The CYE Youth Committee has been in contact with some of the biggest organizations for coeliac patients in USA and Canada. The Youth Committee 2006-2008 had the chance to attend the XII International Coeliac Disease Symposium in New York, USA and met some youth representatives. The Youth Committee has been in touch also with the major Australian Coeliac Society.

CYE is willing to get in contact with other youth organisations. Until now the cooperation with European Federation of Crohn’s and Colitis Associations Youth Group has been the closest, but new contacts are always welcome, so please don’t hesitate to contact the Youth Committee of CYE.

Cooperation with EYG

In 2005 CYE started the cooperation with European Federation of Crohn’s and Colitis Associations Youth Group (EFCCA Youth Group, EYG). CYE and EYG are European level non-governmental youth organisations, and both have similar cultures and backgrounds – both are working to help youngsters coping with long term digestive disorders.

There are many projects on both sides, which could be exploited to other: for example the national youth groups on the CYE side have a long tradition in organizing the international summer camp, where as EYG is now organizing the first camp ever. On the other hand EYG is doing effective cooperation with several sponsors and CYE could learn from those experiences.

EYG and CYE representatives have visited each others conferences annually and stayed in contact between the meetings. In 2009 the Letter of Intent was signed by both parties, and the deeper cooperation could start. The Letter of Intent is an agreement, where EYG and CYE state their willingness to cooperate on projects and form a long term relationship. EYG and CYE will for example exchange their own materials when possible and meet at least twice a year.

Study visit project in 2010

The first concrete result of the agreement made is the study visit project carried out during the year 2010. The study visit was organized by CYE and EYG. The main aim is to improve the quality of the youth work on both sides. The project already started in January 2010 with the first conference call of the preparatory team. The preparation continued through the spring and the study visit will take place on 17/06/2010 – 20/06/2010 in Sommaroy, Norway. After that feedback about the project was collected and the work for further cooperation projects was started. The project ended in September 2010.

Participants of the project were the CYE Youth Committee 2008-2010 (Michaela Hahn, general coordinator; Anita van Schieveen, project manager; Hanna Koponen, financial manager), who participated in the EYG European Youth Meeting in Norway. In EYG European Youth Meeting the youngsters of the national Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis associations were represented. The European Youth Meeting of EYG is similar to the CYE Conference held annually in September. The study visit project had a preparatory team, the members from CYE side were Hanna Koponen and Michaela Hahn, from EYG there were Ben Wilson and Chayim Bell.

CYE applied for a grant to cover part of the travel and accommodation costs of the visit. The project received a grant of 1100 EUR from Council of Europe to cover part of the project costs from the CYE side. The grant enables the realisation of the project.

3 aims of the project:

  • The study visit aims to deepen this existing cooperation to improve the quality of youth work of CYE and EYG.
  • During the study visit CYE and EYG will define together a theme for a future cooperation project and a draft for the working plan for the project.
  • Third aim is to find out the possibilities for the cooperation also on the national level, between the national youth groups.

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