Empowering for Critical Citizenship Erasmus Project

Project Title

Empowering for Critical Citizenship

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 2016

Project Topics

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

Project Summary

Many young people feel that they lack the tools or capacities to claim a voice in political and public debate and that they cannot affect the actions of the power-holders. At the same time, young people are often at the forefront of movements that try to shift the public debate, set the political agenda and push for change.

Our project aimed to enhance critical citizenship among young people and youth workers. Critical citizenship is about the ability of people to intervene in social and political structures and bring about democratic change.
We focused on young people as critical citizens in their role of change-maker and aimed to help young people and youth workers develop the capacities to bring about changes in the existing structures in a democratic way. We brought together trainers and youth workers and supported them to connect, share ideas, learn and commonly develop tools and trainings. We helped to broaden and deepen political and social participation of young people.
To achieve this we
– strengthened the capacities in our trainers’ collectives to deliver high quality and inclusive training for youth workers and young people
– promoted the importance of critical citizenship and spread skills for social change in groups of young people and youth workers through participative training and workshops
– shared the tools, methods and training materials we developed and tested with youth workers and trainers on a wider European level.

For this project, three organisations joined forces: Stroomversnellers (Netherlands), London Roots Collective (UK) and Vredesactie (Belgium). The three organisations all support a group of trainers, mostly volunteers, that deliver training and support to groups that work for democratic change. The partner organisations share a common approach and goals – our workshops and trainings aim to strengthen active citizenship – but brought different backgrounds and experiences into the project.

Central in our project was exchange of good practices and cooperation on the development of tools and training materials.
The process was based on the concrete needs and questions, the methods we used were adapted accordingly:
– we discussed and exchanged during on-line meetings
– we shared materials on a digital platform
– we developed materials in face-to-face meetings
– we exchanged experiences and mutually supported each other in e-mail conversations.
The goals here were to make our trainers’ collectives stronger and bring in more trainers, so we can deliver more high quality trainings and workshops to youth workers and young people.

To further the goal of capacity building, we organised two five-day learning events, the first, ‘Dealing with diversity and conflict’, in London and the second, ‘Strategies for change, in Brussels, where we connected with other trainers and youth workers. For each learning activity we invited trainers and youth workers from outside the partner organisations. They brought in other perspectives, tools and experiences. Also, their participation created meaningful ways to share our approaches and results of the project beyond our trainers’ groups.

Throughout the project we reached out to youth groups for whom training and education on critical citizenship has been unavailable and the youth workers that work with them. Most of these trainings were on demand and tailor-made. The common thread in these trainings is critical citizenship and democratic change: we help young people and youth workers develop the capacities to bring about changes in the existing structures in a democratic way. The specific content and focus of trainings can vary, depending on the characteristics of the group, the issues they work on, the specific questions and expectations they have,…

This project helped us strengthen our trainers’ collectives and our training capacities. We offered training and workshops on critical citizenship and democratic change. Throughout the project about 800 young people and youth workers participated in our trainings and workshops. From their feedback and evaluations, we learn that their organisations are empowered by our trainings and better equipped to work for democratic change.

Throughout the project, we reached out to other trainers’ collectives (across borders) and to youth workers and youth organisations. We established new links and reinforced existing ones. This makes future cooperation and exchange across borders easier and more likely. At the same time, we enhanced our visibility among organisations of young people and youth workers, resulting in more requests for trainings and workshops. The tools we developed and the capacities we build will be further shared, tested and adapted, to further enhance the trainings that we, and the other trainers’ collectives and youth workers that took part in our activities, offer.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 55700 Eur

Project Coordinator

Vredesactie vzw & Country: BE

Project Partners

• Stichting Stroomversnellers
• London Roots Collective Ltd