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Last Thursday 11th of February I had the pleasure to attend the meeting “Youth Health Initiative: State of Play and Way Forward”, which was held in Brussels, Centre Albert Borschette.
The meeting was primarily aimed at discussing and sharing views and ideas on how best to take forward the Youth Health Initiative, following the roadmap for a better youth health in Europe, which was set during the “Be healthy, Be yourself” Conference on the health of young people on 9-10 July 2009 in Brussels.
This exciting event was led by Michael Hübel, the Head of Health Determinants Unit at DG SANCO, who started the session with a presentation of the four priority areas, which the Commission is focusing on:
– empowerment and participation;
– inequalities and vulnerability;
– communicating health;
– mainstreaming these principles across Europan health policy.
Representatives of the National Youth Councils were present at the meeting as well as delegates from different Youth Organisations involved in the Youth Health Initiative: EPSA, YFJ, European Patients’ forum, IFMSA, Schools for Health in Europe, APYN (Alcohol Policy Youth Network), etc.
The conference was also aimed at exchanging views and ideas on how to best link the initiative with ongoing or planned action at National level and how to better involve young people on discussions regarding their health.
So, the main questions of the meeting were:
– “How can we work with young people?”
– “How can we work together?”
Plenty of attention was paid to the use of blogs, social networks and other media as the best tools for raising awareness and facilitating discussion among young people on issues regarding their health, following the priority areas of the European Commission.
For more information, please visit the Youth Health Initiative’s website, which includes the blog as space for discussions, collection of testimonials and represents the best example of a “Communicating health” tool:
http://ec.europa.eu/health-eu/youth/index_en.htm
As for me, I’m looking forward to involving AEGEE-members in future Youth Health Initiative’s joint activities, which will be announced in the Network, as well as organizing sport, health-promoting and information events by themselves. Stay tuned!
the picture was provided by Youth Health Initiative’s website