Endings and New Beginnings

Greetings from a sun-drenched Ytterjärna! The smell of roses fill the air, the elderflowers have opened and the first wild strawberries are turning red. With the change of season, YIP15 has come to an end. The Campus has quieted now that all the Yippies have set off. In buses, trains, planes and canoes they’re making their way to friends and family …

YIP Newsletter January 2016 – Currency, Collaborations and Community

Sweden is frozen, caught in what seems like a timeless spell. At each sunrise and each sun set it turns into some kind of fiery-frozen winter wonder land.  Each branch and twig, each blade of grass, everything that has remained exposed from previous phases lies encrusted in the natures frozen crystals, wrapped in an icy stillness.  And yet, things continue to …

YIP Newsletter December 2015 – Into the New Year

Silence has settled on Ytterjärna as the Yippies lift off to various destinations for the Winter break, and readying themselves for the internship journeys that lay beyond.  It has been a wild ride these last few weeks and months with so much going on both inwardly and outwardly that it is hard to believe that it has come to a close.  …

The Opening of Orientation Aotearoa

By YIP Founder, Rose Nekvapil I arrived at the Wellington Airport and was greeted by Lucy (YIP4) in what was a surprisingly emotional reunion for both of us. Their campus and home is in a stunning place, an ocean bay on one doorstep and the base of a very steep forest-covered mountain on the other. Skye (YIP3) expressed shear relief …

Where are they Now?

As YIP is now in its 7th revolution, that means there are six years worth of YIP-influenced (or YIPfluenced) souls out treading the waters of life, or swimming vigorously through them. In this section, we can catch a glimpse of those varied lives, what waters they’re in, what stroke they’re putting their hearts and minds into and where they’re headed.  Two …

YIP Update, May 2008

By Reinoud Meijer (Holland), May 2008 It is an incredible position to be organizing YIP. We are like the bees buzzing around the network, which is like a rich garden and everywhere we get to, YIP can bring something that is beyond what is there already and at the same time YIP receives the substance it ‘lives’ of. We want …

Reasons for YIP

By Reinoud Meijer (Holland), May 2008 I saw a video of a German professor recently, who spoke at a conference. He was telling how his father used to say that what separated man from animal was stupidity. It took him 54 years in which he was an advocate for sustainable development to have to admit that there is a lot …

YIP: Walking the Talk on Community Engagement

By: Ani Hanelius (USA), April 2008 There are not many places in this world where a young person can come and say, “I want to change the world!” and be told in response, “Ok, we want to help you reach that goal.” Yet this is exactly what the new Youth Initiative Program (YIP) set to begin this August in Järna, …