27, Ezekia Papaioannou
1075 Nicosia
Cyprus
- Youth and education
YEU Cyprus stands for Youth for Exchange and Understanding Cyprus and it is a non- political, non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Nicosia, Cyprus. It was established in 1995 with the aim to advocate for young people raising their voice in society. To do so YEU Cyprus promotes the fostering of close cooperation and better understanding among young people of the world through the exchange of information, experiences and ideas. YEU Cyprus strives to encourage young people to become active members of our society on a local, national and European level. It is one of the biggest youth organizations in Cyprus numbering more than 500 members and considered to be one of the most active organizations of the island realizing several activities both on international and local level, mainly based on non-formal education. YEU Cyprus is a full member of the Cyprus Youth Council and the Youth Council of the Municipality of Nicosia and is represented in both Boards. It is also a member of the YEU International platform which is under the European Youth Forum umbrella and the Anna Lindh Foundation.
YEU Cyprus has currently three employees, nine board members on a voluntary basis and more than 500 active members. All employees and volunteers are young people with experience in youth work, the NGO sector with diverse academic backgrounds and motivated in creating quality opportunities for young people in Cyprus and in Europe. Furthermore, they are all experienced in mobilities and projects through NFE and experiential learning, some even being trainers and facilitators. The plurality of backgrounds gives the organization not only a great range of expertise that can be used for our projects, but also good representation of young people from a variety of sectors. Furthermore, they have extensive experience in project management and project writing, since the organization has remained operational through the development of European Projects and small local funding opportunities. Our partners include a variety of stakeholders on a local level and on a European level from Youth Ngo's to Universities.
The mission of YEU Cyprus is to provide young people with the opportunity to become social actors on a local and global level through a participatory and inclusive course of action. It focuses on establishing synergies to further raise awareness on important societal issues, advocate for youth rights through a bottom-up approach and offer educational opportunities through non-formal education and experiential learning.
It’s vision is to empower and engage young people to create the change they want to see in our societies and the world. In the past five years YEU Cyprus has focused on projects that deal with active citizenship, remembrance, volunteerism, intercultural education, cultural heritage, human rights education, mental health education, sustainability and peace building through the use of non formal methods and then implementation of a variety of local and International projects.
YEU Cyprus advocates on the rights of young people with regards to having a voice in the Cypriot society and beyond; specifically on matters of human rights, sustainable development, intercultural education and youth participation. This is achieved by coordinating and collaborating in various international and local activities and events through mobilities and other local and European projects. On an international level, YEU Cyprus organizes and delivers training courses, youth exchanges, youth dialogue projects, and ESC projects on different topics, focusing always on youth development, awareness raising and capacity building. On a local level, the organization implements workshops, seminars, activities and offers internships to further promote youth empowerment and support young people in their progress. To do so we provide opportunities for all young people that reside in Cyprus to participate and engage in matters related to social, economical, cultural development of themselves and their communities. Through non-formal education and experiential learning we implement creative activities to engage young people in finding a more healthy lifestyle, employment and respond to the issues that youth is facing in our societies and in Europe at large. The organization has great experience in NFE, since it is one of the first youth organizations implementing non-formal methods in Cyprus, advocates for NFE on a national level and supports lifelong learning through its actions.
YEU Cyprus has been an active youth organization for a great amount of time, establishing itself on a local level and European level providing young people support and opportunities to develop themselves as part of our society. We can contribute to the network our already established network of partners and our expertise in youth work. Our outreach in regards to the activities of the network is quite high through our social media accounts and website, which would be another valuable contribution. Furthermore, through our advocacy work we can contribute to the development of policies and share all the good practices that we have accumulated throughout the years as a youth NGO.
Joining the network will give us the opportunity to network with a variety of organizations, coming from the Euro-Med region to exchange ideas and good practices among ourselves. We aspire to work collaboratively in addressing issues and challenges that our region faces, through funding opportunities the network provides.