Seminars

All our events are organised in cooperation with our Member Organisations and they take place in the regions where minorities come from.

Kick-Off Seminar

The Kick-Off seminar is the first event of the year and takes place usually in February. Here the participants are familiarized with the theme of the YEN´s work plan for the year and are introduced to the subject. The seminar is organized closely with one of our member organizations.

Easter Seminar

Traditionally in the week before Easter, the annual seminar takes place. The seminar is organized by a member organization every year. With around 60-80 participants, the Easter Seminary is the largest meeting of young people and youth organizations of European minorities. Each year, the seminar is dedicated to a specific topic important for young people from national, ethnic and linguistic minorities. This intense week comprises of workshops, discussions, lectures and excursions that focus on minority- and youth-specific topics and experiences, as well as imparting knowledge and impressions about the hosting minority. Above all, the Easter seminar is the forum for encounters and exchanges between young people, who are predominantly minorities whose language and culture are threatened with extinction. Participation in the YEN Easter Seminar is often the beginning of a long-term European engagement for minorities and motivation for working on a local and regional level.

Chronology of the Easter Seminars

General Assembly

As a rule, the Annual General Assembly is held after the Easter Seminar. During the General Assembly, the representatives of the affiliates determine the direction of the organization, decide on the finances of the organisation, elect the Board and pass resolutions.

Diversity Festival

The Diversity Festival focuses on cultural diversity of national minorities. Initially the event ran under the title “Voices of Europe”, and brought together young people from different minorities who sang for a week – in all minority languages. Today, YEN focuses on a variety of cultural topics such as singing, dance, theater, film, poetry, as well as new media. At the end of the event there is usually a public show organised, which gathers broad public including the members of the majority society. It is the cultural diversity and cultural exchange of the European minorities that stays in the main focus of the event each year.

Chronology of Diversity Festivals

Autumn Seminar

The Autumn Seminar is the last seminar of the year taking place usually in October. Initially it was called the “Youth Leader Seminar” aiming at expanding the network of the organisation and focusing on the development of the network. Nowadays, the Autumn Seminar closes the series of the seminar of a particular year. The week (usually Monday-Sunday) consists of workshops, discussions and other activities, where participants work with the methods of non-formal education. The Autumn Seminar is organised with one of the Member Organizations of YEN, as one of the aims is also to get to know the hosting minority.

Chronology of the Youth Leader Seminars & Autumn Seminars

before: Youth Leader Seminar

The Youth Leader Seminar is conducted out each year in autumn by one of the member organizations of YEN.

The Youth Leader Seminar is a working meeting, which basic idea is the further development of YEN as a network of youth organizations and continuing education of its members. Consequently, it concentrates on the young generation of European minorities.

Furthermore, existing and upcoming challenges as well as perspective future strategies are discussed against the background of the actual developments in social policy. The Youth Leader Seminar has been an integral part of the YEN since 1997. It has been first organized in Bautzen/Budyšin in order to concentrate on the demands which the organization had to face due to the integration of new member organizations from East and South-East of Europe.

before: Voices of Europe (1997 – 2014)

“Voices of Europe” is organized by youth organizations, who are part of the European network Youth of European Nationalities (YEN). The participating youth unites enthusiasm and love for singing, music and for their – often threatened – language and culture.

Under the leading of an experienced choir conductor, the participants an entire week introduce to each other a lot of songs in the respective minority languages and diligently rehearse for the highlight of the choir camp: a colorful concert with a selection of songs from European minorities.

Songs and singing are one of the oldest treasures of each nation. They are also an expression of cultures and history. Singing together as the “Voices of Europe” is a way for approaching to other languages and presenting the own language in a choir to the audience. This is the peculiarity and the challenge of the project “Voices of Europe” – for the participants and the audience.

Chronology of Voices of Europe