EVZ meets Gen Z: Preserving Memory and Shaping the Future Together with Young People

With this in mind, the Foundation EVZ is continuously developing its funding approaches for effective, cutting-edge, and at the same time sustainable projects for and with young people. At the same time, it is necessary to constantly reflect on current social challenges and developments (e.g. the rise of anti-Semitism, the Russian aggressive war in Ukraine, or shrinking spaces of civil societies in Eastern Europe) and to align the funding approaches accordingly. This also applies to the changing needs of the young target groups in the respective target countries.

"Youth" is broadly defined in this context. Most EVZ-funded projects and programs are aimed at young people between the ages of 14 and 35. The target group we want to address primarily includes Generation Z, young people born between 1997 and 2012. However, Generation Y, the Millennials born in the 1980s and 1990s, also continue to be an important target group. In the future, however, programs and projects will increasingly target Generation Alpha, i.e. young people born in 2010 and later. For the EVZ Foundation, this "generational change" means a constant updating of the existing offers and their adaptation to a new generation, its interests and learning habits.

Prospect

The EVZ Foundation's youth programs and projects have become more participatory, multilateral, digital, and diverse in recent years. We have broadened the geographical focus and also diversified the topics. For the EVZ Foundation, this means always maintaining a balance between the Foundation's mission and innovation. After three years of the pandemic, Europe-wide social challenges - the rise of anti-Semitism and nationalism, the increasingly repressive political situation in Belarus and Russia, and especially through the Russian aggressive war on Ukraine - the youth education work of the EVZ Foundation faces great challenges. For its commitment, this means acting with foresight, supporting the project sponsors in the redirection and implementation of their work, and accompanying them closely. Because one thing is clear: The demand of young people for international youth encounters, for participation opportunities and for transnational diversity-oriented learning is unabatedly great - and so are the effects.

Forward-looking EVZ projects are therefore characterized by their multilateralism and their interweaving historical approaches. They create spaces and give impulses to stem the drifting apart of the memory consensus and to stand up for the European idea and a value-based culture of remembrance. The ground work for this is the direct participation of young people, because their historically aware participation and empowerment for their own actions are the most important building blocks for a living democracy.