08-09, 11:00–11:55 (Poland), Dilijan (3) (interpretation)
Language: English
CEE Youth Group is a group created in August 2023 by the CEE Hub. It's target is to unite the Youth community in the CEE countries and promote Wikimedia practices among Youth while also helping a lot with building multidimensional capacity for its members. The presentation is aiming to show the various youth projects around CEE and highlight the importance of the group while highlighting also the importance of applying the model elsewhere.
The presentation aims to present the history of the CEE Youth Group as well various things related to the youth in CEE. Our team of experienced youth Wikimedians are going to present the history of the CEE Youth Group, specifically what was the spark that resulted in its creation, it's targets and how it became a full-fledged group in a matter of a few weeks. We will present the outcomes of our meetings, including the Prague Meeting, which resulted in landmark decisions, such as the creation of working groups, which ensure the marketing of the group in the movement (Instagram, Wikimania youth program) and the fostering of a sense of community between the members while ensuring exchange of knowledge. Working groups also put the capacity exchange in action.
We will also describe the significance of wikiclubs as a means to promote Wikimedia to youth, as well which methods we are using in order to promote Wikimedia to youth. Wikiclubs have been a key mean of outreach for the CEE Youth Group members. We will present which issues, challenges and problems youth has been facing in contributing in Wikimedia and what the Youth Group is doing to solve them, as this group is having a great importance, being the group that has been able to understand the needs of youth in CEE.
Given that collaboration is a power which pushes Wikimedia forward, collaborations between our members will be highlighted. Methods to support the youth contributors in local and international level, as youth has its own particular challenges, will be analysed, as youth is one of the most underinvested groups in the movement and our lessons can be used by the delegates of other affiliates in order to adapt them for the needs of the local communities.
Additionally, we will also highlight how the Youth Group has made CEE more inclusive, with the youth component finding its way on the movement, in the flagship CEE editathon, CEE Spring and in other places. We believe that CEE Youth Group is a model youth group that can be emulated throughout the world in local contexts. With the successful results on socialisation between young Wikimedians, capacity building and education on advocacy, such a group can be very useful on producing new Wikimedians and capable open knowledge advocates for the future of Wikimedia.
Session recording: https://youtu.be/IKtMkTIRTVk?t=5626
It allies with the mission of Collaboration of the Open in various critical aspects. For example, it includes the collaboration of facilitators from the CEE Hub and young people for the capacity building. Also, it includes the capacity building of young people, something critical, like in the role of the group, to produce new open knowledge advocates that will be the agitators of the open culture in the years to come. It is also very significant to stress that it is very significant to promote Wikimedia values to the young people in their countries. The importance of CEE Youth Group is also that it ensures the collaboration between Wikimedians of various generations, making a collaborative bond for the Wikimedia movement and ensures the greater diffusion of Wikimedia values among the dispersed youth community, while it allows collaboratively to exchange skills and leadership methods which make the difference.
What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?* –Everyone can participate in this session
How do you plan to deliver this session?* –Hybrid with some participants in Katowice and others dialing in remotely
What other themes or topics does your session fit into? Please choose from the list of tags below. –Collaboration, Capacity building
Nikos Likomitros is a Greek Wikimedian. He contributes since 2013, regularly from 2016 there. He has been involved with young Wikimedians since pretty earlier in his Wikimedia career, by helping a lot with cementing a stable community of youth, teenagers and students. He has organized various editathons in Greek Wikipedia and is a member of the Greek Usergroup. Moreover since 2023 he is involved in the Wikivibrance network and he is involved on youth projects, while he is also member of CEE Youth Group. He is interested on affairs related to youth and Wikimedia movement but also for developing communities. He has done Wikimedia outreach in 2 universities so far, being a key member of Wiki for Minorities international network and recently made an online webinar for Greeks in Germany. He also attended CEE Youth Group meeting in Prague, Czechia where he learned a lot about youth projects from around CEE and shared his own experiences. He's interested on international collaborations, the future of the movement, governance, experience exchange and Wikimedia ecosystem.
My name is Mari. I am from Armenia and I represent Wikimedia Armenia. I joined the Wikimedia Movement in 2018 and I am active on Armenia Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons andWikidata.
Kurmanbek is an active patrol on the Turkish Wikipedia. He works in Wikimedia projects such as creating visual brandings of campaigns and events, running youth programs in local communities, and collaborating with other Wikimedia user communities and Wikimedians. Kurmanbek, who is the founder of Istanbul Bilgi University Wikipedia Student Club, is also a member of Wikimedians of Turkic Languages User Group, Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey and CEE Hub Youth Group.