Active Europeans
Start date: Jan 1, 2016,
End date: Jun 30, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
Youth participation in Europe is generally low, based on the findings of the Flash Barometer Report of 2013. Young people tend tobe inactive when it comes to participation in the civic society, with only a 23% percent of young people being involved as avolunteer, according to statistics on the European Union. It would be of high importance for young people to understand the valueand importance of volunteering, mostly because through being a volunteer, they would develop a sense of active citizenship andinterest in their local communiites.Additionally, there is a lack of sense of European identity among citizens of the European Union. According to the findings of theStandard Eurobarometer 77, the majority of European citizens feel strongly attached to their own countries or their localcommunities, while only 8% of them feel a strong attachement to the European Union.Through the Erasmus+ program and its opportunities, these numbers could be improved, however, in some parts of the EuropeanUnion, especially the Nordic countries and the United KIngdom, there is a lack of interest in the mobilities offered by the program. Itis the experience of the team of InterCollege that even though young people living in Aalborg are generally active in thecommunity, they have a lack of interest when it comes to mobility opportunities and have difficulties to relate to issues of theEuropean Union. Many young people the team members has interacted with have a lack of European identity.It has been proven that taking part in a mobility changes the attitude of the individual towards European issues, as well as motivatesthem to be an active citizen in their local community. Through the mobilites, young people develop a healthy awareness of theirown potential and realize the importance of the action of every individual. Young people returning from mobilities have been moreactive in their communities, and were much likely to volunteer. Statistics show that young people have showed more initative andself-awareness, and have develop a sense of connection to Europe and European Identity after having started volunteering.By interacting with the volunteers of InterCollege, who will be encouraged to meet with the local community in their free time, aswell as be expected to organize local activities aimed at young people, young people will become naturally more interested inmobility possibilities and are expected to be motivated in applying themselves. As the local activities organized by the volunteerswill be within the theme of active citizenship, entreprenourship and European identity, they will act the main tools for theirpromotion.The aim of this project is to promote mobility and to foster volunteersism in Europe through active participation.The aim will be reached through the following objectives:1. Promoting mobility opportunities for young people.2. Promoting positive awareness of the European Union among young people.3. Promoting European identity among young people, both in program and partner countries.4. Promoting active citizenship and volunteerism among young people.The three selected volunteers all have experiences with youth work to some extent, either as a participant of youth mobility or as an organizer of a project activity. They all expressed their interest in gaining experience with project management and intercultural projects. They would also like to engage themselves in the local community, and learn as much about Denmark and Aalborg as possible. All three of the volunteers would like to engage themselves within the youth sector after their EVS and applied to InterCollege in the hopes that they will acquire the necessary skills and competences.All three participants have been working as volunteers before in their free time, therefore, they have experienced the positive outcomes of it, however, they feel that they need to demostrante their dedication even futher. Participating in EVS will give them this opportunity, as they will be involved in full-time voluntarism.It is expected that through interaction with the volunteers and as a result of their dissemination, the numbers of mobilitiesacross Europe will be higher. As a consequence to that, young people over Europe will become more aware of the importance ofbeing an active citizen, the positive effects of volunteering and develop an enhanced level of European identity.