GENERATION Z. BE READY. Erasmus Project

Project Title

GENERATION Z. BE READY.

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; Access for disadvantaged

Project Summary

Our project aims to increase the capacity of youth organizations and the quality of non-formal education in their work with young people from September 2018 to September 2019. Project’s purpose is to provide support to youth workers in Latvia and Lithuania by exchanging experience and effective non-formal education methods and developing a “toolbox” for 60 activities (90 minutes each) in Latvian, Lithuanian and Russian for 14-16 year-olds.The tool kit consist of board games, various types of videos, presentations, role-plays, handicraft and other NFE (non-formal education) methods that helps youth workers to work with young people with maximum quality while spending minimal time on preparation.The project’s name “GENERATION Z. BE READY.” reflects the idea of helping youth workers to be fully prepared to work with young people of today. We do not want to write long-term methodological instructions, but we offer youth workers the tools that are most ready for use.Developed activities are focused on multilateral youth development, which leads to their social inclusion and reduce the risk of exclusion. We developed interactive and useful methods for working with young people, as this helps to more successfully involve young people from risk groups in NFE activities.Statistics show that only 4.4% (1) young people aged 15-29 in Latvia and 6.5% (1) engage in non-formal education activities in Lithuania. That is below the EU average of 11.4% (1). One of the main reasons for the low involvement of young people is the lack of quality of non-formal education (NFE) and lack of implementation capacity.The key factors that hinder effective youth work are:• Lack of youth workers• Lack of involvement of youth organizations in the lives of youth – Only 6% (2) of young people mention youth workers as valuable help in their search for help in areas of education, leisure, employment and other issues related to youth• Lack of NFE methods for youth workersThe insufficient quality of NFE and its lack of implementation capacity causes the following problems:• Low level of youth initiative and involvement – only 60% of young people participate in interest groups and only 33% are involved in youth organizations (2)• Lack of youth competences• High risk of poverty and social exclusion among young people – 39% in Latvia and 31% in Lithuania (4) and one of the highest in the EU, with an average of 28% (4).Within the framework of the project the following steps were accomplished:1. explored how young people better perceive information and what topics they are most interested in2. according to the research results, “toolbox” for the interactive activities preparation3. summarized results and “toolbox” itself were successfully shared with other youth organizations in Latvia, Lithuania and Russian-speaking in other EU countries.In this project were involved 413 teens that went through questionnaires about their interests and in what way they want to learn and receive new information. Also 79 participants and volunteers were involved in making this “toolbox” modern and useful to other youth workers.As a result all partners got a unique experience working on international project, and also expanded their working methods with young people. Thanks to the exchange of good practice, organisations have increased both the quality of youth work and the range of methods. Participants had the opportunity to engage in the development and evaluation of new methods, thus educating themselves and increasing professionalism that youth workers. Participants had the opportunity to engage in the development and evaluation of new methods, thus educating themselves and increasing professionalism of youth workers.Youth participants were able to take an important part in new NFE methods development. That result all partners got unique experience of participation in international project, Thanks to the exchange of good practice, organisations have increased both the quality of working with young people and the range of methods. Participants had the opportunity to engage in the development and evaluation of new methods, thus educating themselves and increasing professionalism of youth workers. Project result: 1.The level of initiative and involvement of youth has increased 2.Have increased the competences of young people 3.The risk of poverty and social exclusion has decreased

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 18898,21 Eur

Project Coordinator

KEFA, Biedriba & Country: LV

Project Partners

• Biedriba Cela Mekletaji
• SEIMOS CENTRAS “KARTU SALDU”