Taking place on 7-11 February 2018 in Stockholm, this meeting kicked off our new Let’s Talk About Sex project, supported generously by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe. A focus group of 8 young members came together to prepare this project that will look at comprehensive progressive sex education, which is inclusive with the whole spectrum of genders and sexualities, as well as promoting body positivity and bodily diversity.

This the first in a series of conferences hosted by Party of European Socialist (PES) in partnership with IFM-SEI. In Istanbul in March 2018, participants explored the causes and effects of migration on marginalised groups, specifically youth, women and LGBTQI person and brought together participants from across the socialist family from IFM-SEI, PES, PES Women, IUSY and Rainbow Rose. The conference gave space to discuss, debate, share ideas and think into the future.

The theme of this year's Queer Easter was 'Solidarity Versus Segregation'. 80 members from IFM-SEI and Young European Socialists came together during a week in March and April 2018 for the biggest socialist, educational LGBTQI event in Europe. IFM-SEI delivered a working group on how to be positive allies of the LGBTQI community, as well as IFM-SEI Rainbow Network and Feminist Network meetings taking place.

The last activity of the global project On The Move saw members from the Latin American partner organisations of the project come together to put the learning from the project in action in a regional context. Participants explored topics such as intercultural learning, youth mobility and regional youth work, visa tips and tricks, fundraising strategies and project planning in action. The activity took place on 12-19 January 2018 in Lima, Peru, bringing together 10 participants and the team. Soon the report will be available here.

The penultimate activity of the global project On The Move saw members from the African partner organisations of the project come together to put the learning from the project in action in a regional context. Participants explored topics such as intercultural learning, youth mobility and regional youth work, visa tips and tricks, fundraising strategies and project planning in action. The activity took place on 12-19 November 2017 in Nsawam, Ghana, bringing together 12 participants and the team. You can read the full report here.

On 25 November 2016, coordinated around the Day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women, IFM-SEI member organisations delivered trainman days, street stalls, workshops and campaigns for the I Act action day. As far afield as Senegal, Israel, Bolivia and Sweden, member organisations across the globe used the tools, resources and motivation to run activities to promote the prevention of sexual violence project using the bystander model. The project was kindly supported by the European Youth Foundation. Check out more info by following this link.

Eight committed members of the I Act project came together for three days in Tbilisi to prepare the upcoming I Act international action day taking place on 25 November. A key part of the 'I Act' for the prevention of sexual violence project, the members prepared the soon-to-be-released activity pack, prepared communications and strategies around the action day, designed publicity materials and updated the I Act online hub. The exciting new resources will be sent to all member organisations at the start of November! The project is in partnership with the European Youth Foundation. You can find out more about the project here.

The seminar 'Community, Care and Capitalism - Who cares?' brought together 20 members of IFM-SEI and YES/IUSY at the Kurt Löwenstein Education Centre, near Berlin. In the seminar, participants explored feminist theories and critiques of capitalism of care and health and developed ideas of how to respond to capitalist gender division of labour and how to build communities that take care of each other.The seminar explored why is it especially women and migrants taking care of others without being appropriately recognised for it, and what our capitalist society does with people who are stigmatized as non-functional (e.g. suffering from mental health issues).

The International Summerschool 'Acting for Peace - Overcoming Violence' brought together around 50 IFM-SEI and YES/IUSY members to explore what is going on in and around Europe with regards to conflict and peace. Members aged 18-30 came together in late August at the Kurt Löwenstein Education Centre near Berlin. Participants discussed the reasons for violent conflicts and wars, explored what neo-colonialism has to do with conflict, and how societies can find a way out of conflict and recreate a democratic social order. They also discussed what the concept of peace means to us and what is our role as young European activists in the consolidation of peace.

Framfylkingen, our member organisation from Norway, kindly hosted the third face-to-face Presidium meeting of 2017 at the Sørmarka Conference Centre, home of the Trade Unions in Norway, and on the island of Utøya. The Presidium meeting took place shortly before the Willy Brandt Conference. The Presidium discussed a range of topics including an IFM-SEI children's rights consultation, communications plan, finances and membership fees, enacting the Code of Conduct and upcoming statutory meetings. Presidium also undertook the one-year review of the strategic work plan 2016-19.

On 1-3 September, over 100 participants from 22 countries came together from all world regions to take part in a conference on extremism at Utøya. The Willy Brandt Conference - Youth AgainstExtremism built awareness around the topic of right-wing extremism, with participants taking part in workshops, receiving lectures from experts on the topic and having the chance to reflect of the horrific attack of 22 July 2010 on the island of Utøya. Participants also visited the 22 July memorial centre and visited the Nobel Peace Prize Center in Oslo.

Rote Falken Kinderfreunde Austria invited groups from IFM-SEI to their amazing campsite in the south of Austria to create the Children's Republic of Döbriach. It was a big, colourful and lively international Camp 2017 where families, kids, as well as young people up to the age of 16 and their leaders met to spend two awesome weeks together. Take a look at their Facebook page to see some photos.

The International Committee is the second-highest decision-making body of IFM-SEI - We came together at the Slovenian coast, with our hosts the Slovenian Falcons, to discuss resolutions, find out what the leadership has been doing in the last year, take part in workshops and plan the future of our movement. And of course there was plenty of time for the organisations to present your projects and developments and to network with the other delegates. Read here the article about the new MOs.

Participants from Africa, Latin America and Europe came together in the beautiful city of Vienna in June to explore the topic of regional youth work, in relation tot he topic of flight and migration. We explored regional youth work as a whole, covering everything from grants and fundraising to the theory and practice of intercultural learning. The participants developed an online e-learning course during the week, due to be launched in September 2017 so IFM-SEI organisations can engage with topic no matter where they're situated in the world!

Members from IFM-SEI, YES and IUSY came together a week for the biggest socialist, educational LGBTQI event in Europe! The programme looked at all aspects of sexuality and gender experience and theory, with special attention on the effects of pop culture on queer subculture and vice versa. Participants tackled questions such as how does queer subculture criticise pop culture while relabelling it as their own? It was a week to remember for the 80 young people who spent the week debating, discussing, creating and having fun!

Over 100 young people from across Wallonia took over the city of Namur for their activity weekend in May. International guests also joined them for this fun-filled programme. Being based at the YHA adjacent to the river, participants had the opportunity to take part in everything from water sports and cycle trips, to games and activities in the citadel and work out puzzles while running around the city. The first day was designed for older teenagers and the second day for 12-13 year olds. Great fun was had by all and we can't wait for next year!

Participants from 8 European organisations took part in an intensive and challenging Training of Trainers on the prevention of sexual violence as part of our I Act project in Darsham, UK, in May. A new generation of multipliers on the topic were nurtured through a programme covering topics such as recognising patterns of sexual violence, thinking about how to identify sexual violence, analysing power structures in relation to sexual violence and coming up with methods about how to put the bystander model into practice. We acted! Will you?

For a week participants from 10 memeber organisations from Africa, Latin America and Europe met in Recife, Brazil, to talk about visas and how they affect us as internationalist youth movements, as part of the project On the Move. During the week a common understanding about visas was developed, we explored why some people are structurally discriminated by the visa system and we looked at global migration patterns. A new visa website is being developed by the participants - watch out in July for the website launch!

30 participants from IFM-SEI and other organisations came together to talk about migration and refugees with special focus on children and unaccompanied minors at the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg at the start of March. We looked at the global perspective and how it affects our organisations, looking at the systemic reasons for migration. The last part of the study session was dedicated to develop projects that the participants can implement in their own organisations - we can't wait to see them come into fruition.