ESC: Schwarzkopf Foundation Young Europe

The Schwarzkopf Foundation Young Europe (SF) works with political education for young people, in Germany and in the whole of Europe. The foundation is politically impartial in all our activities and our mission is to support the development of young people into politically aware and responsible citizens. We do so by focusing on the strengthening of the European idea, pan-European understanding, democratic civil society, as well as the fight against racism, right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism. We aim to develop a dialogue between young people aged 16 to 28 years and leading figures from the world of politics, economy and culture. The foundation provides young people with information about the decision-making process in Europe and makes this process visible and tangible in an interactive way. We discuss current European topics that are important and relevant to young people and by doing this, we aim to offer them the chance to engage in European political thinking and understanding, and contribute to the education of young people. In the foundation, we work in five main programme lines: the Events and Awards programme; Understanding Europe programme; Seminars programme & Competence Network “Living Together in Migration Societies”, the Young Islam Conference, and the European Youth Parliament programme. In all these programs, we use a number of different formats to meet our goals and to reach young people. We offer lectures, seminars, debates, visits to embassies, museums and exhibitions, theater plays and movie screenings, Think Tank events, parliamentary simulation sessions, training events as well as EU Crash Courses at schools. In direct exchange with ambassadors, federal ministers, national and regional parliamentarians, journalists, members of the European Parliament, EU Commissioners, Prime Ministers, scientists and artists, young people are able to experience politics up-close and to take part in the political process. Our participants learn how to form an opinion and experience that their voice matters. Our two biggest projects are the Understanding Europe programme, and the European Youth Parliament programme. Both projects work with a peer-to-peer approach, where young volunteers are trained by us, run the activities and act as multipliers to other young people. The activities are run in close cooperation and partnership with schools and teachers. Currently, the Schwarzkopf Foundation employs 38 people in our office in Berlin (15 of which are FTE) as well as 6 Student Assistants, 5 Volunteers (including 2 from the German Volunteer Service) and 1 Trainee. We are a young, dynamic and international team with a very good team spirit and working atmosphere. We are a fundraising-based non-profit organisation, always seeking third-party funding for our activities and projects. Our annual budget is around 2,2 million euro. The Schwarzkopf Foundation was founded by Pauline Schwarzkopf in 1971 in Hamburg. Since 2000, our office is based in Berlin. For more information, please visit www.schwarzkopf-stiftung.de