From the 13th to 18th of June 2022 in the European Youth Center Strasbourg we had our Study Session ”Sustainable Development Goals and Youth with Disabilities: What We Can Do?” which was organized by ENIL Youth Network in cooperation with the Youth Department of the Council of Europe.
This Study Session gathered 12 young people with different (dis)abilities and their support persons from all over Europe and even beyond. During these six days, the participants went through intense but also very interesting programme. They learned more about human rights and sustainable development goals, found links between them and connected that with the issues happening in their local realities in their home countries. We also spent time on defying the qualities of a true youth leader, discussing how to make the voices of the underrepresented groups of the society more hear, and identifying what makes an advocacy campaign successful. Many of the participants are active leaders and disability advocates so we also gave a space for them to share their advocacy actions, experience and examples of good practice with other participants to ensure the peer-to-peer learning in the process.
On the last days of the study session, the participants were introduced to the project management cycle and they spend some time to plan their own local actions, which could raise awareness to existing disability-related issues and promote inclusion in their local communities.
Last but not least, we had some time to explore the beautiful Strasbourg, walk in the park l’Orangerie or getting to know our cultures better by sharing the local music, legends, traditions and games with each other.
Laura Alčiauskaitė, a trainer of this ENIL Study Sesion
