Building Better: Online Action for Youth and the Creative and Cultural Sectors Erasmus Project

Project Title

Building Better: Online Action for Youth and the Creative and Cultural Sectors

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 : Partnerships for Creativity

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Creativity and culture; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) has plunged all the countries into an unprecedented crisis, leaving everyone to cope with the new normality. Two of the most impacted fields are the youth field and the cultural and creative sectors(CCS). OECD, Eurofound, European Youth Forum and the Croatian Presidency conducted four surveys regarding the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on youth. The results of the surveys clearly reveal that youth has been more affected by the restrictive measures than other age groups, with adverse changes to their economic and social situation, well-being, and mental health. Surveys report higher levels of depression, loneliness, tension, anxiety, even suicidal thoughts – this negative trend is even more prevalent considering that before the pandemic it was the youth that showed higher results in well-being than the rest of the society.

Regarding the CCS, it is undeniable that they are among the most affected by the current crisis, with jobs at risk ranging from 0.8 to 5.5% of employment across OECD regions. The sudden drop in revenues of mostly venue-based cultural organizations (museums, festivals, art galleries) sets their financial sustainability at risk and has resulted in reduced wage earnings and lay-offs with repercussions for the value chain of both creative and non-creative sectors. Local authorities are in many ways’ custodians of both national and local culture, supporting arts and crafts, maintaining heritage sites, and implementing public celebrations and festivals. However, with the ongoing situation, they were forced to proceed to the sudden cancellation of major cultural events, performing arts, live music, festivals, which had a significant impact on young people’s mental well-being and social life. As a result of cultural cancellations and school being ‘out’ for weeks, young people had to curate their time differently, mostly increasing the time they spend on social media. Essentially, in the Covid-19 era, young people, artists, and cultural and creative sector grassroots organizations are getting ‘culturally blocked’ from having a prominent public platform and participation. Youth organizations, on the other hand, have shown great resilience, adaptability, and creativity in mitigating this crisis by mobilizing young volunteers, providing mental health advice, supporting disadvantaged youth, and other risk groups, and transferring their activities to the online environment. All these efforts have given recognition to the youth work as an important partner in helping society. Nevertheless, according to the international youth work trainers community, there is a great need for more support, cooperation, and creation of networks between local authorities, youth organizations, and creative and cultural sectors’ representatives in order to involve and support young people’s mental wellbeing and enhance their societal resilience, social inclusion, and participation.

Aim
The Building Better project includes youth organizations, organizations active in the field of arts and culture, training institutions, and local authorities in Germany, Cyprus, Italy, and Greece. Its main aim is to reinforce cross-sectoral cooperation with a focus on creativity and cultural awareness and social participation of youth and support youth workers, artists, and policymakers to find creative and innovative solutions to the new challenges that the pandemic has brought and improve the quality of support systems for youth on a local, national and European level.

Target Groups
TG1: Youth workers, youth leaders, facilitators, policymakers, municipal youth workers
TG2: Young people aged 18-30
TG3: CCSs actors, local artists, etc.

Objectives
The project aims to:
-establish networks and new collaboration models between youth workers, local policymakers, and CCS’s actors, stimulating intercultural engagement and participation of young people and the flourishing of their creativity through the Building Better Campaign (IO3) and Portal of Cooperation (IO2)
-foster creativity, culture, and multiculturalism through the Building Better Webinars (IO1) which will include learning tools, resources, and materials
-accelerate the digital transformation of youth work and local municipalities and increase the digital means used to adapt to the way creative products, cultural goods, events are created, managed, and disseminated.

Results and activities:
IO1: Building Better Webinars
IO2: Building Better Online Portal of Cooperation
IO3: Building Better Campaign and Festival
6 Multiplier events with the participation of 180 participants
4 Transnational Project Meetings with the participation of 12 participants
1 Learning and Teaching Activity, the Building Better LTTA with the participation of 12 participants

The expected impact of the Building Better project is to contribute to the exploitation of the creative potential of creativity, culture, and youth field in the post-COVID recovery in the EU.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 181916 Eur

Project Coordinator

JUGEND-& KULTURPROJEKT EV & Country: DE

Project Partners

• SHARING EUROPE
• ANELIXIS BUSINESS AND ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANTS S.A.
• Cyprus Academy of Local Government
• SIMMETECHO
• G.G. EUROSUCCESS CONSULTING LIMITED