The YES is organised by volunteers for YFU Students
39 years of YES
The YES – the Youth Empowerment Seminar – event came to life 39 years ago in Europe, when a few ambitious YFU volunteers wanted to give back to their community and offer YFU exchange students a unique culmination of their year abroad. They brought into being a place where students after a year abroad could mesh with the international YFU community, engage with powerful, contemporary social issues spanning borders, and prepare for their journey back home.
With time, the event has gathered a strong community of passionate, international volunteers, many of whom return year after year in different roles – from delivering quality educational content to coordinating travel logistics of hundreds of young participants – and unified by one clear goal.
The YES invites students to reflect on the learnings of their exchange, and empowers them to harness these competencies in becoming active, global citizens that contribute to a just and sustainable world.
The YES 2025 is a global event taking place outside of Berlin on 23 - 27 June 2025.
It will attract 400 participants and 100 volunteers to spend a week participating in an unforgettable setting, learning about this year’s theme, Mission 2030: Dream Big, Act Now, approaching topics of sustainability in a creative way. We will dive into the biggest challenges of our time — together, as a community of young change makers from around the world. We’ll explore how the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can become achievable, looking at how even the largest problems can be broken down into manageable steps. You’ll discover inspiring projects and creative solutions, meet fascinating personalities, and find allies to support you in making meaningful change.
YES 2025: Dream Big, Act now
Educational Tracks at the YES 2025
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Walking in Their Shoes: Exploring Identity and Advocacy through Performative Arts
Through performative arts, this track invites you to explore identity, challenge stereotypes, and engage with issues of inequality in a creative and immersive way. Over three days, you’ll navigate topics like identity, intersectionality, and advocacy, using theater and role-play to understand different perspectives. Rooted in SDGs for reducing inequalities and peace, justice, and strong institutions (SDGs 10 and 16), this track isn’t just about discussion—it’s about stepping up, acting out, and discovering how you can drive change in your context. If you’re ready to think critically, express yourself boldly, and make an impact, this is the space for you!
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Race to Save Planet Earth: A Climate Negotiation Challenge
What should we know about the services you provide? Better descriptions result in more sales.What would you do if you had the power to stop climate change? What if people listened to you and understood you? We will work with you on your research skills and practice the art of making a compelling argument. Then, you will be able to put those skills into use in a debate with your fellow students. In our roleplaying simulation, you will represent a country or organisation and convince others that your solution is the best solution. In the end, you will either walk away as the person who came up with the undisputed smartest idea, or you will realise just how complicated things can get in real life.
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Art for All: Shaping Equality through Creative Expression
What does EQUALITY mean to YOU? We often hear, live, or become bystanders of the inequalities, non-inclusion, discrimination and social injustice of our society. Equality is a widely discussed topic in our everyday life, so let’s take a step back and try to first find our own overall and emotional connection to it without using our words. In this track we will have a mix of creating art with our hands and discussing topics within equality that really matters to you. Our aim is to make art that sparks valuable conversation within our group and to have a real life experience that shows that art is a powerful method to speak up against the status quo. This track warmly welcomes people who like social discussions, artsy projects or have a “different style of thinking”, that they are happy to share.
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Shifting the Lens: Shaping Society through Media for a just Future.
This track explores how media can be a powerful tool for driving development. By analysing media clips, you will learn about human perception and storytelling strategies. You will then be using the power of storytelling to design a compelling message yourself. Throughout this track, you are going to develop a critical eye for what we see on the (social) media. The Track revolves around social challenges and aims to inspire us to create long lasting change.
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Building Together: Crafting Unity and Sustainability through Collaborative Projects
Ever thought about how design shapes our world—and who gets left out? In this track, you'll begin by stepping into someone else's shoes, literally. Then, get creative! You'll transform and reshape the concept of sustainability. From rethinking waste to tackling real-world sustainability challenges, you'll gain hands-on experience in upcycling, problem-solving, and collaborative action . By the end, you'll see how small design choices can make a big impact—and leave with something meaningful to showcase. If you're ready to challenge your perspective and create solutions that matter, this track is for you!
“We aim to empower participants to expand upon the learnings gained through exchange programs or other intercultural experiences, and thus become proactive and globally oriented agents of change.”
YES 2025 is made possible by the support of our funders
The Erasmus+ programme of the European Union
Erasmus+ is the EU's programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe. The 2021-2027 programme places a strong focus on social inclusion, the green and digital transitions, and promoting young people’s participation in democratic life. It supports priorities and activities set out in the European Education Area, Digital Education Action Plan and the European Skills Agenda. The programme also supports the European Pillar of Social Rights, implements the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027 and develops the European dimension in sport.
As part of the YES 2025, EEE-YFU has organised the “Mentor 2.0” training course, a blended learning initiative designed to refine the mentorship and facilitation skills of YFU volunteers (IGLs) and deepen their intercultural competencies. Through this training course, we aim to empower youth workers to become community leaders and mentors, equipping them with skills related to leadership, mentorship, and knowledge on advanced intercultural education.
The objectives of the training course:
Deepen the participants’ understanding of key concepts such as mentorship, leadership, and advanced intercultural education, aligning with the complexities of global society.
Skill development in non-formal education, grounded in the OECD PISA Framework
Mentorship and multiplication: create avenues for proactive and dedicated youth workers to serve as mentors and multipliers, fostering a continuous cycle of learning
Inclusivity and unity: facilitate the construction of bridges across diverse generations, nationalities, and beliefs, contributing to a more inclusive and peaceful society.
The training course has been organised in a blended format:
An e-learning course allowing participants to learn about the following topics:
Leadership, mentorship, intercultural competence
Personal development in a multicultural context
Navigating intercultural challenges in leadership
Advanced intercultural education and application
An in-person part of the activity, that will take in parallel to the YES 2025. The “Mentor 2.0” participants, in the months leading up to the YES, will prepare their non-formal education sessions covering the subject of the training and adapting them to the YES 2025. At the YES, whose theme will be “Mission 2030: Dream Big, Act Now”, they will take on the role of “International Group Leaders (IGLs)” to lead the IGL sessions/non-formal education workshop.
As part of the YES 2025, EEE-YFU has organised a training course ““Youth for 2030” for 20 young educators to equip them with the tools, knowledge, and skills, necessary to drive meaningful change in their communities and beyond. The Youth for 2030 training course aims to empower participants to become agents of positive change, contributing to the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals within their communities. The training course has been organised in a blended format:
An e-learning course giving the chance to participants to gain a deep understanding and practical skills in global and active citizenship, as well as Sustainable Development Goals, with an emphasis on tackling discrimination, promoting civic engagement, and addressing climate change.
An in-person part of the activity, that will take in parallel to the YES 2025. The “Youth for 2030” participants, in the months leading up to the YES, will co-design non-formal education sessions tackling discrimination, promoting civic and democratic behaviour and raising awareness about climate change and how to achieve the SDGs. At the YES, whose theme will be “Mission 2030: Dream Big, Act Now”, they will take on the role of “Track Leaders” to lead their newly designed non-formal education track sessions.
Follow-up activities: Track Leaders will be asked to deliver their sessions, tested at the YES 2025, in their local Member Organisations, either online or in-person. Participants of the Youth Empowerment Seminar 2025 (=students) will be encouraged to disseminate the knowledge they have acquired at the YES 2025 in their own local communities.
The European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe.
The European Youth Foundation (EYF) is a fund established in 1972 by the Council of Europe to provide financial and educational support for European youth activities. The EYF provides grants to project in line with Council of Europe values and work and the specific priorities of the Council of Europe’s youth sector. The priorities for EYF funding are: Revitalising pluralistic democracy, Young people’s access to rights, Living together in peaceful and inclusive societies and Youth work.