Young Friends of the Earth Europe is a grassroots network of young people and youth organisations working for social and environmental justice on a local, national and European level.
We’re active in over 20 countries across Europe, and bring together powerful local Young Friends of the Earth groups. We work in cooperation with both Friends of the Earth Europe and Friends of the Earth International, and share a common vision and mission.
Our common understanding of the world and vision of a just system for everyone unites us, and we take action on climate justice, food and agriculture, and sustainability education. We are an inclusive network committed to organising, working together and campaigning in an intersectional way.
We are proud to be a grassroots network that is owned and led by its young members. We work in a horizontal and democratic way, where all members count equally and all voices are heard.
How we work
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
The work, development and direction of the network and organisation is led by the Steering Group which gets elected annually, and supports member groups and dedicated volunteers’ groups.
How we work and Intersectionality
At our 2017 AGM in Austria, we adopted 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 be accountable and conscious in our efforts to be a part of the change we want to see in the world.
In addition, in 2018 Young FoEE has put all its efforts to provide concrete training for our member groups on applying the intersectional framework in the activities and campaigns they run. It was a great first step to build confidence in our groups and individual volunteers. As an outcome of this work, YFoEE and its network of member groups and committed volunteers have created a Toolkit for Intersectional Movement Building.
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.
Friends of the Earth Europe and Friends of the Earth International
Young Friends of the Earth Europe is part of Friends of the Earth Europe, a regional organisation linking the national European member groups of Friends of the Earth International. We work in cooperation with both of these organisations, and share a common vision and mission.