29November-5December2018,Thessaloniki,Greece

In November - December 2018, our conference “Humanity reclaimed: youth perspectives on diversity and inclusion” brought together 16 participants from 9 countries in Thessaloniki, Greece. The conference focused on the challenges that diverse and inclusive societies are facing, and how this is impacting on people’s vision of the future. A lack of optimism towards the future can lead to people turning inwards, closing themselves and their communities, not allowing newcomers to be integrated and regressing to old patterns of thinking These ideas were discussed during the conference, which was financially supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe.

The discussions were deepened by the insights offered by a series of exceptional speakers.

Prof Niki Papageorgiou, Associate Professor

of Sociology of Religions and Ethics in the Faculty of Theology of Aristotle University, opened the conference with a keynote on defining diverse societies. Alexandra Zosso joined the group later on to present her work with Northern Lights Aid, an NGO that works with refugees and asylum-seekers in Greece Father Athenagoras Loukataris also joined the conference and introduced to the group his work with Roma children in Thessaloniki, where he established a youth centre known as Faros tou Kosmou (Lighthouse to the World). These examples of good practice in doing work to integrate minority groups were inspiring to the participants, who felt that such efforts could be replicated in their local contexts

On the fourth day of the conference, the participants visited a number of local initiatives, whose work focused on the integration of refugees and asylum seekers This included a visit to the Aristotle University, where a number of academics started the S U C RE project, which provides guidance for social workers and other practitioners working in refugee camps and with minority groups It also included a visit to the offices of Antigone, an NGO working on racism, discrimination and human rights issues since 1993

The examples highlighted through the talks and visits were complemented trough activities in which the participants learnt more practical skills, such as how to run their own advocacy campaign. The key aim of these activities was to empower young people to challenge hopelessness feelings in discussions around human rights issues, and to promote instead a proactive and hopeful approach towards social action and change

"It emerged that often, even among the youth, the relationship between the testimony of faith and thehumandimensionofsocietyislost,attributingtheresponsibilitytoexternalfactors,suchasthe political choices of national and continental institutions. But for WSCF-Europe, this loss is unacceptable, and it is rooted in the shortage of adequate ecumenical responses to the challenges facingtheEuropeansociety,likethereceptionofmigrants."

ExcerptfromanarticleinL'OsservatoreRomano,thedailynewspaperofVaticanCityState,owned bytheHolySee,abouttheconference"HumanityReclaimed".

“Ifirstheardaboutthisconferencefromafriend ofafriend,Iwasn’tpartofanyofthestudent Christiangroups.Sofar,ithasbeenanamazing experience!Someofthestorieswe’veheardhave beenjustamazingstoriesofhumancompassion, andoftheresilienceofthehumanspirit,inspite ofeverythingthat’sgoingwrongwiththeworld rightnow.I’mjustgenerallyreallygladthatI’ve hadtheopportunitytocomehere,tomeetalotof amazingpeople,fromalloverEurope,andnot onlyEurope.”

“Thebestpartoftheconferencewasthatit didn’tactuallyfeellikeaconference,because itwasveryinformalandwegottobefriends, notonlywiththeotherparticipants,butalso withtheorganisingcommittee,thatwas participanttoeveryevent.”