Youth Goals Project Lab

BACKGROUND

Quoting an article of the European Youth Forum on the Youth Goals... “young people are shapers not listeners”; and this is the starting point of the background of our  project lab. 

Back in 2018, 50000 young people expressed their views through a Europe-wide survey on what still needs to be changed so that young people in Europe can use their full potential. The formulation of the Youth Goals has been a dynamic process giving ownership to young people, strengthening further the EU Youth dialogue and the final 11 Youth Goals are now part of the EU Youth Strategy.

Needless to say, that the current conditions faced by young people in many dimensions of their lives and due to the combination of interconnecting and complect challenges, the Youth Goals gain even more significance in terms of supporting the voice of young people, their vision of their communities and offering them the space for proposals and the tools to act accordingly.

Our project lab has the aim to give more light to this dynamic process and respond to young people’s engagement through the support to build concrete project ideas within the Erasmus + / Youth and European Solidarity Corps context; ideas that will be addressing the 11 Youth Goals.

Project labs’ structured methodology offers the inspiration, the efficiency, the tools and the collective knowledge that young people can benefit from, in order to propose ideas and furthermore, build quality project applications.

AIM: The aim of the event is the development of quality Erasmus + / Youth and European Solidarity Corps projects that will be addressing the Youth Goals.

The objectives of the event include:

• To build awareness and reflect on the Youth Goals; an outcome of the EU Youth Dialogue and part of the EU Youth Strategy.
• To introduce to the new Programmes of Erasmus + / Youth and European Solidarity Corps
• To develop competences and acquire tools for the quality management of projects
• To propose, create and build youth-goals-centered project ideas and transfer them into project applications.
• To create a strong community of participants within a space of mutual support, exchange and sharing.

TARGET GROUP

The event is open to young people representing youth organisations and/or youth councils, with the motivation to address the Youth Goals and apply for project funding in the contexts of the European Commission Programmes of Erasmus + Youth and European Solidarity Corps.

Our expectation is that participants are entitled by their organisation/youth council to create partnerships with other participants from the event, leading to submission of applications.

We recommend the participation of two representatives per organisation/youth council to ensure the sustainability of the partnerships created but also individual participation will be accepted.

Participants should be at least 18 years old and willing to commit to actively follow all the phases/processes of the event: 

• 2 online meetings: 25 - 26 June 2021 (Time: 10.00 - 16.00 CET) & 26 - 27 August 2021 (Time: 10.00 - 16.00 CET)         
• 1 residential meeting in Cyprus: 13 - 18 September 2021
• asynchronous activities implemented throughout this Lab 

The main platforms that will be used include ZOOM meetings (Central European Timing) for the synchronous meetings and the SALTO HOP Platform for the asynchronous process. All online and digital tools that will be used are user friendly, fun to work with and the trainers will support you with tutorials and directions when needed.

TRAINERS

The team of trainers comprises of Deniss Jershov (Estonia) and Konstantinos Spatiotis (Greece) that bring together a combined experience of youth work and facilitation of non-formal learning within youth participation and the support to the development and implementation of international and local projects initiated by young people.

Deniss has been actively working with international projects since 2006, focusing on a variety of topics, from environmental activism to visual learning. Currently he combines teaching at Tartu Art school with facilitating trainings on project management, assessing applications, and supporting and advising young change-makers.    

Konstantinos has been active for the last 15 years in a diversity of projects and learning events addressing the activation and participation of young people. He is a member of different working groups and pools of trainers carrying experiences from both top-down and bottom-up processes giving an emphasis on horizontal approaches. Other than that, his direction also involves youth workers’ development, volunteers’ coordination and social and solidarity economy.