This is the final report of the ‘All In’ study session, conducted by IFM-SEI and ENIL Youth at the
European Youth Centre of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on 13-20 November 2016, in cooperation with the Council of Europe’s youth sector. The study session brought together a mixed
ability group of 25 participants from the two organisations to discuss what inclusion means to us and
how to make our child and youth movements more inclusive. In addition there were eight personal
assistants, six team members and two palantypists, totaling 41 people in attendance.
The study session came to fruition after an ENIL Youth chair, Zara Todd, attended an IFM-SEI study
session on human rights education in 2015, after being a member of an IFM-SEI member organisation
as a child. Despite the efforts of the IFM-SEI programme team, many of the activities were not
accessible for a wheelchair user and it was clear there was a lot of work that needed to be done in
order for IFM-SEI to be able to make the study session inclusive to young people with disabilities.
Talks between the IFM-SEI Secretary General and Zara began after the study session about delivering
a joint study session to look at how child and youth organisations, particularly IFM-SEI, can be more
inclusive to disabled children and young people.
IFM-SEI is an educational children and youth movement that works on a lot of projects around
inclusion but they are largely focused on gender, sexuality and anti-racism. The topic of disability is
a relatively new one to the organisation and this study session was the springboard to start working
on the topic, with the collaboration of young disabled people. Many of the IFM-SEI participants work
on a regular basis with children and young people but there are few disabled young people active in
their organisations, particularly those with physical disabilities. As a result of the preparations for
this study session, accessibility was agreed to be one of the eight thematic areas in the IFM-SEI
strategic work plan 2016-2019, agreed in August 2016.
