Young Person from Newport attends EU-UK Youth Dialogue 2025

The EU Delegation to the UK hosted its annual EU-UK Youth Dialogue, which brought together young leaders from across the UK. This year it took place in Newcastle on 6th-7th November 2025. The Delegation were looking for young leaders (aged 18-30) from Wales who would like to attend this conference and the WCVA asked County Voluntary Councils to nominate young people.

T Howells from Newport has volunteered with GAVO for many years, supporting the GAVO Youth Volunteers Fund panel and Volunteer Awards panel. T expressed an interest in participating and was nominated to join the other youth leaders in Newcastle.

Here's a statement from T about the experience:

Through GAVO, I was given the opportunity to attend the EU-UK Youth Dialogue 2025. I was interested in attending as it sounded like a unique opportunity to advocate for young people with decision-makers and stakeholders who most won't get the chance to be heard by. I hoped to learn more about the current EU-UK relationship regarding young people and share positive, youth led work happening in Wales, like the projects supported by GAVO. I also wanted to connect with others from a range of backgrounds to understand their perspectives and broaden my own. Through all this, hopefully encouraging the best outcome for young people through ongoing issues and discussions between the EU and UK.

The networking opportunities of the event were a strong aspect, meaningful conversations were held over lunch, and it was nice to see stakeholders stay for those moments. Positively, we got to speak to these people on a more “human level” it also provided a valuable opportunity to get to know the others in attendance, learn about their experiences and why they were attending. The networking opportunities are what made it feel like a “youth dialogue”.

Similarly, the “Acting Locally” Regional Discussions were the most valuable session to me. It felt like an opportunity to honestly and freely discuss the issues affecting us. The fact that the Welsh group were small, with only 7 of us, was extremely positive. I feel this was more appropriate than larger groups and enabled us all to speak. The prompts of the conversation managed to open the door to rich conversations, sharing what was happening in our local areas, inspiring each other, comparing ideas and comparing the situation across local regions of the UK. In the same way, the Small Group Discussion on Key Issues was also successful, my group was facilitated by Peter Byrne who made the conversation feel youth-led, listening empathetically to us.

The main way I feel the event could be improved is if more time was dedicated to our conversations, the small groups rather than so many talks from stakeholders. Giving them more of a chance to listen to young people rather than young people listening to them. Future events should focus on this, having decision-makers simply listen to unconstrained conversations.

Overall, the event was well organised with really positive communication from the team throughout the event and appropriate facilities supporting the needs of us in attendance. I would be interested in attending future youth dialogues and look forward to see how they develop going forward."

If you are a young person aged 14-25 and live in Newport, Monmouthshire, Caerphilly or Blaenau Gwent, please contact your local Youth Volunteering Officer to get involved in future GAVO and WCVA youth-led initiatives.

Volunteering | GAVO

🌟 GAVO Youth Volunteers Fund 2025–26 – Now Open for Applications! (This grant is now closed, but will re-open in April 2026)

Further information about the Youth Dialogue can be found here: EU-UK Youth | EEAS