(quote Ben S.)
Over the past few months new hands have found their way to the Idem Office in Basel and are now standing in front of an organization that feels as thought it is a garden that has not been tended to for a while. Brush and brambles covering something that wants to grow, it is surely there and I am convinced we will find it with the help of courage, support from our friends and some time.
What Idem is and has been:
an organization that has been supporting projects in the past and can do so in the future. An office in the unternehmen mitte co-working space in Basel where young people can come and work on their projects and implement their ideas.
A network linking up with many individuals, active people, projects and initiatives (YIP in Sweden, Aramitan in Brazil, Supperheroes Adventurous Catering, The Youth Section Dornach, captura in Germany, projekt zeitung in Germany Connect Conference, Connect Cafe Basel and many more), donors, learners, teachers, organizations, students and volunteers.
Young people and people young at heart who want to creat alternatives to what they experience is wrong in our world, people who are not afraid of opening their eyes to conflicts and problematic situations but on the contrary, who want to come together and change them.
Idem has been a place of learning for many of us. The underlying concept of „Identity through Initiative“, the process of finding one‘s way out of one‘s initial creative chaos into something experienced and more refined and manifested, has been experienced by many youth who have been active under the Idem wings or on what we used to call the Idem plattform. School classes, youth groups, individuals...
Idem has been a host to learning processes such as trainings and workshops, it has created meeting places in the form of conferences and has given working space to many who have come to join us in the office in Basel.
Idem has many brothers and sisters around the world, direct Idem partner organizations as well as project partners that are all standing autonomous from our organization but are linked up with and through the Idem network.
What Idem is and can be in the future:
The Idem team in Basel is currently made up of three young women who are willing to re-shape and re-think the organisational part that holds Idem in place. We are all three interested in learning from all possible sources around us how to carry and organization that is already defined and that needs to be held up as a vessel for more ideas to come into this world and be implemented.
We call Idem a playground instead of a plattform at the moment, as we are only able to offer the space for all of you to come to and play in, we offer to prepare some rules to follow but we are ourselves not strong enough to carry a plattform for others to dance upon. (It is apparent that our plattform services were not sustainable in the past, thus we have changed the image: a playground is for everyone to participate in and carry the responsibility for the playground while playing on it. It is up to each player to tend to the playgounds in order for play to be possible.) Idem is a space of learning but more importantly it is a chance to ask yourself you most important questions: Who am I and who am I to be? In my own life Idem has played a major role in dealing with these challenging quests. Who am I? I can find out while I am helping you in your project, while I am organizing my own, while I am engaging in society and am serving this world by shaping it into something meaningful and worth standing for! Who am I to be? Where is my potential? Who am I supposed to grow into? Whom do I need to become in order to be able to shape this world?In many conversations with my life mentors I find mirrors that show me who I am, that help me see how I am growing while I am being active, that teach me and help me find my own methods of learning. Mentors are everywhere in life, in partner organizations, in random meetings at other youth events, in colleagues and friends. If I take my time to open my eyes I begin to see them clearly everywhere. Idem is a place where I can begin to open my eyes. Mentors are those sort of real friends who tell you things you do not want to hear. But things you can learn from and build upon your next steps of developing towards your true self.
The Idem Office Space is open to youth from here and there to come and work on their ideas and find ways to implements them. We have internet, we have a phone, we have courage and supportive ideas on how you could make your dream come true! Give us a call and we will do our best to help you!
(be rebellious, be on fire, the sky is the limit!!)
In our own plan and life-program we find the need to learn to be a priority, so we have decided to make this our agenda. Themes from basic income, social threefolding and general project management (fundraising!) to cooking, cultures and languages, anything could come up. We are scheduled to visit partner initiatives who deal with similar themes, as our wish is to closely network and co-work with fellow learners and activists in Europe and the world.
Contact us to find out what our actions on this are. (mail (at) idem-network.org)
