Research, training and Practice: building bridges around youth participation Erasmus Project

Project Title

Research, training and Practice: building bridges around youth participation

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 higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Social entrepreneurship / social innovation; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

Since 2018, the Partibridges project has been addressing the issue of youth participation in Europe through the exchange of knowledge among multiple actors. This project was led by the French School of Public Health (EHESP), in partnership with nine French, English, Portuguese and Turkish universities and associations.

Historically, three of the universities conducted the Partispace Horizon 2020 research between 2015 and 2018 on the participation styles and spaces of 15-30 year olds in 8 European cities. The results show that participation is to be understood in a broad and evolving sense. It is mobilised by young people mainly to develop skills, to become part of a group, to be able to act on their environnent and to find a place in society. The need to support learning spaces and participatory practices of young people in their diversity is tangible. There is also a growing interest among students for active pedagogies and the need to interact with field actors to complement theoretical approaches.

The objective of Partibridges is therefore to establish a cooperation between higher education, youth actors and young people, especially those who are far away from the education systems. The aim is to feed existing educational resources while promoting different knowledge, forms and spaces of participation. It is aimed at anyone interested in participation and youth issues, and particularly at youth workers, academics, associations, public decision-makers and young people (students and non-students).

Each production was co-constructed by associations and universities, involving young people at each stage, using active and participatory methodologies: The first production consists of face-to-face training courses offered to both students and young people who are far from the training circuits. These modules were then transformed into a European e-training on youth participation. It consists of one unit per country to integrate local contexts. The second output is the experimentation of collaborative research projects, reclassified as participatory action research (PAR), in each country. These experiments resulted in the production of a web documentary to show the PAR process in an accessible form to wide public. A methodological guide was also produced to facilitate future similar experiments (points of vigilance, ethical advices, etc.).

We carried out learning activities to achieve our objectives, to increase the transversal knowledge and skills of each person and to encourage the exchange of European practices: During the first week we were trained to design production 1 (face-to-face and online training modules) as well as production 2 (participatory action research). The second week (online) focused on the main theme of implementing participatory projects with young people in times of pandemic. As the Covid19 pandemic had impacted the process halfway through the project, this theme allowed us to train ourselves to ensure the continuity of our activities. The third week (online) was dedicated to the specificities social and cultural diversity and the intercultural approach in youth work. This week focused on the sustainability of the project’s methodologies, to allow the members of the consortium to continue their engagement to promote the multiplicity of young people’s initiatives in Europe.

In order to promote our intellectual productions, 3 dissemination events were organised: a virtual event at the European level, targeting a large audience, and two face-to-face events at the local level in Rennes (France) and Eskisehir (Turkey), targeting a local audience. These events allowed us to increase the visibility of our productions, and to disseminate to a large audience the collaborative and co-constructive methodologies that we used and transferable to their activities.

A real exchange of skills and knowledge between the different actors of the 4 countries was allowed by the length and nature of the project. This strong cooperation will continue to exist at the end of Partibridges. The productions are attractive and innovative resources, with free access. They promote the collaborative approach as a pedagogical tool to support the participation of young people and transform the training offer to match better students’ and professionals’ needs. Thus, Partibridges has helped to develop skills to support participation processes, both for its members and for a wider public.

Project Website

https://partibridges.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 373161,34 Eur

Project Coordinator

ECOLE DES HAUTES ETUDES EN SANTE PUBLIQUE & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Tepebasi Belediyesi 19 Mayis Genclik Merkezi
• GPAS Bretagne
• ALA-ALA Associação de Pesca Artesanal, Local e Costeira e de Apoio Social aos Pescadores
• Eksi 25 Dernegi
• Genclik Haklari Dernegi/ Association For Youth Rights
• THE MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY
• Keur Eskemm