European Foundation Centre Pre-Conference Sessions: 2010 and 2011

 

The Learning for Well-being Consortium of Foundations in Europe held a pre-conference session on 26 May at the 2011 European Foundations Centre’s AGA and Conference in Caiscais, Portugal. Over 30 participants from almost 20 foundations and a number of NGOs and networks participated in the meeting.

The Consortium invited the participants to review together the draft Learning for Well-being policy glossary: “Learning for Well-being: A Policy Priority for Children and Youth in Europe - A movement for change”. The policy glossary is designed to contribute to better policy for children and youth across Europe, fit to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The cross-sectoral focus (e.g. health, mental health, social affairs, education, etc.), draws on state-of-the-art and multidisciplinary research on well-being and, crucially, the policy glossary will propose principles for policies and ideas about how to “make it happen”. One aim is to help create that necessary shift in mindsets and practices that can better respond to the diversity of individuals and their learning processes, valuing the fulfilment of individual potential. The pre-conference session was facilitated by Prof. Ilona Kickbusch, main author of the policy glossary and Mr. Daniel Kropf, Executive Director of UEF and Chair of the Learning for Well-being Consortium of Foundations in Europe.

This review by foundations is part of a process of consultation that started in 2010 with an expert meeting held in Marrakesh and continued in spring and summer 2011 with a broad consultation on the first draft. The objective is to ensure that the policy glossary includes the views and insights of individuals and organisations from different disciplines and sectors and of a broad range of partners and stakeholders from many different sectors of society as well as from different countries across Europe. Importantly this includes listening to the youth perspective through a 2-day seminar co-funded by the Youth in Action Programme and organised by the L4WB Youth Movement.

The session was extremely rich in its exploration of the themes and issues addressed in the policy glossary. Based on their own experiences and work, the participants offered fruitful insights about the key issues and concepts, such as well-being, learning, learning environments, education, health and community,. Also, the participants explored how to maximise the impact of the policy glossary for policy makers and institutions. They concluded that it has great potential as a policy tool that can influence policies concerning children and youth in Europe.

Next steps: Following these consultations, a meeting is being organised at the European Parliament on the 6 September 2011 with the Quality of Childhood Working Group to discuss the policy glossary with European parliamentarians and NGOs. A consultation on the second full draft will take place during a 2-day expert meeting on children’s well-being organised by OECD in cooperation with the EU, UNICEF and the Consortium in November 2011 and the policy glossary will be launched at a conference in Brussels early in 2012.

Please click here to read the report on the meeting

Please click below to view the PowerPoint presentations of the pre-conference session:

Presentation of Pr. Ilona Kickbusch - Main author of the policy glossary
Presentation of Mr. Daniel Kropf - Executive Director of UEF and Chair of the Learning for Well-being Consortium of Foundations in Europe
Presentation of Ms. Jean Anne Kennedy - Coordinator of the Learning for Well-being Youth Movement