Why we want change
Unemployment is a worldwide issue. The young people are particularly affected. In January 2014, nearly 1 out of 4 young people was unemployed in Europe. The labour market continues to worsen for them, but there is something we can do about it! Time has come to take action!
What we want
We want a Europe where young people have a job enabling them to build a future. We want to provide young Europeans with the tools necessary to overcome Youth Unemployment challenges in their cities.
We want to create an organized effort, which seeks to influence the decision-makers to bring more urgency and priority to the issue of Youth Unemployment.
We want to mobilize support and successfully organize the European-wide campaign because we are proud to Be European but ashamed of Youth Unemployment.
Who we are
(Y)Our Future involves many groups of people working altogether with one same goal: foster youth employment. We are young active citizens and entrepreneurs.
The campaign is supported by JCI The Heart of Europe, the international JCI chapter based in Brussels. JCI is a membership-based nonprofit organization of 200,000 young people, aged 18 to 40 years, spread among 5,000 communities and present in more than 100 countries around the world. Each JCI Member shares the belief that in order to create lasting positive change, we must improve ourselves and the world around us. We seek targeted solutions to the unique problems in our communities to build a better world, creating global impact.
How it all started…
Be the change… Time has come for action! It’s a fact: unemployment is a severe world-wide issue. In January 2014, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) reported that the global unemployment increased by 5 million people in 2013 and that, on current trends, it will rise by a further 13 million people by 2018! This would be like adding the total number of Zimbabwe inhabitants to the already too vast number of unemployed.
The young people continue to be particularly affected by the weak and uneven recovery, 74.5 million were unemployed in 2013. Imagine, this is more than the current Turkey population! The global youth unemployment rate is expected to edge up to 13.2 per cent in 2014. The labour market outlook for young people worsened in nearly every region of the world… Across Europe, more than 5.5 million young people are looking for a job, they are angry and afraid. In January 2014, nearly 1 out of 4 young people was unemployed, 23,4% of them according to the Eurostat report. This context is just unacceptable, it is time to take action!
Look at the bright side: we can all do something about it – this unbearable situation requires active citizenship actions!
In light of this situation, the “Junior Chamber International -The Heart of Europe” decided to take up the challenge and come with solutions that can be implemented anywhere.
JCI THOE, which is a leading international organization of young professionals and entrepreneurs in Brussels, decided to take action and since 2012 organized various editions of “(Y)OurFuture in Brussels”, which is a humanitarian project targeted to help young graduates, students and trainees as they face difficult economic times in Europe.
The project grew in scope and is now being extended to Europe and beyond! In November 2013, an International Leadership Summit was organized where over 80 delegates from 24 different countries were trained to organize their own versions of the “(Y)our Future event”. They are now part of the movement and are local leaders to tackling unemployment in their local communities. The mission of the EU-wide Campaign is to support these local leaders every step of the way.
Only in this fashion can we create a ‘ripple effect’ in each European Country from 9th May 2014 onwards.
We are excited to start this journey with by standing up and proclaiming “we are proud of being Europeans, but ashamed of unemployment – let’s act on it together!”