On Tuesday, 26th October, Eurodiaconia hosted our first ever Youth Meet their MEPs event, an online roundtable designed to bridge the gap between young Europeans and their MEPs.

It represented a unique occasion to open the doors to a straightforward dialogue between young people and their European representatives. At Eurodiaconia we are so fortunate to have 54 members who are part of our network. Among those members, there are countless young people either working for, volunteering with, or participating in vital social and health care services work that our member provides.

During the event, we highlighted the work of our Italian member, Diaconia Valdese. Their work focuses on non-formal educations programs and other services aimed at young people from vulnerable situations. After an engaging presentation from Diaconia Valdese volunteering office, we had the opportunity to hear from two of their young volunteers, who told us about their experiences of volunteering in Italy and the type of work they had done.

We learned about their year of working for different organisations across Italy and their experience of providing vital services and support for young people and migrants. Through their voluntary work they were able to develop new language skills and interact with people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures – learning the importance of being an active citizen. At Eurodiaconia, we were deeply inspired by their presentations and encouraged by how much they had been able to take away from helping others.

It was also fantastic to hear from Mr Niklas Nienass, a German MEP representing the Green Group and the European Free Alliance. After a brief overview of his experience as an MEP and the EU parliamentary and legislative process, Mr Nienass took the time to answer our young people’s questions. It was exciting to hear our young people engage with Mr Nienass and for them to draw lines between their work on-the-ground and how it interacts at an EU-wide level.

Mr Nienass also spent time explaining the work that the European Parliament is currently undertaking to safeguard and promote the importance of volunteering for young people across Europe and the life skills that can be gained through active participation. Mr Nienass described the impact that volunteering had has on his own life and career journey and all our young people took away a sense of his passion for making volunteering more accessible and to improve engagement amongst younger generation.

It was an excellent event, and we are grateful to our young people and Mr Nienass for creating a space for open dialogue and for building a bridge between the important work that our young people are doing on the ground and how that interacts and compliments the EU-level policies and legislation.

We are sure that this will be the first of many conversations to come! Look out for our next Youth meet their MEPs event!