The goal of the EYW is to involve you, young people across Europe into deliberating about family policy. We believe that the future generation of families should receive a platform to formulate their expectations towards governments and decision-makers both on the European and the civil society level, so that their wishes can shape the future of family policy in Europe. The program also aims to open the door for you to start networking with each other in the field of civil family issues.

The 50 participants, aged 18 to 30, have been selected through to an open call, which was forwarded to all the member-organisations of both CFACB and ELFAC. Despite of the strict requirements (high command of English, membership in and recommendation by a family organisation, working out three essay questions, as well as a proved commitment and motivation towards to topic), there has been a significant over-subscription. The selected 50 participants will represent more than 15 European countries.

During the three-days program the participants will be divided into 5 groups, representing 5 imaginary countries, and will be working together throughout the whole weekend in an interactive and thought-provoking way. Thanks to the workshops the groups have to set out a package of measurements relating family policies, which will be introduced at the Saturday’s mini-plenary as their “government package”, taking into consideration of the characteristics of the given imaginary country. The teams furthermore should prepare an “opening speech” to the mini-plenary, which touches upon the values, directions and future goals their policies are built upon, and should argue in favour of greater support for family-friendly societies in the future. The chair of the mini-plenary will be Ms Katalin Novák, the Hungarian Minister of State for Family and Youth affairs. A high level jury will evaluate the performances of the group, and select the most feasible and original program, and award the title “most family-friendly government” to the winning team. During the closing workshop, the participants will discuss the five packages in more detail, and will select the best items from each. This selection will result in a closing document called “European Family Strategy of the Youth”. 

Throughout the weekend the participants will also be involved in a variety of exciting cultural and social events, and beside of wonderful discussions on the families of the future, they will experience the atmosphere of the vibrant and historical city of beautiful Budapest.