Project Details

JSR meets friends

Short Description and Goal

Young people from the twin cities Darlington, Tours, Kouvola, Oppeln and Kfar Saba as well as members of the Mülheim Youth City Council ( Jugend Stadt Rat or JSR in German) and the Mülheim European Schools met in Mülheim an der Ruhr for the international youth congress “JSR meets friends_vol 1 and 2” in 2011 and 2015. Aim of the project – bringing the European idea into the consciousness of European young people and promoting political engagement.

Detailed Description

JSR2015
The boys and girls travelled from Mülheim’s partner and project partner cities Darlington, Tours, Kouvola, Oppeln and Kfar Saba. Together with four members of the youth city council, who was also the official host, as well as two students from the Mülheim European schools, the young people between the ages of 15 and 19 were accommodated in the Naturfreundehaus.

Program:

The first evening –  a joint dinner with Mayor Dagmar Mühlenfeld in Franky’s Bar was on the program.

The next morning things really started: Breakfast 7:30 a.m. – 8:20 a.m., departure to Haus der Wirtschaft, 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Getting to know each other and workshop environment, 12.35 p.m. – 1.45 p.m. lunch, 2:00 p.m. sightseeing tour, 5:30 p.m. return to Naturfreundehaus, 6:30 p.m. Departure to the RRZ, 7 p.m.-9 p.m. bowling and then return to the Naturfreundehaus.

Participants did a similar program every day. In the mornings and afternoons, there were workshops on the topics of Environment, Tolerance, Political Engagement and Mobility, followed by an alternating evening program such as cooking, parties and a rock concert. The working language was English, although some participants spoke better German than English.

On Friday they received prominent visitors from EU politicians Jens Geier (SPD), Dr. Stephan Koppelberg (EU Commission) and Mayor Dagmar Mühlenfeld with their translator. In the beginning, the Young European Professionals (YEPs), who had previously done the workshops with the young people, conducted an interview with the politicians on the subject of Europe: What do you think about Putin ?, How do you assess the situation ?, What does Europe mean for Them? “The great thing was that in the following discussion we had the opportunity to either comment or ask questions,” enthused Luce Savidan, a participant from France. The guests took the time to calmly answer the young people’s questions, even if one or the other question caused some politicians to stumble.
The project finished with a rock concert. The members of the JSR had painstakingly prepared and organized the traditional rock concert in the Feldmann Foundation. From 8.30 p.m. the newcomer bands “The Prancing Pony”, “Vertical, Freeway” and “TieLess” played until the morning.
The previously individual national groups had now grown into a large family, although the nations remained to themselves on the first evening.

All in all, all young people draw a positive conclusion: “The congress helped us to better understand the idea of ​​Europe and even to experience it first hand. Europe is more than just an incapacitated bunch of loosely connected states. Much still has to be done, however, for Europe to really become Europe. But this requires political commitment from the citizens! It’s time to finally get active. We can only change Europe together! ”

Participants jointly developed a resolution on the topics of Political Engagement, Mobility, Environment and Tolerance in order to give politicians and citizens some food for thought.

Source:
https://gymnasium-heissen.de/index.php/2015/11/04/jsr-meets-friends-volume-2/

Initiated by

  • Young EU Professionals

Initiators are

• Public institution
• Private individual(s) / Civil society

Funded by

• Federal or State Funds

Project Website(s)

Social Media Link(s)

Contact Info

KommunikationsCenter
Abteilung Bürgeragentur und Kommunikationscenter

Öffnungszeiten:
Bürgeragentur:
Mo.- Do. 8-17 Uhr,
Fr. 8-15 Uhr

KommunikationsCenter:
Mo.-Fr. 8-18 Uhr

Anschrift Am Rathaus 1
45468 Mülheim an der Ruhr
(VRR | Routenplaner)
Telefon 0208 455 0
Telefax 0208 455 9999
E-Mail versenden

Project Topics

Civil Society, Education, Governance, Urban Development, Young People

Level / Project Complexity /

Medium

Participating Cities

  • Mülheim
  • Darlington
  • Tours
  • Kouvola
  • Oppeln
  • Kfar Saba

Sizes of Participating Cities

• 20.000 - 100.000
• 100.000 - 500.000

Participating Countries

  • Germany
  • France
  • United Kingdom
  • Finnland
  • Poland
  • Israel

Project Region(s)

• Europe

Media Credits

Cover photo: unsplash.com