Dev Diary #27: Champion of Transatlantic Youth I

Hello everyone!

With the patron system up and running (again) we can move forward with a plan which was seeded on the day of our launch (4th of April 2019). Then Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (D-SACT) Admiral Manfred Nielson spoke at #NATOEngages in Washington on the 3rd of April. #NATOEngages was organized by Atlantic Council, German Marshall Fund and Munich Security Conference to celebrate the 70th anniversary of NATO.

D-SACT Admiral Nielson was talking about the ACT's Human Capital Agenda, and the need to focus (more) on youth, stating: "If I could I would replace 30% of my staff with young professionals". Working at a military staff myself I find this statement interesting, amusing, but sadly also unrealistic. Nevertheless it is something worthy to strive towards to, and was a confirmation for us that our fledgling plans for Atlantic Forum were something in the right direction.

As we learned more about ACT's Human Capital Agenda, due another public appearance of the Admiral at GLOBSEC and our visit to ACT's CoE Marketplace (thank you again NLD at NATO for sponsoring our attendance!) we figured that while 30% professionals in a military staff would be out of reach, we could perhaps help ACT and NATO with supporting the Human Capital agenda.

Between internships, (temporary) jobs and young leader programs, thousands of young people are introduced to NATO and transatlanticism every year. By doing so NATO is slowly creating a new generation of transatlantic leadership. The problem however lies with the follow up. What happens to these interns after they leave? After the young professionals who are unable to get a contract and move on to their next adventure? To the young leaders who attend an intensive 4-5 day course, but are then released back to where they came from? We realized that Atlantic Forum has positioned itself perfectly to be that follow up.

As such we are launching the Champions of Transatlantic Youth Initiative to provide with that follow up.

We are now looking for partners to work with, either Institutions, Think Tanks, Ambassies who have interns and young professionals <35 working for them, NGOs running young leader programs, or corporate partners who are willing to invest in the next generation of young leadership - who are willing to become Champions of Transatlantic Youth.

In next week's Dev Diary we will delve deeper into how we see partnerships forming with each three based on our Sandbox parable

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Dev Diary #28: Champion of Transatlantic Youth II

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Dev Diary #26: It's Alive! It's Alive (Automated Patron Registration works!)