1 00:00:00,726 --> 00:00:03,019 Hello, my name is Alberto Cottica. 2 00:00:03,144 --> 00:00:04,467 I work at the Council of Europe 3 00:00:04,467 --> 00:00:06,167 on a project called EdgeRyders, 4 00:00:06,167 --> 00:00:08,600 it is about the transition of young people 5 00:00:08,600 --> 00:00:11,367 to an independent, active life. 6 00:00:11,367 --> 00:00:13,351 If you look at the data, 7 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:15,933 young europeans seem pretty much like a lost generation. 8 00:00:15,933 --> 00:00:18,167 Unemployment is very high, 9 00:00:18,167 --> 00:00:20,900 and what’s worse, about one person in five 10 00:00:20,900 --> 00:00:23,967 is not in employment, education or training. 11 00:00:23,967 --> 00:00:26,400 This does not happen only in your early twenties. 12 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:30,200 It actually gets worse as you go towards your mid-thirties. 13 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:32,700 What we’re looking at here is a general loss of autonomy 14 00:00:32,700 --> 00:00:35,267 of the adult population. 15 00:00:35,267 --> 00:00:37,849 The young just happen to be in the line of fire. 16 00:00:37,849 --> 00:00:40,000 But that’s not the whole story. 17 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:41,900 Europe, and indeed the world, 18 00:00:41,900 --> 00:00:47,033 are full of extremely entrepreneurial, brilliant, generous, 19 00:00:47,033 --> 00:00:49,167 talented, young people. 20 00:00:49,167 --> 00:00:52,767 They find new paths to activism, 21 00:00:52,767 --> 00:00:56,007 for example leveraging the diversity of backgrounds 22 00:00:56,007 --> 00:00:57,678 of second and third generation europeans 23 00:00:57,678 --> 00:00:59,833 to make society more open. 24 00:00:59,833 --> 00:01:03,600 They start companies to build large-scale urban games 25 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:05,384 that are used to reappropriate public spaces 26 00:01:05,900 --> 00:01:07,500 and use them in new ways. 27 00:01:07,885 --> 00:01:10,774 They move to North Sea islands 28 00:01:11,007 --> 00:01:12,967 to explore the way small communities 29 00:01:12,967 --> 00:01:14,800 can switch to renewable energy sources, 30 00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:18,233 finding a new sense of purpose as they do so. 31 00:01:18,233 --> 00:01:21,000 And they make learning easier to access 32 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:25,433 by launching free, peer-to-peer, online schools. 33 00:01:25,433 --> 00:01:26,867 These people don’t work together. 34 00:01:26,867 --> 00:01:29,167 In fact, they’ve never even met. 35 00:01:29,167 --> 00:01:30,433 But their activities seem to be connected 36 00:01:30,433 --> 00:01:32,200 in a coherent picture. 37 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:33,433 And this picture is that of 38 00:01:33,433 --> 00:01:36,533 the world we’ll all be living in tomorrow. 39 00:01:36,533 --> 00:01:40,667 And by the way, though you certainly can view them as successful 40 00:01:40,667 --> 00:01:42,733 they are by a measure of success 41 00:01:42,733 --> 00:01:45,833 that is not the same as that normally accepted 42 00:01:45,833 --> 00:01:47,832 by the society at large. 43 00:01:47,900 --> 00:01:49,300 Many struggle to make a living 44 00:01:49,300 --> 00:01:52,199 or have done so as they started their journeys. 45 00:01:52,199 --> 00:01:53,467 Just like you and me. 46 00:01:54,129 --> 00:01:56,100 How to make a living with integrity, 47 00:01:56,100 --> 00:01:59,267 how to live the kind of life that we want, 48 00:01:59,267 --> 00:02:01,905 how to have a say in our communities. 49 00:02:01,905 --> 00:02:03,833 So many people in Europe and elsewhere, 50 00:02:03,833 --> 00:02:04,533 young and not so young, 51 00:02:04,533 --> 00:02:06,700 are thinking very hard about these problems, 52 00:02:06,700 --> 00:02:10,433 and that makes them - us - the experts. 53 00:02:10,433 --> 00:02:12,599 And when you pull together a lot of experts 54 00:02:13,033 --> 00:02:14,500 what you have is a think tank. 55 00:02:14,500 --> 00:02:16,533 EdgeRyders wants to be 56 00:02:16,533 --> 00:02:19,433 the largest think tank in the world 57 00:02:19,433 --> 00:02:22,400 on the youth’s transition 58 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:25,533 to an independent active life. 59 00:02:25,533 --> 00:02:26,764 How does this work? 60 00:02:27,300 --> 00:02:29,867 Well, it starts by exploring the transition space. 61 00:02:29,867 --> 00:02:32,500 And that means sharing what we are doing 62 00:02:32,500 --> 00:02:33,500 as we build our lives, 63 00:02:33,500 --> 00:02:35,733 learning from each other, 64 00:02:35,733 --> 00:02:39,033 and figuring out together what to do next. 65 00:02:39,033 --> 00:02:40,757 There is a gaming element. 66 00:02:40,833 --> 00:02:43,433 Society’s typically not generous with rewards 67 00:02:43,433 --> 00:02:45,300 for young people’s efforts, 68 00:02:45,300 --> 00:02:48,400 but we think it’s important to honour them. 69 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:51,631 So we do it with points and stuff like that. 70 00:02:51,867 --> 00:02:55,167 The second step is to aggregate 71 00:02:55,167 --> 00:02:58,633 the individual journeys into common solutions, 72 00:02:58,633 --> 00:03:00,500 generate a policy vision, 73 00:03:00,500 --> 00:03:02,433 and bring it to the attention 74 00:03:02,433 --> 00:03:05,390 of the European and national authorities. 75 00:03:06,500 --> 00:03:09,167 The space where we do all this 76 00:03:09,167 --> 00:03:10,933 is an interactive online platform 77 00:03:10,933 --> 00:03:12,433 called EdgeRyders, 78 00:03:12,433 --> 00:03:14,033 developed here at the Council of Europe, 79 00:03:14,033 --> 00:03:16,900 based on free software. 80 00:03:16,900 --> 00:03:19,500 EdgeRyders is designed to be scalable. 81 00:03:19,500 --> 00:03:21,267 So whether you’re a regional government, 82 00:03:21,267 --> 00:03:22,942 a local authority, 83 00:03:22,942 --> 00:03:25,200 a private or third-sector organisation, 84 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:27,167 if you care about this problem, 85 00:03:27,167 --> 00:03:28,633 please come see us 86 00:03:28,633 --> 00:03:30,667 and we’ll discuss possible partnerships. 87 00:03:31,452 --> 00:03:35,438 Meanwhile, good luck with your journey.