FYS-Forums is a cross-field strategic partnership creating a model for school led global citizenship youth forums responding to 4 key EU-wide needs: This will address 4 related school needs linked to key EU policy objectives: Need 1: To better motivate and engage EU youth within education, Need 2: To better develop youth transversal skills and competences in EU youth Need 3: For EU teachers to develop more relevant and inspiring curricula and student centred pedagogies Need 4: To increase EU youth civic engagement and active citizenship The partners in the project are Oxfam GB (coordinator), Oxfam Italy, Juanimo Karjeros Centras, CARDET and the University of Lodz. Partners know global citizenship forums can meet these 4 needs because: - High quality learning opportunities like a youth forum are motivating; a touchstone moment in a young person’s education, engaging in learning and civic life - Global citizenship as a context interests youth, and can inspire social actions locally/globally - Youth forums and global citizenship effectively developing transversal youth leadership skills (e.g. communication) and personal development (e.g. confidence, self esteem) - Both provide valuable opportunities to bring real life issues into the curriculum; successfully supporting youth to understand complex global challenges FYS-Forums will create a sustainable model for forums aimed at younger pupils which embeds work pre and post forum into the formal and informal curriculum of schools. It therefore has 3 objectives: OBJ1: To create an inclusive, sustainable, networked model of EU wide curriculum linked global citizenship youth forums that are delivered by schools for schools OBJ2: To provide teachers and young people with the tools to promote effective and inclusive youth leadership across formal and informal education through global citizenship forums OBJ3: To influence at local, national and EU levels to promote more inclusive and participatory youth led policies and opportunities within EU education systems. The project will create 6 intellectual outputs to achieve this 1. An EU needs analysis 2. A forum planning toolkit 3. A teachers curriculum toolkit 4. A youth leadership training module 5. A pan-EU online forum web portal 6. An academic report with policy recommendations Outputs will be created working with 4 hub and 8 trial schools across 5 countries, ensuring IOs are relevant and transversal, and initiating an EU network. There will be a focus on engaging schools with higher than national average proportions of at risk pupils and to support such pupils to engage in the model inclusively. They will engage 3 target groups: Group 1: Youth (11-18) and teachers in our project hub/trial schools (engaging higher proportion of at risk pupils than national average).They will trial the tools. Group 2: Youth and teachers in other lower secondary schools in partner countries and EU-wide, to whom we will disseminate the tools. Group 3: Education stakeholders at local, national and EU level (e.g. policy makers, professional bodies etc), who we will aim to influence. Delivering the above will ensure we meet the 4 needs identified above, and therefore meet the project goal; small scale global citizenship youth forums in school education drive increased motivation, participation and skills development equitably within education and civic life for young people aged 11-18 across the EU. The project will also conduct continuous and comprehensive communication and dissemination activities, and host 1 transnational youth policy forum multiplier event, and 5 national multiplier events. Together the outputs and dissemination will lead to direct impacts on 28,800 youth, over 300 teachers and 50 key education stakeholders during the life of the project. More importantly the high quality outputs will lead to the take-up of a sustainable and inclusive global citizenship youth forum model with significant multiplication impacts across EU schools. Partners will also integrate the model into their own educational offers. More broadly, FYS-Forums will contribute to sustainable shifts in the institutional practice and mindset of EU education systems to better promote genuine youth participation and leadership through formal and informal education in school.