Democratic governance depends on YOUth Erasmus Project

Project Title

Democratic governance depends on YOUth

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 : Capacity Building for youth in ACP countries, Latin America and Asia

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

This twelve-month project was promoting democratic youth participation in policy dialogue for better employability which also goes in line with European policies in the fields of education, training and youth. Partner youth organisations and student councils from the UK, Lithuania, Latvia, USA, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan working on the development of youth employability policies researched, exchanged practices, implemented capacity-building activities, and worked closely together on encouraging youth participation in decision-making / governing bodies and ensured understanding of the important processes that go in hand with accessing youth to decision-making by wider networks of youth organisations and young people.Dissemination and follow up stage planning allowed for the emergence of new youth employability initiatives in local / regional / national governments and public sector to represent youth interests.The innovative features of this project were the use of new Erasmus+ opportunities of long-term influence to develop Youth Policy Dialogue between youth organisations and student councils in EU countries (UK, Latvia, and Lithuania) and Partner countries (USA, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan) and implementation of the “youth proofing” practices to influence decision making and policy dialogue for better youth employability. The experienced peer campaigners produced an action plan to encourage young people from a wide spectrum of cultural backgrounds to find out what they can do if they want to take active part in building or maintaining participatory youth employment policies in their country and active youth participation in this process.With this project our partnership used the resources of the established youth organisations and student councils to draft youth policies that introduce liaison practices with employers and inform young people about governmental employment schemes. Youngsters that experience lack of information on future employment possibilities can obtain such information now via info sections within our partner youth organisations and student councils.The project enabled the participants to learn new approaches and methodologies from the professionals in the field, work with young people from other countries, and to share experiences and practice from their particular campaigns. By bringing together participants, facilitators, and organisations from three different continents in itself helped to discover the new and innovative approaches from various perspectives and backgrounds. The facilitators of the project were focused on empowering the project participants to be able to communicate their views effectively to policy and decision makers via workshops involving national politicians and the young people.The project included development of awareness of young people about youth employment policies and the role of participatory peer to peer youth work for employability of young people. Young people had the opportunity of linking with local youth forums and youth action groups doing joint discussions, setting examples of good practice, direct participation in policy dialogue, sharing experiences from different countries, and networking for a common result. This enabled them to experience the concepts and the practice that promoted active youth participation in decision making bodies and produced a booklet “Democratic governance depends on YOUth” and a special project-related website.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 132000 Eur

Project Coordinator

IVOLO LTD & Country: UK

Project Partners

• STUDENT UNION OF ALMATY UNIVERSITY OF POWER ENGINEERING AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS
• GNUSJKA INC
• STUDENTNET
• TRAKU RAJONO SOCIALINIU INICIATYVUKOALICIJA
• PUBLIC FUND CENTRE FOR INNOVATIVE EDUCATION PEREMENA