Webinar: Being young in the COVID-19 pandemic, Friday, 23 October 2020

Against the background of Eurofound’s new report Living, working and COVID-19, speakers including Maria Walsh, MEP, Evin Incir, MEP, Massimiliano Mascherini, Head of Social Policies at Eurofound and Ian Power, CEO of Spunout, Ireland’s youth information website, will be exploring what policy makers can do in Ireland and across Europe to address the challenges of young people in the wake of the pandemic.  The discussion will be moderated by Jennifer O'Connell, feature writer and opinion columnist with the Irish Times.

The webinar will be an opportunity to examine the responses of different Member States to the pandemic and to hear how Ireland compares to other EU Member States, such as Sweden, who adopted a different approach. There will also be a Q&A and LIVE chat available for participants to address the panellists.

The survey results of Living, working and COVID-19 show that the experience of young people during the COVID-19 pandemic has been characterised by rising unemployment and plummeting well-being. Young people report being most likely to feel downhearted and depressed, and less likely to feel positive about themselves than all other age groups. This trend is unprecedented as young people traditionally recorded higher levels of wellbeing than other age groups.

Maria Walsh has been an active advocate and campaigner for diversity and social inclusion for many years. As the first openly gay Rose of Tralee in 2014, she used her platform to advocate for a positive vote in the Marriage Equality referendum in 2015. She was hailed as a role model for young LGBTI people in Ireland and was honoured to be cited as an inspiration for many people’s decision to come out.

As a Fine Gael member of the European Parliament for Midlands North-West since 2019, Maria has been outspoken about LGBTI rights and diversity. She is the Vice-Chair of the LGBTI Rights Intergroup which advocates for equality in the EU and monitors Member States’ legislative initiatives. She always takes stances on policy and legislation that align with her values of inclusion, equality, and respect, even if this entails some difficult conversations with her EPP Group colleagues.

Maria has advocated for the inclusion of younger people in politics, which spurred her to run for office herself. She is a firm believer that it is crucial for politicians to be representative of their electorate, with greater representation of people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, LGBTI people, and equal gender parity.

Evin Incir is an MEP from the Swedish Social democrats. She is a member of the LIBE, AFET and DEVE committees and focuses primarily on democracy, human rights and the respect for the common values of the union. Incir has been engaged in politics and the strive for democracy locally, nationally and globally. Before her election to the European Parliament she has been the secretary general for the International Union of Socialist Youth and deputy secretary general for the Swedish Social democrats international office.

Ian Power is CEO of Community Creations, the not-for-profit company behind the award-winning youth information website SpunOut.ie and '50808', a free 24/7 text service, providing everything from a calming chat to immediate support. Ian is also a board member of the Citizens Information Board (CIB), and a board member of the Community Foundation for Ireland.

Massimiliano Mascherini is Head of Unit ad interim for Social Policies at Eurofound from October 2019. He joined Eurofound in 2009 as a research manager, designing and coordinating projects on youth employment, NEETs and their social inclusion, as well as on the labour market participation of women. In 2017, he became a senior research manager in the Social Policies unit leading new research on monitoring convergence in the European Union. Previously, he was scientific officer at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. He studied at the University of Florence, majoring in Actuarial and Statistical Sciences and completing a PhD in Applied Statistics. He has been visiting fellow at the University of Sydney and at Aalborg University and visiting professor at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.