Schools for Future Youth (SFYOUTH) is a cross-field strategic partnership to develop methods and support for improved youth participation in European school education. This proposal is a response to the need across the EU to increase educational attainment and active civic participation by European youth. It will support EU schools to meet this need by increasing their capacity to use youth participation through global citizenship. SFYOUTH is delivered by 5 organisations who run support programmes for teachers and schools to use youth participation and global citizenship. They are Oxfam GB (UK), Oxfam Italia (Italy), PAH (Poland), CARDET (Cyprus) and the Institute of Education (UK). It is based on the partners experience that when delivered effectively, these approaches help schools by: - Creating more engaging curriculum and using learner centred pedagogies: using real life global issues to inspire, and informal youth/adult methods to inform pedagogy, e.g. Future Workshops - Engaging and motivating youth: global issues interest youth (e.g. Think Global/MORI 2008), and being active change agents motivates youth - Developing transversal skills and competencies: YPGC supports skills (e.g. critical thinking, communication) and personal development (e.g. confidence, self esteem) - Increasing civic engagement: YPGC inspires youth actions for social justice locally and globally, and supports peer leadership The project methodology is to use the current experience of partners promoting two programmes in particular: Future Workshops (by Oxfam Italy) and Youth Ambassadors (by Oxfam GB). The project will widen and deepen youth participation through global citizenship by supporting teachers to apply these informal youth methodologies to core parts of the formal curriculum. It will also support youth to apply these methodologies more effectively by themselves in informal and formal education. It will also support school systems to better recognise and support teachers and young people to do this. Therefore the project objectives are: OBJ1: To develop innovative support for European teachers to use these approaches effectively through their core teaching OBJ2: To develop innovative support for European youth to use these approaches to support social actions through their formal and informal education OBJ3: To influence school systems across Europe to increase opportunities for teachers and young people to use these approaches in school To achieve this, SFYOUTH will work with 4 hub schools in the UK, Italy, Poland and Cyprus to develop 6 high quality intellectual outputs that are innovative and relevant for target audiences in project countries and across the EU. These include innovative online support tools for teachers and youth to use these approaches, an online sharing portal, and academic reports and policy recommendations into their effectiveness at improving educational outcomes and civic participation. The resulting outcomes will be - Teachers using these approaches for new and engaging curriculum and pedagogical methods - Young people using better quality processes for youth engagement in school, inspiring greater motivation and interest in civic participation - Increased sharing of these approaches by and young people online - Increased motivation to embed these approaches by key stakeholders in the school system, including education ministries - Increased confidence of project staff to support teachers and young people using these approaches in new ways This will lead to the following direct impacts with 176 teachers and 4400 youth: - Improvements in teachers practice, youth motivation, transversal skills and civic engagement in project schools - Increased sharing of these approaches by staff/teachers/young people in project schools - Improved scale of support for YPGC offered by our partner organizations Through our dissemination activities, this will also lead to the following indirect impacts with 10,000 teachers and 250,000 youth: - Greater use of YPGC by schools, and subsequent improvements in teachers practice, youth motivation, transversal skills and civic engagement across the EU - Greater support for YPGC across the school system in our own countries and across the EU - Wider use of these approaches in these and other fields across the EU The project will improve in the capacity of the applicants to support schools with such approaches, achieving educational improvements and improved civic participation. They will be integrated into their ongoing work programmes. Additionally, the open, online outputs will be made available to a wide range of organisations across the EU to embed and use. Furthermore, through working with hub schools locally and creating a shared online network, the project expects schools networks to use and adopt these methods themselves across the EU, leading to high levels of sustainability post project.