Educate. Cultivate. Participate. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Educate. Cultivate. Participate.

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Reaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers; Environment and climate change; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

The project “Educate. Cultivate. Participate.” (ECP) was an 8-month project run by, with and for young Europeans. The idea arose from the concerns that AYUDH members expressed about issues such as migration, extremism and climate change, as well as fundamental questions about what it means to be European and how change can be brought about through personal and collective action. In response, this project was developed in collaboration with members from all 12 partners.
The aim of the project was to promote youth engagement in and pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals, specifically by fostering their active citizenship and a culture of caring for community and planet.
The objectives were:
1) To develop the confidence and competence needed to contribute to a culture of peace and nonviolence, which is based on self-transformation, mindful interactions, civic engagement and community service.
2) To provide a framework through which we can experience, practice and promote sustainable lifestyles.
3) To reflect upon and take ownership over our roles and responsibilities as European and global citizens.

The project was coordinated by M.A. Center Germany – Seminarzentrum Hof Herrenberg e.V., which worked with informal groups of young people from Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK. All partners are part of AYUDH, a European youth network dedicated to empowering young people to contribute to a peaceful and sustainable world while becoming compassionate leaders with a sense of tolerance, solidarity and global responsibility.

Additional stakeholders and partners involved in the project were UNESCO, the No Hate Speech Movement, The European Network on Teacher Education, RORG (Network of NGOs working on Development Education) and Embracing the World.

Over the course of the project, partner groups implemented 27 local activities which actively involved 121 youth and affected an estimated 1900 European citizens directly or indirectly. These diverse activities were aligned to the aims and objectives of the project and ranged from installing bee-hives with refugees in Austria, caring for homeless people in Ireland, Italy, Spain and France to planting trees in France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Spain, just to name a few.

The main activity of the project was a weeklong youth Summit at M.A. Center Germany in Brombachtal. The Summit provided a unique platform for personal development, intercultural dialogue and creative expression through a combination of inspirational and motivational talks from guest speakers, workshops that fostered personal, environmental and global responsibilities, and practical training in leadership, change-making, mindfulness and sustainability.
A core element of the Summit were the Working Groups, during which participants were guided by an expert and several youth co-facilitators to explore the topics ‘peaceful and nonviolent societies’, ‘sustainable lifestyles’ or ‘European and global citizenship’. Participants reflected and discussed how change can be brought about on the personal, community and policy levels. Results included plans for Follow-Up projects in each field: A project to facilitate mindfulness workshops in schools, create a platform for neighbourhood food-exchange and create video tutorials for youth participation in politics. Participants are in the process of assessing and planning the implementation of these projects.

The concluding event of the Summit was iTAGe (Talking Across Generations on education), a panel discussion between Summit participants and policy makers on the role of education to foster active citizenship in young people. iTAGe is a format that was developed by and implemented in partnership with UNESCO MGIEP. At the event, participants presented the ‘Statement on Education’, which they had developed over the course of the Summit. It contains concrete recommendations and a call to action. Since the Summit, the statement has been disseminated to a number of policy makers within Europe and also at an international level.

A comprehensive Multimedia Campaign disseminated results and updates during all stages of the project to a total audience of over 780,000 people. An 84-page magazine with articles written by and for youth has been printed and disseminated to 800 people across Europe.

The project impacted the partner groups by developing their leadership base and competence. The partners have since developed and submitted an application for a new Transnational Youth Initiative entitled “Generation of Peace”. This project builds upon the expertise, results and lessons learnt during ECP.

Primarily, the project impacted participants on a personal level, by fostering their knowledge, skills and attitudes in order to take civic action, promoting peace, nonviolence and sustainability.

“I learned more during this one week, than the whole last year of school” – participant.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 38100 Eur

Project Coordinator

M.A. Center Germany Seminarzentrum Hof Herrenberg e.V. & Country: DE

Project Partners

• AYUDH Ireland
• AYUDH Netherlands
• AYUDH Denmark
• AYUDH Italy
• AYUDH France
• AYUDH Finland
• AYUDH Austria