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Summary 2007 |
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The King Gustaf V 90th Anniversary Foundation has been assigned the task of encouraging non-profit activities for young people. Our aim is to strengthen and develop voluntary youth organisations. We focus in particular on international leadership training.
Youth organisations and sporting organisations in Sweden can apply for support from the Foundation. Funds from us can partly be used for training initiatives in other countries and for travel by young people from other countries to Sweden
The board of the foundation has this year distributed SEK 4.947.000 to 69 international projects. Youth co-operation in Europe is the main activity in these projects. Many programmes concern exchanges with organisations in the Balkan States, but support has been distributed to contacts and exchanges in several parts of the world.
As a result of its engagement in the European Foundation Centre (EFC) and the International Youth Foundation (IYF), the Foundation has gained an extensive international contact network. This has created the benefit of us being able, through Swedish youth organisations, to participate in large international projects in education, together with renowned foundations in other countries.
Our largest international project is taking place in Macedonia, where the Foundation in co-operation with the Balkan Children and Youth Foundation (BCYF), founded by IYF, is supporting youth leadership training. Several different youth and sporting organisations engage in this co-operation. We enjoy seeing this combined effort crossing the traditional organisational borders bring interesting results. For the fourth year in a row, 4th - 6th of May we had a project evaluation. Among other accomplishments, the project has developed in such way that the leaders in Macedonia now are carrying out their own leadership training courses.
We highly value the co-operation with our partner organisation BCYF, which we consider employ very committed, highly qualified people.
Around the turn of the month June / July 2007, the first youth camp ever in Macedonia within the boundary of the project was arranged, planned and carried out by leaders and young people from different organisations. The camp was held in Strezovo, a place of great natural beauty in the mountains near the city Bitola. The head of the camp was the organisation Felix, from Bitola, in close co-operation with BCYF.
We have also initiated long-term projects in education, partly in Bosnia in co-operation with the Tuzla Community Foundation, which in turn receives support from the german Freudenberg Stiftung, and partly in the Serbian city Lajkovac, where also the local authorities give committed support to the activities. Various Swedish youth and sporting organisations also engage in these projects.
Each year, the foundation awards the Ernst Killander Scholarship, recognized as the foremost award to a voluntary Swedish youth leader. The Ernst Killander Scholarship of 2007 was awarded to Cecilia Härsing, youth leader in the Young Womens’ Auxiliary Service Movement.
The board gave the following motivation to the decision:
Cecilia Härsing is an active youth leader in the Young Womens’ Auxiliary Service Movement, with assignments at many levels within the organsation. She has especially concentrated on training leaders, and has created a new tutor course, aimed at youth leaders. Her work is characterised by everyone knowing what her organisation - the Young Womens’ Auxiliary Service Movement - stands for. Cecilia Härsing is considered a leader, who all teenage girls and adults in her activity can be proud of. |
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Senast uppdaterad ( 2007-11-11 )
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Summary 2006 |
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The King Gustaf V 90th Anniversary Foundation has been assigned the task of encouraging voluntary non-profit activities for young people. This is done mainly by distributing support through Swedish youth and sports associations to projects involving the training of youth leaders in collaboration with associations in other countries.
This year the Foundation’s board has distributed SEK 5,270,000 to 90 international projects. Collaboration on the training of youth leaders in Europe is the main activity in these projects. Many programmes involve collaboration with organisations in the Balkans and in the Baltic states, although support has been given for youth leader training and collaboration with organisations in many parts of the world.
For a few years the Foundation has been taking part on a trial basis in a partnership with the International Youth Foundation (IYF), a global network consisting of more than forty prominent youth foundations. During the financial year the Foundation has been included as a regular partner in the IYF, which we view as proof of success in our international work.
Our biggest international project is under way in Macedonia, where the Foundation is collaborating with the Balkan Children and Youth Foundation, which was founded by the IYF, to provide support for the training of youth leaders. The project involves the participation of Macedonian and Swedish sports organisations, Young Falcons from Sweden and its partner association Felix in Macedonia, as well as Youth Fire Brigades from both countries. At a seminar in the city of Ohrid in Macedonia on 12-14 May 2006, as in spring 2005, an evaluation was performed of the activities within the project. All of the organisations from Macedonia and Sweden that are involved in the project took part in the seminar. Discussions at the evaluation conference were chaired by Mr Bengt Sevelius from the Foundation’s board in a much-appreciated way.
“To summarise, it can be noted that the projects within the Macedonian organisation have resulted in increased activity and the recruitment of several new leaders and members,” pointed out Bengt Sevelius after the conference.
The Foundation also has close collaboration with the European Foundation Centre (EFC), which comprises a network of 168 foundations in Europe. Lennart Elbe, Secretary General of the Foundation’s board, has been a member of a programme group at the EFC charged with the task of preparing the annual conference held by the EFC. At the last conference, held on 26-28 May 2006 in Brussels on the subject of Supporting European Citizens´ Participation, we invited Nina Svensson from the Swedish Templar Movement and a board member of the National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations. She contributed an interesting address under the title of “How young people can influence Europe”. Please see above.
The Foundation’s contacts in the EFC have also made it possible for a number of youth and sports organisations in Sweden to become involved in international projects.
Each year the Foundation awards the Ernst Killander Scholarship, recognised as the highest award to a Swedish youth leader. Mats Hansson, youth leader and former chairman of Lyckeby Gymnastics and Sports Association, was awarded this year’s scholarship.
The board gave the following explanation of the decision.
Mats Hansson is a true driving force who, without himself taking centre stage, is a fine representative of the sporting movement.. He is described by representatives of sport in Blekinge as a role model in how to deal with young people and leaders. Mats Hansson is also a skilled organiser, who not only took the initiative in arranging the Lyckå Cup, Sweden’s biggest indoor football tournament for young people, but also organised a successful training project for prospective youth leaders in the Baltic region.
The scholarship is considered to be the highest distinction that a youth leader in Sweden can achieve.
Two different kinds of project can be considered for support from the Foundation:
- Training of youth leaders undertaken by an organisation for children and young people in Sweden in collaboration with an organisation in another country. The training must be of value for leaders and young people, both in Sweden and in the other country to which the training relates. The content of the training, as well as the aims and the purpose of the activity, must be specified in the application.
- Training of leaders in connection with international activities, i.e. additional training that aims to increase leaders’ knowledge of issues that are of value to international youth collaboration.
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