After a long time of preparations and making plans finally the day had come: 38 young people from Greece, Wales, Finland, Romania, Great Britain, Ireland and the Czech Republic arrived at the Salzburg airport on Saturday, May 13th. That evening we went to the old part of Salzburg and had a nice dinner.
On Sunday morning the participants could choose between two different workshops: either henna tattoo painting or bungee-swinging in the garden. In the warm sun it was easy for everyone to come into contact with each other.
Monday was a special day. From 9 a.m. our workshops started. The subjects were integration of children and young people being in care (either in foster families or under supervision in groups with other young people) and participation in decisions concerning their own life. An exchange of experiences of the participants showed that the problems in other countries do not differ much from ours.
Together we worked out posters with a list of basic needs and wishes towards the representatives of the child and youth welfare and all institutions and organizations working with young people being in care. At the end of the day we had finished four posters with a whole host of ideas.In the evening we accepted an invitation to the EFCW conference (European Forum for Child Welfare) and visited their inaugural ceremony.
On Tuesday, the participation in the EFCW conference was the main point. It was important to us not to appear as petitioners or decoration of the adults but as experts regarding the needs of children and young people in care. At 11.30 a.m., the adults could quickly be convinced of this from a short presentation of Youth in Care Austria and a summary of the topics important to us.
On Wednesday morning the main topic of the youth conference was after care systems (for young adults who had been in care) that partially have become routine already in other countries. In the afternoon we had the chance to take a look at presentations of the various teams of the EFCW conference - among them was our team that had represented us in an outstanding manner.
Unfortunately the first participants of the youth conference already had to leave, so we interchanged addresses and invitations.
On Thursday the participants had the chance to visit the Kinderschutzzentrum and the ombudsoffice for children and young people or to stroll through town. The last dinner together made us feel very sad and we could not part without promising each other another meeting.
On Friday everyone was accompanied to the airport, and in the end we remained behind alone, with hearts full with friendship and heads filled with ideas.