Youth Open House

Youth Voices Group of Turkey organized a “Youth Open House” Event which took place on April 17, 2006 in Ankara with the participation of more than 40 representatives from youth organizations, governmental and international organizations and World Bank Country  Office staff.

One of the major aims of this event was gathering young people, representatives of youth-related governmental agencies and international organizations and World Bank staff together in order to create an interaction platform to exchange views on youth issues in Turkey.

The event started with the short welcoming speech of John Innes, World Bank Human Development Coordinator for Turkey. Afterwards, Andrew Vorkink, World Bank Country Director for Turkey delivered opening speech on youth employment and empowerment.

During the event, Arsev Umur Aydinoglu, Public Information Assistant delivered a presentation on the World Bank activities in Turkey focusing on youth projects. Afterwards, members of Youth Voices of Turkey made a presentation of their activities so far including the works of sub-groups (Employment and Youth Policy).

In the afternoon, Ufuk Sabri Atalay, Youth Trainer (JSDF “Youth and Social Inclusion” Program Grant Manager) and Serdar Değirmencioğlu, Psychologist (Public Achievement Program) discussed “the problems and possible solutions for communication and collaboration between the NGOs in Turkey” in a panel session, which was followed by a youth NGO fair in order to give the participants get to know each other and seek collaborations.