Senovazne namesti 24
11000 Prague
Czechia
- Environment/Sustainable development
- International/Cultural relations
- Youth and education
IYNF is an international organization bringing together Young Naturefriends and their organizations across Europe and beyond. It currently has 18 member and 14 partner organizations with more than 120.000 young members organized in over a thousand local groups. The working structure consists of the Secretariat based in Prague and the decision making bodies, which are the General Assembly, the Council and the Presidium appointed for 2 years. The main sources of funding are the Erasmus+ programme and European Youth Foundation. IYNF is also financially supported by its mother organization Naturefriends Internationale. IYNF regularly organizes capacity building meetings for its member and partner organizations as well as training courses, which are aligned with the main theme of the year. In the recent years, the topics of using gamification for raising awareness about climate crisis or using outdoor education methods to prevent mental issues of youth were tackled. The topic of the year of 2023 is called Extremism – A danger for Climate Justice?
The fundamental reason for IYNF's existence or what we jointly want to become: an international network to connect and inspire Young Naturefriends for living values of respect, solidarity, equality, sustainability and love and care for nature.
Training courses, Youth exchanges, Paper and electronic publications and knowledge systems, Toolboxes on sustainable youth work and project management, Meetings and conferences for networking and cooperation, Permanent working groups and informal networks, Public exhibitions and other public educational activities, Communication and information channels.
As an international organization IYNF not only contributes in one country, but has a European impact. Our Secretariat is based in Prague and office members and volunteers are encouraged to organize local events – as an example we can mention sustainability workshops or green tours, that are accessible for the public. We believe that organizations with similar aims should cooperate and develop their values together to have a better positive impact on the society.
Even if IYNF is a well-established organization, we are still interested in finding new members and partner organizations, especially in the countries where we have no partners yet. Networking and programming belong to our main activities and we believe Anna Lindh Network could help us to enlarge our network and to find partners with similar values. We believe we can contribute with our building capacity in the environmental field. As a youth organization we also need to follow up on the changing needs of our youth members and learn constantly. We believe this learning process can be developed most effectively in discussion and cooperation with others.