structure of our own organizations.
From here we moved to the "one step\steps forward" studying and debating new possible goals and strategies to adopt in order to develop the participation and the inclusion of refugees within our organisational structures and in our activities.
Eventually we closed the meeting putting into effect our work developing a personal action plan.

An opportunity I will keep in my heart and for wich I'm really grateful, thanks to it I met wonderful people, increased my links with other IYNGOs, delved into a lot of current topics under new points of view and perspectives, listened and became part of amazing and fascinating life stories!"

Gabriele Giovagnoli - TGS Salerno & representative of DBYN 

They are children and young people who come by sea, on old boats that are unstable and overloaded, risking their lives almost to every wave. Often they do not understand Italian well and certainly are not aware of all their rights, nor of what awaits them. If they left on their own, or remain alone on arriving, what they may find is a future as clandestines, marginalized. But sometimes, things go differently, because there are also people who do think of them: like the Salesians of the "San Gregorio" community of Catania, in Sicily, which inaugurated a new house yesterday, May 2; its name: Najma, which means star in Arabic.

The phenomenon of Unaccompanied Foreign Minors (MSNA) is clearly growing in Italy. And behind every statistical number, there is a life, an existence, that has been uprooted and completely isolated, exposed to forms of social risk such as crime, abuse, violence, poverty ...
To offer human and Christian solutions to this phenomenon, the "Salesians for Social - SCS / CNOS Federation" started "M'interesso di te", or “I take interest in you, care for you”, at the beginning of 2018, a program which includes, among other tasks within Catania's Salesian world, the San Gregorio Center, on the outskirts of the city.

As early as February, street educators, counselors, psychologists, lawyers and volunteers have been guaranteeing each child intercepted their support and protection, but only yesterday did the Salesians of San Gregorio and the Associazione MetaCometa Onlus officially inaugurate their headquarters. Present at the opening: the Provincial of the Salesians of Sicily, Fr Giuseppe Ruta, the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Catania, Mgr. Salvatore Genchi, and institutional figures of both the Christian and Muslim religious, civil and social world.
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At the Catania's Najima "low threshold" center (ie for people in extreme difficulty), the so-called "invisible migrants" - MSNAs or recently of adult age - have the chance to wash, eat hot meals, rest, participate in activities of recreation and socialization.
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The "Najma" reception center also carries out social mediation work with related institutions and offers orientation courses for study and work, with the creation of study grants and job grants. Since many of the "invisible migrants" are exposed to the risk of addictions, health problems and exploitation, a legal advisory service is also available to them, both criminal and civil, and support in processing their personal document.

http://www.infoans.org/en/sections/news/item/5387-italy-najma-house-for-invisible-migrants

​Together with the migration and Human Rights network of the European Youth Forum, DBYN is working on guidelines for the inclusion of young refugees in the work and structures of youth organisations. At the COMEM (Council of members) of the European Youth Forum in Cascais, a draft of the development process of the document and a current draft was presented. Participants contributed with further inputs and best practices tackling challenges youth organisations and young refugees face in order to participate in youth organisations and engage in their decision-making bodies.

Members of the Migration and Human Rights network started to work on the guidelines in June on the Network meeting in Brussels. From there, information was collected by interviews with youth organisations and young refugees, including member organisations of DBYN. At the COMEM a summary of these interviews was presented. The final document is still in process.
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Whilst this session was an important opportunity for DBYN to stay engaged in the field of Migration and Human Rights and cooperate and get in contact with organisations working on this topic, the COMEM altogether is an essential part of DBYNs advocacy work. Next to updates of current work of the European Youth Forum – e.g. the www.transparencyatwork.org  webpage tackling the problem of unpaid and quality internships – it also gives space for exchange of local initiatives and work of member organisations. One of the highlights this time was the policy paper on the Erasmus+ successor programme, which is of big importance for many youth organisations and young Europeans. 

​On 19 and 20 June the European Youth Forum’s Migration and Human Rights Network (MHRN) held its first meeting of 2017 in Brussels. The Network focuses on promoting the social inclusion and empowerment of as well as combatting discrimination against young refugees.

Eight youth organisations participated in the meeting, some of which are joining the Network for the first time. The Network took stock of the work that has been carried out since 2015, while participants exchanged on their organisations’ initiatives and projects.

Furthermore, participants agreed on the aims of the network. Among others, the Network aims to motivate youth organisations to include young refugees within their structures, and to ensure that young refugees are involved in decision-making processes.

The two main priorities the Network identified for 2017 are:

1. To develop guidelines and/or collect best practices to include young refugees in the work and structures of youth organisations;
2. To gather input on addressing the main challenges facing unaccompanied minor refugees in the transition to adulthood, in order to feed into a Council of Europe policy document.

On the occasion of World Refugee Day on 20 June, Network members participated in the conference ‘Time to be welcome: youth work and integration of young refugees’, where they showcased their projects on non-formal education, advocacy for refugee rights, empowerment and skills development and raising awareness about refugees. The joint press release from the European Youth Forum, the World Organisation of the Scout Movement and the EU-Council of Europe partnership in the field of youth who organised the conference is available here.

The youth partnership between the European Union and the Council of Europe is going to publish a knowledge book on youth work with young refugees. When we received the call for abstracts, we thought this to be an unique opportunity to contribute to the topic from a Salesian perspective. Our German member organisation took the initiative of submitting the abstract: "Living under the same roof - a home for young apprentices and unaccompanied minor refugees right in the middle of Munich" by Benjamin Henn and Niklas Gregull. We are happy to announce that the abstract has been accepted, and we are invited to send the full article. 

You can read the abstract here