St Basils young residents who are also members of the National Youth Reference Group (NYRG) that St Basils Co-ordinates attended the Annual Conference for International Tenants Day, which took place in Brussels, Belgium on 3rd October 2011, to give a presentation and join a panel discussion.
The conference was held at the EU Committee of the Regions, with over 100 delegates from across 18 countries, including representatives of the European Commission. The agenda for the day was to discuss the housing issues facing young people across the globe and what different organisations around the world are doing to tackle this problem head on.
NYRG Coordinator, Tamzin Taylor-Rosser, said;
“The young people Alan Tien and Maz Ahmed presented a solution based presentation on 'The prevention of Youth Homelessness' It was great to see the only two Youth representaives giving a solution to Housing issues as well as raising awareness of youth homelessness. A very proud moment for NYRG and St Basils!”.
Barbara Steenbergen, Head of the International Union of Tenants (IUT) said;
“Many thanks to Maz and Alan for an excellent intervention! We’ll be staying in touch with NYRG.”
Young NYRG member Maz said of the experience;
“It was interesting to see what the situation was like in places such as Poland, Italy and Spain; and how dire it is in comparison to England where the situation is bad but to be fair, there are things in place so young people have a voice and are able to share concerns and try to make a difference”.
“There were Professors that had studied this for many years and had done research in Mexico and Central Africa sharing their thoughts and what they had found out. All in all it was very interesting and a great opportunity for NYRG to be put on the map as well as explore a great country where many influential decisions are made by the governments of the world.”.
While young NYRG member Alan said;
“Brussels was simply an amazing experience for me: I would have never expected that I would be given the opportunity to represent young people in England at an international level!
Myself and Mariam Ahmed, as National Youth Reference Group members, were both representing young people in need of housing in England. The main point we were aiming to get across to the delegates was that prevention is always better than cure and that prevention measures such as family mediation should be put into place in order to help prevent situations that can lead to youth homelessness, especially when there is such a lack of affordable housing for young people out there; we discovered that this situation is shared by many young people in the EU".
"This event was a unique experience especially considering we were the only young people at the conference. In addition, the setting we were in was a very European Parliament-style room with a flat screen in front of everyone and a large pointy microphone, should we wish to speak. There were also many different interpreters in sound-proof glassed rooms in the background, translating every single sentence speakers would say and attendants could use the built-in headphones to switch over to whichever language they preferred. One amusing thing we discovered was that from a push of a small “attention” button near our microphones, all cameras would automatically be zoomed in on your face, whereby your image would be displayed right in front of everyone’s screens, whether intentionally or unintentionally!"
"After the conference, we got to take a tour of the EU Parliament HQ, which proved to be an enjoyable and informative experience, learning about the interesting facts and origins of the EU Parliament and its artefacts. I must say, I am truly grateful for the opportunity that was given to me. This has proved to be my most enjoyable and unforgettable NYRG experience by far!”
Added October 2011
