GLChange-makers Updates December 2025

Our endless and heart-felt gratitude to all 22 people who have responded to our call for action and have financially contributed to our fundraising campaign, supporting our network in 2026.

Your contribution will help us all remain connected and empowered to champion social and environmental justice in a critical period. We stay together in 2026!

Our list of fame:

We will actively fundraise by the end of January 2026, so you still have time to add your name to this list!

The Dave Beckwith Memorial Fund will allow us to stay together in 2026 and depending on the resources we manage to raise would:

Back in January, the GLC Alumni Advisory Board approved 3 applications for the Dave Beckwith Memorial Strategic Partnerships Program - our flagship initiative which seeks to support transantlantic trips for our alumni community members. All 3 trips were succesfully conducted this year. It is now a total of 15 trips between Europe and US that were supported with the program since its launch in 2022.

We know it is not 2020 and virtual events are not what they used to be, but we still kept the space open and people came in! With this year’s events, we now count over 54 virtual alumni events for our community since 2020. Our video library now holds 120 videos and 85 GB of institutional memory!

Also, if you joined our first event of the year and shared your objectives for 2025, you should revisit this community board and reflect on how far you have progressed!

The current GLC Alumni Network Board was constituted in January 2025 and elected Cris Doby as its chair. Back then, we did not imagine how important the Board would be in stepping up and holding the network together after the withdrawal of instutional funding. Thank you, Board members!

This newsletter remains an important tool for us to stay together. And around 300 people keep opening it every month. (Thank you!) With this current December 2025 issue, we count an overall of 38 issues sent since the first montly newsletter in 2020.

Even if there were no organisational budget for reunions this year, our alumni members and communities found ways to stay connected. Because we all know it is worth it!

Thank you! Please stay connected in 2026!

In October 2025, our US mentor Adrienne Evans took part in a Dave Beckwith Strategic Partnership Program visit to Romania, engaging with youth-led organizations and community initiatives focused on democratic participation and rural development. Traveling to Bucharest, Bacau, Bran, Brasov, (and a quick trip to Malta), Adrienne worked closely with Asociatia Pentru Dezvoltare Activa (ADA), European Youth Village partners, and CeRe. The trip aimed to deepen cross-cultural exchange and explore how youth leadership models can strengthen democratic practices across different contexts.

Throughout the trip, Adrienne gained hands-on experience with the European Youth Village model, enhancing her understanding of participatory, youth-driven community development. She observed how local organizations integrate intergenerational dialogue, shared decision-making, and community-based evaluation into their work, particularly in rural settings. The experience also strengthened her cross-cultural facilitation skills and expanded her knowledge of policy navigation and sustainable democratic frameworks within the Romanian NGO landscape.

Through workshops, strategy sessions, and youth-led discussions, Adrienne supported local partners in exploring ways to adapt and expand the European Youth Village concept, including the potential for future collaboration in the United States. Her engagement with young participants encouraged them to reflect on democratic challenges globally, while laying the groundwork for possible bilateral exchanges and joint programming.

Key moments of the visit included participation in the ERYS 2.5 Summit, working sessions with youth leaders in Bacau, and site visits to community-driven initiatives such as Mama Cozonacilor in Bran. Meetings with CeRe in Bucharest offered additional insight into advocacy, equity, and participatory governance in the region. Overall, the trip highlighted the power of youth-led initiatives and demonstrated how the Dave Beckwith Strategic Partnership Program helps build lasting international partnerships at a time when investment in democratic practice is increasingly vital.

This trip was possible, thanks to the community members and friends of the GLC Alumni Network, who donated to the Dave Beckwith Memorial Fund in previous years. Your contribution makes a difference!