Democratic Innovations in Youth Work Erasmus Project

Project Title

Democratic Innovations in Youth Work

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

All across Europe, current democratic institutions and their design are challenged by various phenomena, e.g. radical right-wing populists in power, rising distrust of citizens, fake news, general decline in involvement in electoral politics, but also digitalisation or ad hoc social movements. Young people are especially concerned as many of them grow up in a fully digitalised world, get politically engaged beyond institutions or are the target of manipulation and disinformation. Against this background, the future of democracies in Europe and the role young people play in it, is the overarching topic in DIYW (Democratic Innovations in Youth Work) project. More specifically it is about how democracies could function in the future and which capacities do young people need to participate in shaping this future. Developing new extra-electoral mechanisms and high standards for democratic participatory processes seem to be the best way to respond credibly to the demand of citizens, especially youth, to be more regularly involved in public decision-making. More inclusive and deliberative ways of decision-making are particularly needed to avoid the bubbles of social networks and populist instrumentalization of social divides. Whereas various innovations to democratize contemporary democracies have been imagined, designed, tested and even institutionalised on different levels of decision-making (e.g. citizens assemblies, participatory budgeting, deliberative polls etc.), these Democratic Innovations (DIs) still do not play a role in youth work and non-formal education today.

The DIYW project aims at tackling the issue of democratic disenchantment and erosion, at reviving youth engagement and participation in democratic life by developing, testing and disseminating didactic materials that support youth workers, facilitators and trainers in democratic education as well as school teachers to introduce to young people the subject of Democratic Innovations with the use of interactive non-formal education methods. The project also aims at supporting young people in becoming more active, critical and directly involved citizens by developing their democratic skills and encouraging critical thinking of youth towards their involvement in decision-making processes, digital and direct democracy as well as the risks of populist instrumentalization.

Our Strategic Partnership is initiated by 4 civil society organizations and social businesses – Citizens For Europe (DE), DeGeDE (German Society for Democratic Education – DE), Catalan Association of Youth Policies Professionals (SP) and Center for Citizenship Education (PL). DIYW brings together youth workers, teachers, civil society actors, young people as well as experts in democratic innovations and in video-making. Together, they will co-produce:
– “Videos for Democracy”, a series of 9 educational short-documentaries showcasing DIs (e.g citizens assemblies, e-petitions, participatory budgeting, deliberative polls, citizens juries, etc) and inspiring stories of people who participated in their design and implementation;
– A Didactic Guide explainining how to introduce the topic of DIs in youth work with the use of the didactic videos and non-formal education methods;
– A “Train the Democracy trainer” – methodological training course to provide youth workers and school teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge to introduce the topic of DIs in their work, with the use of non-formal education methods.

All the collaboratively developed outputs will be based on thorough desk and field research and consequently tested in a real work environment by young people, youth workers and teachers. For effective dissemination they will be available in 5 different languages (English, German, Polish, Spanish and Catalan) on and freely accessed through a multimedia interactive online platform.

During the research and production phases, the project will directly reach about 80 young people and 60 youth workers. During the final conferences (1 per partner country) the project results will be presented to 240 youth workers, teachers, public and private youth institutions and youth organisations. At the European level, partners will also disseminate the project results among youth workers federations and networks of youth organisations. This way, the introduction of the topic of DIs in youth work and non-formal education will contribute to increasing the awareness of young people of already existing opportunities that DIs bring not only for their own extra-electoral engagement in the democratic life but in general for a more participative and inclusive society.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 373269 Eur

Project Coordinator

CITIZENS FOR EUROPE GEMEINNUTZIGE UG HAFTUNGSBESCHRANKT & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Associació Catalana de Professionals de les Polítiques de Joventut
• FUNDACJA CENTRUM EDUKACJI OBYWATELSKIEJ
• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Demokratiepädagogik e.V.