‘Pathways to rights: empowering young Europeans’ – Volonteurope conference in Brussels
With youth unemployment rates soaring in large parts of Europe too often, young people are left out of the processes that shape their futures. Participation, social action and active citizenship are pathways to the social empowerment of young people. The aim of the EuroVIP project is to use volunteering to help young people to successfully participate in the labour market, and thus work towards the professional empowerment of young people. In times of unprecedented societal and labour market challenges, and when the civic space is shrinking, we need to find new ways of participating and work to strengthen successful initiatives.
Volonteurope’s 26th annual conference will be an occasion to share practices and information around participation as a pathway to accessing rights and strengthening social cohesion.
Volonteurope is an international network promoting volunteering, active citizenship and social justice in Europe and beyond. Its UK member Volunteering Matters will use the occasion of the conference to present the EuroVIP portfolio and offer support for using it to volunteers from other member organisations.
The conference: ‘Pathways to rights: empowering young Europeans’ will bring together young people to discuss, share experience and learn from others about ways in which they engage with civil society organisations to create a better and fairer society that will lead to social justice.
The conference will be held on 30-31 October 2017 in Brussels. Besides speeches by Oonagh Aitken, the chairwoman of Volonteurope, Julie Ward MEP of the S&D Group in the European Parliament and Pavel Trantina, Section president in the European Economic and Social Committee the conference will host a variety of presentations by participants from across the European Union about the power of volunteering to guarantee the access to fundamental rights. A comprehensive report about this vital issue authored by Volonteurope will conclude the conference.