Generation of Peace Erasmus Project

Project Title

Generation of Peace

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Reaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

The current generation of European youth faces a multitude of questions and complex challenges, ranging from increasing nationalism, extremism and hate-crime to growing concerns about climate change and sustainable development. Many young Europeans are perturbed by these developments. They have a desire to understand the causes, explore solutions and take civic action.

This project was designed and implemented by, with and for young people, who want to be part of a generation of youth who do not take peace in Europe for granted but see it as their responsibility and call to actively defend and maintain this peace.

The aim of this project was to foster young people’s active citizenship for peacebuilding and sustainable development. It was aligned to SDG 4.7 and informed, empowered and engaged youth to affect change on the personal, community and policy level.

Objectives were:
1. Personal: To invite participants (pax) to reflect on the attitudes, values and habits needed to create change, first within themselves and consequently in their peer group and broader environment. This includes the development of competences such as critical (self-)enquiry, mindfulness, empathy and compassion.
2. Community: To encourage pax for social participation, advocacy and action. Pax will learn about social and environmental challenges as well as innovative solutions, receive training and a toolkit to collaboratively design and implement local Follow-up actions.
3. Policy: To create an opportunity for pax to articulate their concerns, develop policy recommendations and present them to decision makers.
4. Networking: To provide a platform for community building and exchange amongst youth activists from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. This will nurture an informal learning environment, foster their intercultural understanding and increase their motivation for collective action.

The project had a duration of 9 months. A team of 37 youth volunteers designed, prepared, implemented and evaluated the project collaboratively.

The activities were:
1. Pre-Summit activities: Designed and carried out by National Youth Leaders and local youth in our partner countries. Pax developed activities in line with the aim and objectives of the project to address specific local issues they were concerned about. This approach resulted in a diversity of grassroot initiatives, ranging from activities for refugee integration and working with the homeless to sustainability campaigns like plastic cleanups or the www.trees4peace.eu initiative.
2. The Summit: This was the core of the project. 250 youth from the partner countries enjoyed a comprehensive learning experience which empowered them with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for active citizenship. Three sub-themes were introduced: 1) Peace with the environment (ecological sustainability as a requirement for stability and peace); 2) Peace with others (social participation, advocacy and engagement in society); 3) Peace within (encouraging self-reflection and development of critical self enquiry, mindfulness, empathy and compassion). These themes were explored through talks by experts and practitioners, working groups, creative workshops, peer sharing, etc. Methods followed the principles of experiential learning, were participatory and learner-centered.
The concluding event of the Summit was ‘The Science of Happiness’ panel between pax and experts from the fields of policy, science, media and culture. They discussed the topic of mental health amongst young people in Europe and explored strategies to foster ‘inner peace’, emotional intelligence and resilience to radical ideas. A ‘Statement on Mental Health’ was developed by the youth, which was disseminated to policy and decision makers in the Follow-Up phase.
3. Follow-up activities: Workshops on the No Hate Speech Movement took place in schools in France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and the UK and one refugee shelter in DK, reaching 425 youth between the ages 14 and 18. In addition, 19 more local activities (similar to the Pre-Summit activities) were carried out.

The project involved 568 youth (aged 15 – 30) from 8 partner countries and Germany, regardless of nationality, religion, gender or ability. Support schemes were in place for youth with fewer opportunities. Partner countries were Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK.

A Multimedia Campaign on the digital platforms of the partners disseminated results to a total audience of over 220,000 people. A PR campaign led to 32 on- and offline publications, generating over 800,000 views.

The project impacted pax mainly on a personal level, by fostering their knowledge, skills and attitudes in order to take civic action, promote peace and sustainability. 90.9% of pax stated that the project “motivated me to create change through taking action”. In total, 1300 local community members, policy makers and other stakeholders were reach

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 59875 Eur

Project Coordinator

AYUDH Europe e.V. & Country: DE

Project Partners

• AYUDH Denmark
• AYUDH France
• AYUDH Italy
• AYUDH Spain
• AYUDH UK
• AYUDH Greece
• AYUDH Ireland