Young people are at the heart of Sail Training International's purpose and activities. The STI Youth Forum was launched in March 2009 to:
• ensure the decision making entities and processes in Sail Training International take account of the views and interests of young people in developing strategies and activities for the future, and
• enhance the credibility of the organisation and its focus on young people with key external organisations and authorities.
Fifteen of Sail Training International's 26 member national sail training organisations nominated a representative to assist in the Forum’s launch. This founding group has a private Facebook page to network with each other. They met face-to-face for the first time in November 2009 for a full-day’s programme before the Sail Training International annual international conference in Istanbul, Turkey where they created an excellent mission statement and six pioneering goals, as follows:
STI Youth's Mission:
“The International Youth Forum aims to help Sail Training International fulfil its mission and meet its goals by bringing young people from the international sail training community together; working for youth by youth to provide fresh ideas for the future of sail training.”
STI Youth’s Goals:
• Engaging in support of the selfassessment project; The IYC will contribute to the self-assessment and evaluation tool by supporting the steering group of the study.
• Creating a youth/trainee alumni group in national sail training organisations, thereby expanding and improving the network of contact between youth who have been or may become engaged in sail training.
• Creating a template exit interview form for operators of Class A, B, C, and D vessels, that measures satisfaction with the sail training and personal development experience. It is to be implemented in the summer 2010 with selected vessel operators.
• To serve in an advisory capacity to Sail Training International as it develops its social networking and web based connections with youth.
• To prepare and deliver two youth oriented workshops at the November 2010 Conference.
• To prepare an implementation calendar of strategic goal delivery; this will be posted within the IYF website and will be viewable by the public.