ABOUT
"Once upon a time there was a large family scattered all over the world who wanted to make the world a better place …
They realised their future was at stake if they did not work together ….
They saw that each one of them had something to give …"
A Global Conference
YMCA’s World Council is the highest governing body of the global YMCA Movement, and also its most important shared space. Across continents and across generations, YMCA comes together: it shares, it plans, it learns, it is inspired. It charts the way forwards towards becoming the world’s partner of choice as a youth empowerment organisation.
The 20th World Council takes place from Sunday 3rd to Saturday 9th July 2022. For the first time, it will be a hybrid event - with participation in-person in Aarhus, Denmark, and online. It’s for YMCA staff and volunteers, managers and front-line workers, young leaders, partners and supporters.
WHAT HAPPENS AT WORLD COUNCIL?
The main elements of the World Council are:
- Strategy: the adoption of a Movement-wide Vision 2030 and of World YMCA’s Strategic Plan 2022-2026
- Governance: the election of new officers to the World YMCA Executive Committee
- Co-creation: working ‘Co-Lab’ sessions featuring inter-generational debate examining existing solutions and developing new ones, in line with the four core pillars of Vision 2030: ‘Community Wellbeing’, ‘Meaningful Work’, ‘Sustainable Planet’, ‘Just World’
- ‘Family’: the global Movement comes together after two Covid years, which have been full of challenges for YMCA and for the world.
We’re at World Council to ignite our Vision, our Collaboration and our Solutions. So we will approve Vision 2030, and decide how we will collaborate to put it into practice. The result will be Solutions – for us as a Movement, and for young people the world over as agents of change.
WHO IS WORLD COUNCIL FOR?
World Council is for everyone in the worldwide YMCA family, and for many more besides.
It’s for a 20-year old young male community leader in Spain who has joined YMCA programmes; it’s for a 25-year-old female YMCA volunteer in Kenya; it’s for a 30-year-old male YMCA staffer in the Philippines; it’s for a 45-year old female YMCA youth programme manager in the USA; it’s for a YMCA retiree in Japan who still supports his local YMCA; it’s for the YMCA National General Secretary in Peru.
It’s for YMCA partners and donors; it’s for any young person, anywhere in the world – whether they are affiliated to the YMCA or not – to discover how to take part in bringing about a better world for young people and for communities.
It’s a truly enriching learning and sharing exercise, and a great personal and professional development opportunity.
Participation in World Council will give unprecedented access to YMCA's global movement, for senior leaders, young leaders, aspiring leaders, up and coming youth talent, front line staff, affiliate groups and partners, for volunteers, trustees and boards. This is a collaborative World Council, where we can share our collective vision and solutions together.
"Huge issues will be on the table in Aarhus, including the culmination of the Youth-Led Solutions Initiative in which young people will showcase their own solutions in the face of global crises in climate, jobs and mental health. We will also continue to discuss how we ‘reimagine’ ourselves out of Covid as the ‘adaptive YMCA’ of the 21st Century, while creating the type of society we want to see."
Mathilde Thue, Executive Committee, World YMCA
First YMCA World Conference in Paris, 1855, with YMCA founder Sir George Williams front centre
1894 World Conference in London, UK
2018 World Council in Chiang Mai, Thailand
HISTORY
In 1855, the YMCA Movement met for the first time in Paris, France. 99 delegates from 9 countries - all under 25 - came together for what was then known as a 'World Conference'. At that meeting, our foundational document the ‘Paris Basis’ was created and adopted.
On the 100th anniversary of the first World Conference, the naming convention changed to ‘World Council’.
Special highlights have included the issuing of the Kampala Principles in Uganda (1973), and Challenge 21 in Frechen, Germany (1998).
At our World Council in Hong Kong in 2010, young people were not placed at the heart of our movement. They were relegated to side roles, and weren’t given the opportunity to be actively involved at World Council.
Fast forward four years, and there was a global shift across the organisation towards focussing on the common purpose of Empowering Young People. We built on this positive momentum and pushed further in 2018, with the theme of Youth Empowerment 4 Good in Thailand.
- 1855, Paris, France
- 1858, Geneva, Switzerland
- 1862, London, UK
- 1865, Elberfeld, Germany
- 1867, Paris, France
- 1872, Amsterdam, Netherland
- 1875, Geneva, Switzerland
- 1881, London, UK
- 1884, Berlin, Germany
- 1888, Stockholm, Sweden
- 1891, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 1894, London, UK
- 1898, Basel, Switzerland
- 1902, Christiania, Norway
- 1905, Paris, France
- 1909, Elberfeld, Germany
- 1913, Edinburgh, UK
- 1926, Helingfors, Finland
- 1931, Cleveland, USA
- 1937, Mysore, India
- 1955, Paris, France
- 1957, Kassel, Germany
- 1961, Geneva, Switzerland
- 1965, Tozanso, Japan
- 1969, Nottingham, UK
- 1973, Kampala, Uganda
- 1977, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 1981, Estes Park, Colorado, USA
- 1985, Nyborg, Denmark
- 1988, San Nicolas, Aruba
- 1991, Seoul, South Korea
- 1994, Coventry, UK
- 1998, Frechen, Germany
- 2002, Oaxtepec, Mexico
- 2006, Durban, South Africa
- 2010, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- 2014, Estes Park, Colorado, USA
- 2018, Chiang Mai, Thailand