History

On October 4, 2010, on the island of Rhodes in Greece, 150 energetic young people gathered to attend the first Rhodes Youth Forum. The day before, they had traveled from 34 separate countries in order to discuss issues of social development with each other. At the forum, they had to consider questions about everyday life which young people often do not ponder. These key topics included: "How do young people see their future? What differences exist in the worldviews of young people from Europe, Russia, the USA, the CIS, countries in Africa, Asia (India and China), Brazil, Venezuela and others? What can be done to pave the way towards a better future?".

The first goal of the forum was to study artifacts from the past. Without knowing the history and tendencies of human development from the past, it is impossible to speculate on how we will develop in the future. In other words, it is surprising how much information can be hidden in a fragment of sculpture. Such artifacts allow us to see and touch examples of the values of people who lived in past centuries in different parts of the world, people who we will never meet but who understood the purpose of expressing their ideas to us through the artifacts which they created. Young people, confronted by these relics of history and heritage, begin to ponder deeper questions, such as: "What kind of values surround me? What is my cultural identity founded upon? What can I leave to future generations? What will future generations have to say about me and my generation? " Will they say we were composed entirely of phones, computers, and a "high-speed” life?

Once we form an image of the past, the next step is to create our own image of a positive future. First we must identify a dream which we believe in and which can inspire us to action. Second, we must understand that our environment has been shaped by both nature and by human activity. While it is impossible to measure a dream, we can at least assess the world around us and try to predict the likely potential of our goals. Through teamwork, participants at the forum discussed 12 possible scenarios for our global future and made video recording based on these discussions, which outlines their suggestions on how we can prevent various global crises that threaten to annihilate human civilization.

The final task of the forum was to discuss the particular problems which are faced by youth today. Organizers of the forum provided an opportunity for young people to choose the relevant topics and to present them to the other participants from different countries. Roundtable discussions on these issues were very intense and characteristically emotional for engaged young people. These were not the cold, virtual commentaries which we see on TV and computer screens but words spoken in real time by young people to other young people. Face to face communication gave them a different kind of opportunity to evaluate their own problems and to envision a new picture of the world. Many of them also came to the realization that their "problems" are fairly insignificant compared with the living conditions young people suffer in other countries. And they all experienced their natural desire to assist each other in creating a better future.

As a result of the Rhodes Youth Forum a new initiative was launched to create an organization that could continue to support the activities of the youth forum on an ongoing basis.

On December 11, 2010, in Prague, an action committee composed of young people from different countries laid the foundations for a new international youth movement. The basic ideas were formulated as guiding principles of the new International Movement Youth Time and the rules of procedure, and the core values of the movement were written down in the form of a manifesto.  The title of the movement, Youth Time, refers to the time of youth, the happiest and most active period of life, the one you must use properly in order to make the most of your own future and the future of older and younger generations.

Early in 2011, many other elements of the movement were put in place. A web site was launched with affiliated sites on the most popular social media networks. The movement’s magazine, Youth Time, continues to expand and has already achieved an increase in its publication from 2000 copies in the beginning of the year to 25000 copies by the middle of the year. The magazine also created a separate website where its electronic version is made available.

In the spring of 2011 the movement organized an International Competition entitled "Space and the Future of Humanity" which was dedicated to 50th anniversary of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin. The idea behind the competition was to provoke young people to consider the future of civilization as it will be constructed due to the continuous development of technological advances.  Of course, space exploration is the field that involves the most dramatic advances in technology. In addition, modern space exploration is impossible without international cooperation. We must understand each other not only in the language of formulas and technologies, but also in the languages of different cultures, in order to recognize the diversity of our interests.

The main concern of today's youth is education. While many debate over what form modern education should take, they just as often forget to ask young people themselves what kind of education they would like to receive. The Youth Time International Movement has organized a project to conduct an international dialogue on the topic: "What is the ideal system of education?" Representatives of steering committees from different countries have organized local events and discussed their concerns regarding education with their friends, and then recorded their conclusions and published them on the YT site. As a result a database is now available to visitors of the site which reflects the views of young people from different countries on the topic of education.

In July of 2011 in the Altai Region (Russia) Youth Time hosted its first Youth Summer School.  60 young people from 17 countries were invited to participate. The task of the school was to assist young people in obtaining the most important skills they need for a successful professional, social and civic life. This event became a starting point for the international professional youth association that will serve to implement practical projects in different countries and to share experiences of development with participants from different regions of the world.

From the 10th to the 14th of October 2011 on the island of Rhodes, the second Rhodes Youth Forum will take place. The movement Youth Time aims to create a road map for young people to work in cooperation with official institutions in a joint effort to communicate a positive outlook about the implementation of practical projects aimed at building a prosperous future for mankind.