YOUTH ACTUALLY
Start date: Aug 1, 2016,
End date: Mar 31, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
The Youth Actually Project or "youth in today's world" departs from the common concern that Youth workers have today in Europe, seeing that our young people do not know how to adapt to the changing society, to new migration flows, the hate speeches towards the immigrants, Islamophobia, etc. What is our role in all this? What do we do? In which direction we have to develop as professionals to get young people fit peacefully and positively to these changes? What are the skills we need? With this seminar we aim to answer all these questions.In October, during six days of work in Lorca, Spain, we will share space with 29 youth workers from 14 different countries (Spain, France, Portugal, Turkey, Macedonia, Jordan, Morocco, Germany, Latvia, Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Romania) where we will discuss different aspects of our youth work to achieve the following:1. Understand and share the challenges that youth workers face when working with young people, addressing issues of tolerance and inclusion, taking into account the reality of rejection and hate speech around them and find ways to overcome these challenges.2. Determine the skills required to build intercultural and interreligious dialogue between young peopleOn what we will focus exactly?To explore different local realities and situations connected with immigrants and refugees and their perception in local communities, especially in youth environmentsTo define what are the skills needed to build an intercultural dialogue, mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence among Young peopleTo define the role and tools of youth workers (leaders, technicians, educators) in the process of development of skills by young peopleTo provide a forum for exchange of good practices, so that participants can learn from each other on what is already being done in this areaTo create an action plan to raise awareness at the local level among young people from our communities and develop skills previously definedTo create a professional development plan for youth workers and professionals of youth to be able to support young people in this processThrough a program of work, tailored to the needs of participants and according to the expectations of the partners, we will create a workflow following the principle of non-formal education (participatory dynamics, individual reflections, group work, sharing best practices, developing tools, etc.) to create beneficial results for youth workers and professionals at European level: Compilation of best practices that work in prevention and education on issues related to the seminar; A document-depth reflection on the role of youth workers on the issues of the seminar, and a series of recommendations on the skills that youth workers need while working on these issues and recommendations on how to develop them. Finally, we present an overview of the situation of youth in Europe (in the 14 countries attending the seminar), the challenges they face, their attitudes, knowledge, skills they use with the newcomers in Europe and to other ethnic minorities and other religions.With this seminar we want to meet the real needs of youth workers, youth professionals, youth leaders from Europe today, observing their youngsters how are they responding to a reality subject to constant change and do not know exactly what they can do. In this way, the impact goes far beyond the seminar, as everyone who wants to use these results as a basis for their work with young people and develop their professional skills.Moreover, we look forward for new common ideas that will come true as new projects within the Erasmus + Program, as well as concrete activities and actions in our environments at the local level.And finally, we hope that the ultimate beneficiaries of this project, young people, not only in the 14 participating countries, but also in other European countries, will learn to appreciate differences, to promote peaceful coliving, to exercise good treatment and fight against hate speech which is present in their environments.This is a long term impact, since the youngsters will be beneffiting from the knowledge and tools shared and developped during the seminar and will become multipliers of this knowledge.We will measure the impact of the seminar with specific indicators, as well as dissemination and visibility, a common responsibility among all the partners of the Project. The impact will be presented in the final report of the project.