Y2Y Brunch With a Speaker

Youth to Youth Brunch was established as a follow-up event of the Y2Y Summit 2015. After hosting inspiring speakers, we have discovered that our participants want to discuss further issues that matter to youth. So we decided to help them to host non-formal conversations with such inspirational speakers at any place in the world.

The process of organizing a brunch in association with Youth to Youth Initiative is easy and fun as if you were organizing a meet up with your friends, only that this one is always full with not only some pastries and a cup of coffee, but food for thoughts too.
What do you need to do, if you want to host a Y2Y Brunch?

Find a venue which would be suitable for having a conversation with a cup of coffee and some pastries. Select the topic of the discussion together with Y2Y team. Gain Y2Y support to invite an inspirational speaker Invite people to your brunch and get ready for fruitful and interesting discussions 🙂 Let’s brunch together and inspire each other!

27.09.2015 — “Women Empowerment Brunch”, Paris, France

This brunch was organized by French alumni of the Y2Y Summit 2015. As a main speaker, the organizers invited the President of Regard de Femmes who discussed the work carried out by the non-profit as well as the current situation of women’s rights in France and developing countries. Michèle Vianès is an expert of women’s rights and has recently organized a meeting at the UN in Geneva entitled “Pas de gouvernance démocratique sans les femmes”, advocating for the inclusion of women into the decision making process.

27.09.2015 — “The Government thinks that political activism should be educated by implementing post-school activities. Yes or No”, Vilnius, Lithuania

Youth to Youth Initiative together with British Parliament Debate’s group co-organized the brunch at ISM University. Participants discussed the topic and debated. Participants were divided into Government Representatives, half of which supported the topic and the other half supported the opposition. They proposed an alternative solution based on the statement that political activism needs to be educated during school activities. The majority of participants took part in the debates for the first time. Overall participants were satisfied that they had an opportunity to acquaint themselves with British Parliament.

07.01.2016 — “Social Innovations: Youth Participation in Governance”

On the 7th of January Y2Y in cooperation with Malmö University (Sweden) and Swedish Institute invited to a discussion by a cup of coffee “Social Innovation: Youth Participation in Governance”at the restaurant “Kitchen” in Vilnius. It was hosted by Fredrik Björk, who is a lecturer in Social Innovation and Environmental Science at the Department for Urban Studies in Malmö University. The lecturer shared his knowledge and ideas about diverse governance structures and processes. The participants discussed more or less successful examples of youth participation in governance from different countries.

08.01.2016 — “Global Trends in Social Entrepreneurship”

On the 8th of January Y2Y in cooperation with Malmö University (Sweden) and Swedish Institute invited to another discussion “Global trends in Social entrepreneurship” at the restaurant “Kitchen” in Vilnius. It was also hosted by Fredrik Björk, who shared his knowledge on the topic of social entrepreneurship.
The participants (13 attendees) discussed that the interest in social entrepreneurship as a strategy to meet different challenges in society has grown continuously. Today, social entrepreneurship has reached a level of maturity, and several more or less global trends can be identified – in research, policymaking and in the practise of social entrepreneurship itself.

09.12.2016 — “Don’t Respect Fear” (Malmö, Sweden) (11 attendees)

In cooperation with Malmö Meditation, Y2Y Initiative hosted its first brunch in Malmö that took place in the council of Malmö. The founder of Koanuka films & marketing and the event Outside Comfort zone, Ricardo Kaonuka, was a guest speaker who led the discussion about ways to overcome fear. Participants discussed that everybody has fear but the ones that make a difference in the world are the ones that felt fear and kept going anyway.

10.11.2016 — “The importance of empathy” (Vilnius, Lithuania) (13 attendees)

10th of November in a cozy public library of Vilnius, Lithuania, another Y2Y Brunch event took place. This time the evening was centered on the topic of importance of empathy in our personal and professional life. The speaker was Sabina Daukantaitė – a creative, founder of creative agency Adcacaco, an author of the blog www.7taskai.lt and nonetheless – a mother of 7 children. In a lyrical and reflective way Sabina shared her stories and view on empathy. She reflected that empathy is number one skill in work and shared a story when once, asked to create a campaign for elder people, she used to spend time in the places they go to. The event finished with questions for the speaker and cozy conversations over tea and coffee.

31.05.2015 — “Peacebuilding brunch” (Vilnius, Lithuania)

On the 31st of May a number of social activists from Lithuania (there were JCI Sostine, Demokratine Mokykla and Make Sense representatives as well as others) had a unique chance to participate in a discussion led by Tom Brennan. Our aim was to discuss the ways in which young people can contribute to peace building in our world.
During his exceptional presentation Tom touched upon many essential themes regarding peace building process and one of them was attaching labels to human beings that creates unnecessary barriers on our way to peaceful coexistence. Being affected by media and other factors we start to see people through their status, jobs, and qualifications instead of complex, irreducible and unbreakable entities.
By attaching labels to ourselves, we change our actions and attitudes as well as it creates a particular image how others see us and interact with us. Different image creation separates individuals by creating normative and cultural differences and obstacles. For example, introducing oneself as a police officer instead of doing a police related job attaches this human being to his job. The same could be said about » I am tired» instead of «feeling tired». It is not a person who could be described as tired, he just feels that way for a particular amount of time. One core characteristic is that we are all human beings. In order to create a peaceful world we need to emphasize this similarity by avoiding artificially created obstacles.
Overall, it was a great discussion that gave me a new perspective on the world we all share and the ideas on how to make it more peaceful.

31.05.2015 — “Social Entrepreneurship for Youth”, Brussels, Belgium

On the 31st of May, Y2Y Initiative was delighted to present a discussion on Social Entrepreneurship for Youth. That 1.5 hour discussion was led by Céline Bouton, expert in social economy and micro-finance, creative brainstorming, instigator of MakeSens in Brussels and TED speaker.
The event was open to general public and specifically those who consider themselves entrepreneurs, young professional and young pioneers. The content aimed to transform existing ideas into projects and help to start the change from a local level.

31.05.2015 — “Youth in decision making”, Krakow, Poland

Youth to Youth (Y2Y) Initiative, together with the members of the Association Pracownia Obywatelska designed the 1st meeting made from the Y2Y Brunch Meet-Up series with the lecturer in Poland. Invited speakers — experts from the field, presented the topic of youth in decision making from the point of their expertise and experience. All the participants actively discussed, asked questions and shared experiences in the field of civic participation, the role of young people in shaping the surrounding world, development of civil society and many other related topics.
Key speakers were: Ola Pohorecka (Stowarzyszenie Pracownia Obywatelska and Stowarzyszenie Kraków Miastem Rowerów) and Piotr Marczyk (Stowarzyszenie Pracownia Obywatelska, Spółdzielnia Ogniwo)

31.05.2015 — “Youth Role in Peacebuilding”, Lisbon, Portugal

Peacebuilding Brunch took place at Pousada de Juventude de Almada, Centro Euro-Africano de Juventude on the 31st of May. Youth to Youth cooperation with Provedores de Respostas Sociais para o Desenpresents brought a brunch discussion on the importance of the role of youth in peace building process.
During the 1,5 hour long discussion led by Karolina Mazetyte, participants explored several case studies and learned about different practices of youth engagement in the process of peacebuilding. Karolina Mazetyte is the Co-founder and President of the Y2Y Initiative and works with various social projects, as well as gives trainings all around Europe on Peacebuilding, Inner Peace and Self-Development, Revealing Your Potential and many more.

21.06.2016 — “Mindfulness and Peacebuilding”

On the 21st June, sunny Tuesday afternoon in Kampala, Uganda, Y2Y hosted their first African Brunch. Thanks to our guest Paul H Sutherland local and international youths were able to feed the hunger for knowledge about Mindfulness and Peacebuilding.

Mr. Paul H Sutherland beyond his extensive investment experience, is the author of numerous books on financial planning and money management, including Zenvesting: The Art of Abundance & Managing Money, The Virtue of Wealth , Veterinarian’s Guide to Financial Planning: From School to Retirement, 12 Steps to a Care-Free Retirement and the AMA Guide to Financial Planning. Mr. Sutherland began his writing career in 1979 with an article on international investing that was published by Physician’s Management Magazine. Over the past 29 years he has had academic and consumer articles published in magazines, newsletters and other publications on subjects such as benchmarking global portfolios, asset allocation, retirement investing, income investing, forecasting and global investing. His work has been published in Business Ethics, Financial Planner, Dental Management and NAPFA News. He is a regular columnist for Spirituality & Health magazine and has been interviewed by Bloomberg News, Barrons, The Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Transcript, Investors Business Daily (IBD), Investment News, Money Magazine and others.

Restaurant Dancing Cup Bugolobi with Jony Wardley offered us a Mindful Brunch menu and peaceful surroundings, Center for Constitutional Governance and World Peace Initiative partnered with Y2Y in promotion. 10 young people from different organizations joined and were willing not only to listen but also to share their own experiences and engage in the discussions. The fruits of the Brunch are upcoming — Paul H Sutherland is hosting his first Peacebuilding event in Kampala and some of the brunch participants were lucky to be invited.

29.09.2016 — “Freedom of Press and Expression in the Arab World After the Arab Spring” (Paris, France) (10 attendees)

On 29th of September, International Youth to Youth Initiative organization successfully organized Y2Y Brunch in Paris on topic “Freedom of press and expression in the arab world after the Arab Spring“. Three inspiring young journalists, human rights activists from Morocco hosted this brunch, namely, Abdessamad Iach, Hicham Mansouri and Mohamed Jaite. They shared their experience as
participants of political movement – Arab Spring in Morocco and how they fought for the freedom of speech in their country.
The Y2Y Brunch Paris took place in House of Journalist in Paris that has now became a shelter for fourteen currently emigrated journalists due to local government’s oppression and persecutions from their countries, such as Rwanda, Sudan, Morocco and etc. The event was very interacting: starting with speaker’s presentations and ending with inspirational discussions. The event lasted about two and a half hours which is more than expected. In the end of gathering participants shared their impression while having a cup of coffee or tea and some biscuits.

28.02.2017 — “How the Generartion Y is changing the way we work” Malmo, Sweden

The Generation Y is often described as unwilling to work hard and to question everything before even starting any kind of work. Is this really true? Hear first-hand insights from a member of the Generation Y about his work experiences. Understand how this generation perceives work and why they question everything. Learn how their perspectives change the future of our workplace.
Jens’ beliefs about the business world were fundamentally challenged when he made his first work experiences. He learned how impersonal, inefficient and profit-oriented the way we work is. Wondering if that should be the status quo, he started looking for alternative ways of doing business. As a result he founded HumanBusiness with the idea to put the human into the center of all business activities. Jens now helps individuals and organizations to realize their full potential.

27.09.2017 — “Youth In Diplomacy” Brunch with Kevin Pham in Irvine, USA

Y2Y alumni Sean Goodman as a Guest Speaker invited Kevin Pham, PhD student of Political Science at the University of Riverside to discuss the Role of Youth in Diplomacy. The discussion evolved into a theme that was prevalent throughout the first Youth to Youth Summit, which was mastering internal peace before attempting external peace.

The second topic was applying these theories on the international level, citing the conflict in Israel and Palestine as an example. After discussing the issues in Israel and Palestine, participants discussed conflict resolution and diplomacy in the work place. Kevin explained that in order for a third party individual to act diplomatically, whether in the work place or internationally, both individuals must be willing to transform the conflict.

Lastly, after a delicious brunch combined with multiple cups of coffee and tea, they discussed the career opportunities that the youth has in diplomacy. While Kevin is a PhD student, he is also the alumni coordinator for the Olive Tree Initiative, and he is a personal mentor as well as resource for opportunity. One of the things he told to participants was that they need to find what they want to do in diplomacy — whether that is human rights, conflict resolution, or cultural dialogue.

07.06.2016 — “Social Campaigns: Looking into Sustainability and Conscious Leadership” (Lund, Sweden)

On the 7th of June Y2Y in cooperation with AIESEC in Lund organized a brunch together while having a cup of tea/coffee and some biscuits at a local café Athens in Lund, Sweden. The idea of the event was to bring two youth leadership organizations together and have a discussion about social campaigning, share experiences and mingle with mind-alike people. Our guest speaker, the co-founder of Youth to Youth Initiative Karolina Mazetyte, hosted the discussion, handed out numerous great tips in terms of organizing successful, conscious and sustainable social campaigns and triggered some “hot” debates. All ten participants greatly contributed to the creation of such cosy atmosphere.