An Agency for European Partnerships

Mike Stokes

Mike Stokes  qualified as a teacher and youth worker in the early 1970s and worked for Cumbria County Council between 1975 and 1985 as a teacher, a Youth Tutor and an Area Youth Officer. During this period he became increasingly involved in the development of youth exchanges and other forms of international work and represented the National Youth Workers Union (initially the Community and Youth Workers Association) on all the relevant national bodies working in this field i.e the Central Bureau for Educational Visits and Exchanges, the British Council, the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council and East Europe Interchange.

Also during this period Mike helped to develop the International Social and Educational Exchanges (ISEE) organisation,  a voluntary network of international groups working with socially disadvantaged and physically disabled young people accross Europe.  One of the innovatory ISEE developments of this time was the establishment of a small number of old coaches driven by volunteers which successfully removed one of the greatest barriers to widening participation in international projects, the cost of travel.  Using an ISEE vehicle Mike and other volunteers successfully took a group of forty-five young people overland to visit the Moscow Olympics in 1980.  ISEE went on to become a recognised International Non Governmental youth Organisation (INGYO) and a registered charity within the UK. Perhaps one of its most high profile developments within ISEE at this time was the establishment within Germany of the International Understandingbus project, established in the late 1980s with help from the European Social Fund.

In 1985 Mike moved into the full-time development of international work becoming first of all International Officer for Manchester Education Committee, and then moving to a similar post within Strathclyde jointly managed by the Scottish Community Education Council (SCEC) and Strathclyde Education Department.  Both these bodies were at the time involved in a number of exciting international developments with which Mike quickly became involved. Strathclyde, at that time the largest local authority in western Europe, was building on Glasgow's development of the first post-war exchange programme to offer the largest UK programme of exchanges as well as developing the first UK school to school exchanges with Russia.  SCEC having already established the "Young Scot" booklet and Youth Enquiry Service (YES) was developing the first UK Youth Card "Young Scot", publishing the "International Exchanges Training Pack" and establishing the EURODESK project with help from the European Union.

By the early 1990's Mike's direct involvement in most of the above developments, his growing involvement as an international trainer through bodies such as the  Brussels based Co-ordinating Committee for European Youth Exchanges (CC-EYE)  and the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg and his continued involvement with ISEE led him, with the support of two other international enthusiasts Alex Hamilton and Chris Dolan, to establish Connect Europ in 1992. 

In addition to his work with Connect Europ, other posts Mike has held since 1992 include County Coordinator for the Youth Enquiry Service within North Yorkshire (1996 — 1998)  and Deputy Director of the International Office, St Martin's College (now the University of Cumbria) (1996 — 2005)

For further information about Mike, his international experience and the work of Connect Europ please see his: