Young Friends of Earth Europe has a horizontal structure – there is not one person in control who sits at the top and dishes out the instructions. Instead, we collect information from our member groups and work collaboratively to produce campaigns and events that are useful and interesting for our member countries.
We are a movement created by young people, and run by young people. Young people are involved at every stage of our work, from planning and running the programme of our annual summer camp, to developing our long term campaign strategies and plans. We do this by bringing together and working with our national groups and individual youth activists from Europe.
Nearly everything is done by volunteers, who work with each other with a common goal and vision, from across Europe.
Our youth-led structure
Young Friends of the Earth Europe campaigns and activities are developed by our Working Groups. The work, development and direction of the network and organisation is led by the Steering Group which gets elected annually, and supports the working groups and member groups.
Our manifesto on how we work
At our 2017 AGM in Austria, we adoped a manifesto produced by our Equality & Interculturalism working group. It was written to be an explicit statement of our values and principles as an organisation. It is a commitment to inform ourselves and our work, to challenge ourselves and one another, and to accountable and conscious in our efforts to be a part of the change we want to see in the world. Check it out!
You can also find our manifesto in different languages!
YFoEE Manifesto for Equality & Interculturalism – Spanish.
YFoEE Manifesto for Equality & Interculturalism – French.
YFoEE Manifesto for Equality & Interculturalism – Croatian.
Steering Group
The Steering Group is made up of up to eight volunteers elected from the network. They are responsible for coordinating the ongoing work and development of Young Friends of the Earth Europe. Steering Group members are elected during our Annual Network Gathering’s in the spring.
Working groups
We have a number of Working Groups that focus on specific issues:
• Climate Justice
• Food and Agriculture
• Equality and Interculturalism
• Communications
We also create working groups to lead on specific events (for example the Summer Camp, our annual Network Gathering and our events around our Growing Together project)
These Working Groups are made up of individual youth activists from our member groups across Europe. Each Working Group has a Coordinator who has overall responsibility for the group and a representative from the Steering Group. If you’re a member of a Young Friends of the Earth member group, then these groups provide an opportunity to become actively involved in shaping the network’s focus, and contributing your skills and ideas.
Climate Justice Working Group
This working group develops climate related campaigns and events (for example Push Europe, Qatar in Brussels in 2012 and Lima in Brussels in 2014); and maintains cooperation with Friends of the Earth International on the UN’s international climate negotiations (UNFCCC). The group facilitates collaboration and communication between groups working on climate issues, and takes part in the European Youth Climate Movement and YOUNGOs (youth constituency to the UNFCCC) on behalf of Young Friends of the Earth Europe. Email us to join!
Food & Agriculture Working Group
We bring together young activists from the YFoEE network to exchange and work together on a range of issues and events related to the topics of food and agriculture. Our work includes the development of campaigns and resources such as reCAP, our European wide campaign on CAP reform and against factory farm in 2012s, and developing position papers such as our manifesto for food and agriculture. Email us to join this working group!
Communications Working Group
This working group coordinates all Young Friends of the Earth Europe’s external communications (social media, newsletters, an annual yearbook, and the website) and develops effective internal communications between our members. Email us if you’d like to join this working group!