2020…
No need to use words afterward the combination of four numbers that alone meant a lot… 2020 was much more than that. It’s done. We have officially come to the end of 2020; but we will continue to carry its traces for a long time. So how was it for youth work and youth workers?
In addition to the global pandemic, completely different cases, disasters and misfortunes have occurred in almost every part of the world. It was full of mental and psychological ups and downs.
Was there no good in this damned year? Of course there was. Some of us found the opportunity to spend time with ourselves and spent time on their hobbies, some of us improved themselves because they had to work harder; however most of us got stuck in the triangle drawn by the social, economic and psychological difficulties they went through. Conditions have not been equal and fair for any of us. The lack of access to possibilities painfully exposed class differences.
So how was 2020 for youth workers?
Online, anxious, without travel and economically poor… Undoubtedly, it has been a process in which we have increased our digital capabilities considerably. The emphasis on solidarity became stronger as it became harder to be firm. Besides the words coming out of our fingers; we managed to stay together with the smiles on our faces that appeared on the camera we opened in our bedroom, kitchen and living room.
I was not aware that my trip to Brussels due to the board meeting in February would be my last trip abroad. During 2020, all meetings, even the YEU general assembly, were held online. While the event to be held in Estonia in March was returning online, the 2020 YEU Convention planned to be in the Baltics has been suspended. Whatever Brussels is, but we wouldn’t be in Malaga in September this autumn. This is very upsetting.
The project on sustainability, which I learned at the beginning of 2020 that I might join as a participant, was also suspended. In other words Italy, Fiji, Kenya are canceled… And many other routes, trainings, meetings…
What happened to the ongoing ESC projects?
On March 1st, our short-term European Solidarity Corps – ESC project which took place in Bodrum had just started with 16 ESC volunteers from 10 different countries. And we were already in a panic on the second week. After a decision-making process involving volunteers, it was agreed that the project should be stopped and everyone returned to their country when there was still opportunity. We bought tickets within 4 days and tried to complete this return process. Since Latvia closed its borders, one of our volunteers was stranded in Bodrum and we hosted her in our long-term volunteers’ house for 3 months. Our 2020 long-term ESC volunteer, who comes from Italy, was stuck because of these restrictions on his trip to Belgium and could only come after 3.5 months. While trying to combat a global pandemic, we were busy solving the problems caused by this pandemic and staying calm.
Online Training and Meetings…
As Bodrum Youth, the youth department of the Bodrum Dance Club; Art, Culture and Youth Center, we stayed in touch with our volunteers all the time in this process. The project coordinator organized an online project management training. Subsequently, we wrote our own youth projects with the volunteers before the Erasmus + deadline.
As YEU, while increasing the frequency of the board meetings we have already held online; on the other hand we organized “Coffee with YEU ” series. We sipped our coffees together with the youth workers from our member organizations in front of the screen. We did not compromise on training. Organizing many events on different topics such as stress management, digital facilitation, online tools, climate change; we aimed for the active participation of young people from different parts of Europe and across. We have achieved remarkable outcomes in all of our working groups that have different aims by doing many researches and great work.
Of course, there are many people among us who continue their formal education in this process. Or we can say trying to continue, because I am one of them and I have faced the difficulties of online (distance) education too much. Due to this pandemic, which coincided with the first year of my master’s degree, we listened to our professors from the screen for months. We carried out all our readings and studies in front of the screen and I can say without even thinking how harsh it is. You are in a global crisis, while nobody still understands what has happened; on the other hand, you are grappling with social and economic problems and while all these are happening, you try to understand what you read and make an effort to do academic work on it. 2020 will unfortunately be like this in our mind.
While beginning 2021…
2020 was such a year that we will need a lot of time to overcome what it left us with. Despite all the negativities, being in solidarity, staying together and developing our digital skills was very important for youth work. I hope that we young people come out of this destruction with the least damage, will go back to the field and continue holding each other’s hands.
