Growth and development in European Development Council – Heidi Jäntti

What is European Development Council?  

The European Development Council, also known as the EDC is an elected body within JCI Europe, supporting growth and development of National and Local Organizations. EDC promotes JCI in those European countries that are still without national organizations and helps existing national and local organizations to get tools to develop and increase their member growth.  

Heidi Jäntti was one of the three Finnish Jaycees who were elected to international JCI positions during the National Presidents’ meeting in JCI World Congress 2019.  

She is a member of JCI Helsinki and has a long career in JCI. She has held various positions over the years on local, regional and national levels. To most of us she is well known as a JCI trainer with a long list of JCI training qualifications. Now we get to hear a bit about how the year as a councilor of EDC went.  

Heidi’s official position for 2020 was one of the two EDC councilors for Intensive Support. The tasks included providing intensive support and guidance to struggling national and local organizations and being responsible for mentoring program and maintaining other peer support programs to mentor, help and provide tools for the growth and development of national and local organizations.  

The biggest responsibilities for the year 2020 for Heidi’s intensive support portfolio were the development of the EDC mentoring program and Growth and Development Academy, of which the latter was organized remotely for the first time.  

Heidi had a central role in the academy. It was based on her idea, she coordinated it and she was the head trainer of the academy. Moreover, the academy also had one module focused on strategy work where Heidi could leverage her strong strategic skills in sparring national and local organizations.  

– The year was a wonderful learning opportunity because I have never built an organizational mentoring program before. It is usually professional mentoring for individual development purposes, but in 2020 we turned this the other way around – a mentoring program for organizations to grow and develop.

Name few good practices and learnings of the EDC year?  

-In the international level you got a better picture of how the whole JCI organization works. EDC gave insight on how different national organizations operate. You were able to see different operational models that lead to good outcomes being achieved in different ways.

-It was different working as a part of an international team. It was rich in its internationality, with team members coming all over Europe.

If you are interested in pursuing councilor position in EDC: 

The application period for EDC is open each year around September. The most important thing is to be sufficiently qualified to apply. You are required to have held a position at the national level. The process itself is application based, where you need a signature from your NP. Thus, do start by being in contact with NP concerning your wishes to apply.