European Youth Capitals in the time of coronavirus

How have cities responded to the coronavirus crisis? To answer this question and better understand what this means for young people, the European Youth Forum was pleased to co-host a webinar with the City of Klaipeda, European Youth Capital 2021 last Thursday 18 June.

The event saw the active participation of five European Youth Capitals: Thessaloniki (2014), Novi Sad (2019), Amiens (2020), Klaipeda (2021) and Tirana (2022).

Michael Piccinino, a Board Member of the Youth Forum, presented some of the ways youth organisations in Europe reacted to the pandemic, as well as the challenges lying ahead.

During the debate, municipality and youth representatives exchanged on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on young people in cities, and introduced solutions to overcome the upcoming social and economic crisis, which is already threatening young people within their local communities.

In these difficult months, all cities have shown resilience thanks to the cooperation between decision-makers and youth organisations, which led to various positive responses, as strengthened by volunteering services, or the implementation of online services in support of students and vulnerable groups.

In every city, lessons learned from this unprecedented period have generated new ideas on youth-friendly policies which could result in more participation of young people in urban life.

You can watch the full recording of the event below.

For more info, please contact Ivan Neirotti at eyc@youthforum.org.