Global Citizens at the Global House of Young Voices

From 13 to 17 May, youth dele­gations from Frank­furt and twelve sister cities discussed poli­tical issues. The Peace Research Insti­tute Frank­furt (PRIF) orga­nized the youth summit as a civics edu­cation project in the spirit of St. Paul’s Church’s anni­versary.

The inter­national youth summit “Global House of Young Voices” ended on 17 May 2024 with a panel dis­cussion in Frank­furt’s St. Paul’s Church with over 250 guests. The dele­gates reported on their week-long ex­change: in addition to cul­tural activities, this inclu­ded eight work­shops, which were pre­pared together in advance through virtual pre-mee­tings and facili­tated by experts. Topics ranged from struc­tural biases, the future of demo­cracy, poverty and social injustice, mental health, climate change, edu­cation equity, quality of life in the city, to youth partici­pation.

Conclu­ding the week, selected dele­gates spoke with Frankfurt’s Mayor Mike Josef and presen­ted the work­shop’s results. He applauded the project: “The fact that young people from our partner cities around the world are exchanging ideas and deba­ting with each other here in our St Paul’s Church in Frank­furt is just right. They are following in the tra­dition of the St Paul's Church Assem­bly 175 years ago and are thus living values such as human rights and free­dom in the spirit of global citizen­ship. Encoun­ters and contacts strengthen mutual under­standing and there­fore also social cohesion.” [PRIF’s trans­lation]

Eileen O’Sullivan, Deputy Mayor for Citizens, Digital and Inter­national Affairs, took part in the panel dis­cussion. She empha­sized the importance of ex­changes, as well as the crucial role that young people play in local poli­tics, engaging, partici­pating, and being involved in politics.

Tina Cramer, who coor­dinated the Global House of Young Voices Summit for PRIF and has invi­ted a total of 17 sister cities of Frank­furt, is deligh­ted that twelve have accepted the invi­tation to St Paul’s Church and is “very impressed by the commit­ment and trust that the dele­gations have shown. Our project is like a window to the world: together we created a frame­work for over 50 young people from 11 countries and 3 conti­nents to meet, discuss and making their con­cerns visible. With the summit, we contri­buted to a mind­set that goes beyond the local challenges in the sister cities.”

Our project page offers further in­sights into the “Global House of Young Voices”.

Tina Cramer and Stefan Kroll re­port on the youth summit in an interview.