P3: Inclusion plan 2024 - 2027: Towards a more racially just FYEG

Introduction

While fighting for a diverse and feminist Europe, the Federation of Young
European Greens (FYEG) allocates special efforts on developing its actions in
line with its values of feminism, inclusion, and antiracism. These ongoing
measures implemented at different levels make FYEG a feminist organisation that
takes measures to counterbalance gender discrimination. This Inclusion Plan
expands on the efforts that FYEG allocates to ensure its inclusion of racialised
and ethnicised young greens and identifies room for improvement to make FYEG a
truly antiracist, and racially- and culturally-inclusive organisation.

The proposals and objectives of this Inclusion Plan are the result of the joint
work of the Racial Justice Task Force and FYEG’s Office, EC and MOs, as outlined
in the Activity Plan 2023-24 approved in the General Assembly 2023.

The implementation of this plan is to be conducted taking into account that
racialisation, ethnicisation and processes of minoritisation are not the same
across all national and cultural contexts. Issues like ethnicity, culture, or
nationality are included in the creation of the objective and suggested steps of
the plan.

Following the principle “nothing about us without us”, this plan foresees the
participation of racialised and ethnicised youth in its implementation. At the
same time, all FYEGers need to be active agents of change and foster racial
justice and antiracism in FYEG and its Members Organisations.

Offers of support and outreach to racialised youth are often equated with the
substantive confrontation with racism. This can lead to racialised young greens
being unintentionally turned into experts on racism and non-racialised young
greens knowing too little about racism. Further, racialised young greens come to
FYEG interested in a variety of other topics that they are keen on dealing with.
They should not be made to feel like the burden of conducting FYEG’s anti-racist
work is on them. Our aim is therefore to make a stronger distinction between
anti-racist educational and structural work on the one hand and measures to
support and address racialised young greens on the other hand. Anti-racist work
is the work of all of us, because it concerns us all.

The implementation of this plan (through designing, enforcing, and evaluating
its actions) should not be seen as the finalisation of the efforts to ensure
that FYEG and its MOs act in line with their values of antiracism and racial
justice.

Structural changes

1. Activity Plan and Strategy Plan

Activity Plan

FYEG will expand on and highlight its current and future efforts to focus on
racial justice by creating a specific section in the Activity Plan that
describes the planned actions in this field. This section should also include
the measures planned to include racialised and ethnicised young greens and young
participants in FYEG’s actions, educational activities, campaigns, etc.

FYEG will strive to ensure an intersectional focus in the planning stages,
including programme design when applicable, on the actions (events, campaigns,
educational events, capacity-building, lobbying and networking, etc.) described
in the Activity Plan. In the ideation and planning of activities, there will be
a specific section that describes how intersectionality will be taken into
account.

Strategy Plan

The Strategic Plan (2025-2030) will incorporate inclusion more generally in its
objectives. Further actions not described in this Plan can be included as
Strategic Objectives, like currently implemented monitoring already present in
the Strategic Plan 2022-2025 and/or updated or expanded versions of them.

The Strategy Plan and any other plans created and implemented during the
validity of the Strategic Framework (like this one) should play strong
complementary roles. The Strategic Plan will therefore preview the expansion of
its strategic objectives in order to incorporate the assessment of the
fulfilment of the Strategic Objectives to those described in other plans.

2. Racialised and ethnicised young green leaders

FYEG will proactively offer support and tools to people who self-identify as
racialised or ethnicised that are considering running for any leadership
position especially, but not limited to, the Executive Committee.

FYEG will provide technical, political and organisational support to these
individuals by offering resources, for example:

Having access to these support will be proactively included and promoted in the
call for positions, and the Office and members of the EC will also strive to
ensure that all racialised and ethnicised young greens have priority on getting
this support.

FYEG will also put special emphasis on promoting those candidates who self-
identify as racialised or ethnicised. FYEG will send an email with all the
candidates running for positions, and will highlight the and promote ethnicised
and racialised candidates through different strategies.

FYEG will also be available to offer such support to young greens that are
pursuing positions of leadership and responsibility in its MOs and/or mother
parties.

Through the development and curation of this actions, FYEG aims to pave the way
and encourage young greens of colour and minoritised groups to feel empowered
and supported by the organisation in becoming leaders at the European and
national levels.

During the process of writing the inclusion plan, our RJTF put forward the
suggestion to include a racialised and ethnicised minority quota for elected
bodies. This suggestion shall be critically assessed against potential impact,
envisioned value, and its practicability.

3. Comprehensive Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies

FYEG will create a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Framework covering the
areas of hiring practices, office culture and monitoring.

This framework will be designed seeking to ensure that the inclusion work
developed in FYEG’s activities and processes is also present in the Office, its
configuration and internal processes. The Office and its members will be
empowered and supported by the EC to play an active and conscious role in
continuing making the Office a diverse space inclusive for all workers.

Better hiring practises

In order to ensure that FYEG is an equal opportunity employer, applicants should
be informed of FYEG’s DEI Framework. Said Framework will be linked in vacancies
in order for potential applicants to read prior to applying, and will inform the
applicants of:

Such transparency and practices contribute to presenting FYEG as an inclusive
employer that offers an inclusive work environment and seeks to encourage
applicants from more diverse backgrounds to apply.

At the political level, FYEG will lobby its partners of the Green Family (EGP,
Greens/EFA, GEF) to implement similar measures, especially taking into account
that in general they count with greater capacities.

Inclusive office culture

The members of the Office will be empowered to be active actors in making their
shared work space a safer space for expression of racialised and ethnicised
staff and belonging to other marginalised communities.

With that aim, the members of the Office will be encouraged to take part on
racial- and cultural-sensitivity training, without detriment to other training
that the staff desires to undertake as per their right.

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Framework for an inclusive office culture
could include:

The DEI Framework will be included in the Office guide, and promoted
particularly during the onboarding process of newly hired staff and in exit
interviews.

The Office will make sure that the interns are also included in these processes
as any other staff member, without detriment of the specific learning objectives
established by the intern at the beginning of the programme.

The members of the Office are encouraged to come together and join a labour
union and/or be in touch with other workers of the same sector or the Green
Family and share good practices with other workers on pursuing more inclusive
and welcoming working environments.

Monitoring

The Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Framework will preview monitoring and
assessment of the measures undertaken. On top of the data listed in the points
above, and in order to have a better overview each year of the DEI framework and
potential areas for improvement, a specific avenue for input from the members of
the Office will be put in place to evaluate the work environment. Potential
complains on the hiring process received through the allocated channel as
previewed above will also be taken into account.

4. Inclusion reporting

Just as the Activity Plan is reported upon yearly at the General Assembly via
the Activity Report, the Inclusion Plan should have an annual Inclusion Report
which consist of (i) reporting specifically on the status of the implementation
of the Inclusion Plan and (ii) general inclusion reporting.

Inclusion Plan reporting

The Inclusion Report should detail efforts that have been made to implement the
recommendations of the Inclusion Plan, including both successful implementation
as well as challenges, failures or mistakes in this implementation.

Where a recommendation cannot or can no longer be implemented, this should be
explained in the Inclusion Report.

General inclusion reporting

Any Key Performance Indicator (KPI) evaluated in the context of the Strategy
Plan that is related to inclusion will be included in the Inclusion Report.

The inclusion report will account also for:

The advances in the creation of or changes and updated included in the
Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Framework

If applicable, challenges or takeaways in the fulfilment of the KPIs

Other issues on inclusion that may be outside the specific recommendations or
objectives of the Inclusion Plan oo the Strategy Plan.

Intersectional inclusion data reporting

When reporting on the KPIs and other relevant data and statistics regarding DEI,
wherever possible, reporting should include intersectionality. The creation of
KPIs in the context of this Inclusion Plan or the Strategy Plan will, and the
provision for their linked data collection, analysis, and interpretation will
strive to include an intersectional manner.

Cultural changes

5. Safer Spaces Policy

The Safer Spaces Policy strives to create an inclusive, respectful, and
supportive atmosphere. Effective implementation of a comprehensive Safer Spaces
Policy can ensure the well-being and encourage the participation of racialised
and ethnicised young greens and other marginalised young greens, through
fostering a community free from discrimination, harassment, and violence. FYEG
Safes Spaces Guidelines recognise the evolving nature of the document. These
steps will be implemented regarding the Safes Spaces Policies in line with the
objectives of this Inclusion Plan.

Proactive in addition to reactive

The educational content promoted in FYEG events will include tools for the
participants in the events to increase their ability to identify instances of
discrimination. The aim is to equip participants with the knowledge to be
proactive co-responsibles in the creation of an atmosphere of inclusion and
respect. FYEG will therefore expand on the current opening sessions in its
events to equip the participants with these knowledge and capacities. The
corresponding materials (tool kit, session outline, or any other sort of
document in the shape and support deemed more convenient) will be created with
that aim.

Renovation of the anti-sexual harassment protocol

The anti-harassment protocol will be renewed to reflect the evolution of the
structures it introduces and clarify a few existent inconsistencies.

Given the evolution of the protocol since the last Inclusion Plan to now tackle
all forms of discrimination, the protocol and its guidelines will be rehauled
accordingly. The guidelines in particular should incorporate racism and other
forms of discrimination, harassment, islamophobia, antisemitism, and violence
and where possible an intersectional explanation of intersecting oppressions, as
well as guidance on support. Measures should be introduced obliging the
Awareness Team to be familiar with these guidelines and the protocol prior to
their appointment.

A living document subject to regular review

The Safer Spaces Policy should be a dynamic, evolving document, reflecting its
evolving practice, in order to ensure effective implementation. It is thus
necessary to regularly review and update it to reflect whether we meet the needs
of marginalised communities, involving young greens of these communities in
these processes. These updates and the processes undertaken to reach their
conclusions should be clear and communicated transparently.

In addition to the document, the permanent awareness team is a valuable resource
in ensuring internal processes are continually evolving. Due to working
specifically on the aspects of safer space and inclusion, the awareness team
will have a unique insight about the areas of inclusion where we are not doing
enough, and it would therefore be valuable to use the work of the permanent
awareness team to further ensuring our practices are evolving where we need it
to, as well as reaching FYEG arenas.

6. Political education

FYEG provides its members with knowledge and skills in line with the values that
bring us together to participate actively and effectively in democratic
processes and civic life to build the world we believe in. It goes beyond
enhancing individual understanding; it involves critically examining how the
world works, both past and present, to empower young people to actively
participate in shaping a better future. Through this process, youth can learn to
question existing systems, understand the root causes of societal issues, and
develop the skills and knowledge necessary to drive meaningful change.

In order to better educate young greens on issues of racism, decoloniality,
islamophobia, anti-romani sentiments, antisemitism, and other issues affecting
racialised and ethnicised communities, FYEG will partly or completely pursue:

MO trainings on antiracism

FYEG will integrate these issues within the MO training programmes, for example
by ensuring at least one session on organisational inclusion and
intersectionality, in order to provide MOs the tools to strengthen their efforts
on inclusion and offering them important insights on intersectionality, race
relations, the root causes and political manifestations of racism, and the need
for a more inclusive organisation and society - which they can then carry on in
their own efforts.

Education on antiracism at the start of events

FYEG will dedicate time at the start of its events to explain and discuss
general principles of anti-racism and microaggressions, as described in the
corresponding title of the “Safer Spaces Policies” above.

General political education in FYEG events

FYEG will use its educational activities and communications to educate and
promote among young greens, and beyond to our broader audiences,
intersectionality and social justice, and important concerns of racialised and
ethnicised young greens, thus encouraging more awareness and sensitivity of
young greens participating at events and in general.

FYEG will expand and enhance, based on past good practices, the incorporation of
sessions on inclusion in its events. The expansion and enhancement should
consolidate this good practice to become a requirement in all activities and to
be expanded to sessions on other issues concerning racialised and ethnicised
communities, and ensure an intersectional approach in the design, implementation
and evaluation of said sessions.

7. Inclusive politics

FYEG will strive to include an intersectional approach in the creation of its
actions, including educational programmes, actions, political positions and
texts, campaign, etc.

Inclusive event and campaign organisation

Following the principle of “nothing about us without us”, FYEG will allocate
efforts on gathering input from young greens of racialised and ethnicised
communities and other marginalised communities in the creation of its actions,
especially but never limited to, those that delve on issues related to
racialised and ethnicised communities or other marginalised communities. Seeking
further support and contact partner organisations, experts, NGOs and Civil
Society Organsiations, that work on the field of antiracism, racial justice,
inclusion and diversity will also be a measure to ensure FYEG’s programmes and
campaigns are in line with an intersectional and inclusive foundation.

Additionally, when inviting speakers, panellists, or other such guests, we will
strive for inclusion of voices from racialised and ethnicised communities and
other marginalised communities.

FYEG will update its service provider questionnaire to ensure the premises and
equipment used in the activities are as inclusive as possible for people with
disabilities.

Inclusive political content

FYEG’s political proposals and the actions to promote them through campaign and
social media actions will reflect the efforts to include contributions of
marginalised communities, including racialised and ethnicised communities, as
detailed in the point above.

FYEG’s political positions are the meeting point of the political positions of
the Member Organisations of the network. As such, FYEG’s political positions
tackle the actions that are suggested to implement or promote at the European or
International level to pursue liberation from oppression, by addresing systemic
barriers to the full participation of marginalised communities in politics and
society.

FYEG fosters providing support to its Member Organisations to become more
diverse and include more young greens from racialised and ethnicised communities
and other marginalised communities in the creation of their political positions
young greens and young greens of other marginalised communities.

Solidarity and cooperation

FYEG will continue to work with organisations of different nature working on
fostering racial justice and will expand and enhance the efforts so far,
establishing objectives to diversify its partners in this field, also to
organisations outside Europe.

Safety and wellbeing for all young greens activists

Activism is a fundamental part of FYEG politics. Racialised and ethnicised
communities and other marginalised groups, especially those from migrant
background, those who are in irregular administrative situation, people with
gender-non-conformins identities and appearance, disabled people, and
neurodivergent people is often targeted and especially criminalised by police
and other “order” bodies of the state. FYEG will work on the creation of a
comprehensive guideline to assess the safety and act on the protection of these
groups in the context of actions of civil disobedience.

Capacity-sharing

8. Support to MOs in their efforts to become more
   inclusive and diverse

FYEG will provide support to its MOs in order to increase their inclusion and
ensure the development of steps at the MO level to attract young people from
racialised or ethnicised communities. With that aim, FYEG will at the request of
any MO translate this Inclusion Plan for the leadership to reflect on potential
steps that can be adopted at their national or regional level mirroring and
adapting when needed the actions to the MOs context and its capacities. FYEG
also encourages the bigger MOs to steer local branches to opt for this support.

This support will be promoted in FYEG events, including regional calls,
educational events, and statutory activities.

FYEG will organise at least one session per year to foster exchange of good
practices on inclusion and diversity within MOs.

9. Inclusion guidelines and criteria in grants to MOs

FYEG’s MO Grants Programmes will include specific reporting and evaluation on
inclusion. FYEG will work on the creation of a template that complements the
current data evaluation on gender mainstreaming to also include data and
reporting on diversity and inclusion, striving to include an intersectional
approach.

The MO Grants Programmes will also encourage the applicant organisations to work
on and include topics linked to racial justice and antiracism, and incorporate
partnership with organisations at their local level working on the same topics.
The inclusion of said topics and/or said partnerships in an application will be
positively taken into account in the evaluation phase of the proposed project.

Inclusion guidelines

The MOs will have access to inclusion guidelines on how they can approach event
planning and organisation through an intersectional and inclusive approach. This
will include a venue questionnaire that takes in consideration accessibility.

10. Accessibility for all participants

FYEG will put in place specific actions to further ensure and systematically
mainstream the inclusion of all participants to its events.

Visa assistance

FYEG will continue to cover expenses to obtain visas to participate in events.
FYEG will follow a more extensive timeline and invest extra efforts on ensuring
enough prevision to ensure that all participants in need of visa can pursue the
process in a timely manner so that they can participate in the FYEG activities.
FYEG will create a guideline to mainstream and systematically kick-off this
efforts when applicable, said guideline should undergo periodic updates to
optimise Office’s efforts and ensure successful visa application processes.

Inclusion at events

FYEG will increase the efforts to raise awareness among the members of its
bodies and among the participants to events about the need to ensure an
inclusive and welcoming environment, also by using an accessible and common
language. The outline for the first session of educational events will delve on
the need to use easier language, avoid acronyms, etc.