About Baia Mare 2022
This morning, Facebook reminded me that two years ago I was at the Youth Summit in Bacău and Baia Mare - Romania’s Youth Capital was just a dream we wanted to come true. And it came true. Then, I remembered a very old article, one of the first articles I had the courage to write, in which I was saying why I love Baia Mare and why I want it to become Romania’s Youth Capital.
I leave it here, in English and Romanian:
Many of the reasons I mentioned in the article I’m telling you about are still standing. I was picturing that volunteering will become the new trend in town and the wave of energy that involved young people will generate. I think I was some kind of Nostradamus because that was exactly what happened. The European Youth Capital Title would be a continuation of that wave.
Yesterday I was talking to a friend who has many months of international experiences on his back about the differences between Romania and other countries. My conclusion was that Romania itself is a young person. I’ve been thinking about this for a very long time, and now everything clicked in my head. Not enough to write about it yet, but I am expecting to be able to do this in the following days.
However, I believe that Baia Mare could be a very important factor for Romania growing up and even a place from which Europe could learn something. And I will explain to you why.
Baia Mare and Romania growing up
I wrote bits of thoughts about a concept that stuck to me ever since I started watching Greta Thunberg and Billie Eilish - two teenagers who are shaping the coolest young generation. Greta is the nightmare of all political leaders and Billie is sending through her music the healthiest messages in the last few decades. They’re young girls who not only can produce a change at a gigantic level, we all can, but they have a favourable context. There is only one obstacle: some adults, and if you watched a bit the effects produced by Greta’s speeches, you will know what I’m talking about.
This concept stuck to me so strongly that even the play I will write at uni this term will be about it.
Young people take the place of adults and produce the change they need on their own.
If we are to look at Baia Mare as a reflection of young people from Romania (as I was saying in the aforementioned article), it is easy to understand how it could be an actor in the growing up process of the country. I will not be modest and I will tell you that Baia Mare was praised for the organised events, for the Youth Summit last year and so on. Having the European Youth Capital title, Baia Mare would have the opportunity to continue promoting itself as an example of good practice and, just like a young youth worker, would offer support for Romania to get through these confusing times called teenage.
Baia Mare and her lessons for Europe
I left Baia Mare thinking that I will teach all the people I meet everything I learned at home. In a medium-term, I want to create DEIS UK and to build an international bridge to Baia Mare. In the long-term, I would like Baia Mare to become the city in which all young people go to develop and to create projects relevant to the needs of young people all around the world.
I’ve been in London for about two months and I am starting to identify so many things that Baia Mare could teach young people here. Of course, the reverse is also available. The idea is that Baia Mare, having so many competent youth workers in the field of youth, but also in other domains, can understand the needs of young people in a different way and can help them find the best solutions from an objective point of view.
The “curse” of the Romanian youth worker who has to do many more things that his “job description” asks for can be considered a real advantage if we are to look at it from the perspective of experiences that they could go through. For example, I will not only be a youth worker, but also a PR and a writer. That helps me understand young people in a different way and offer them certain types of opportunities. Same goes for youth workers - actors or youth workers - entrepreneurs or youth workers - musicians and so on. Therefore, a multi-qualified youth worker like those I know in Baia Mare can have a much stronger impact on a young person.
Personally, I would consider it benefic for Europe to take this model. My opinion. And that’s why there is Baia Mare who could teach the old continent a thing or two.
We are young people, teenagers to be more specific. We all have our problems and dramas and we all need to know that we are not alone and for this, it is important to have cities that mirror us the way we are. And that’s what the #UrbanYouthCircle* is about - the concept Baia Mare brought in the race for the European Youth Capital title.
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*We want the Urban Youth Circle to be a European meeting point and a hub for rethinking, designing, developing and testing new concepts and ideas about how cities can be reborn through young people in a way that makes them socially sustainable on a long term.
Source (translated by me): http://ro.pontgroup.org/2019/03/08/despre-candidatura-baia-mare-2022-si-conceptul-urban-youth-circle/
More details in English can be found here: https://www.urbanyouthcircle.org/
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