ParticipArt for Urban Youth Erasmus Project

Project Title

ParticipArt for Urban 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 : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; Reaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers

Project Summary

Traditional urban transformation processes are expert-driven, with citizens left out of the loop by long reports, photoshopped images or technical maps. Such processes are a barrier to engaging citizens in planning. In response, today’s urban planners are increasingly using novel participatory approaches in order to engage the knowledge & power of citizens, who know their neighbourhoods and their needs best. The result is not only empowered citizens, but also better urban projects that serve the people who actually live, work and play in these urban spaces.

Despite increased attention to participatory urban processes, youth are often marginalised – particularly vulnerable youth with a low education, living in poverty or from a minority cultural background. This is partly because urban professionals often overlook youth when reaching out to citizens, focusing on more established ‘players’ like heads of neighbourhood associations, local business owners or staff from social agencies. In addition, for many youth the structure and content of participatory processes can be intimidating, due to a range of factors like overly-formal processes, language gaps, cultural differences, highly-politicized atmospheres and methods that are not adapted to the interests & skills of youth. The result is that the voices of youth are often not heard in urban transformation projects. This is a major gap, as youth use urban spaces as much as other citizens (and sometimes more, due to reduced access to private transportation) and therefore deserve an equal opportunity to have a say in the co-creation and transformation of their urban spaces.

ParticipArt for Urban Youth intends to bridge this gap by experimenting with innovative adaptation of participation arts-based techniques. During 20 months, 3 organizations – Home of Participation (HoP) based in Rotterdam, INCA Catalunya based in Barcelona and ProProgressione based in Budapest – will develop and test new culture-fueled participatory methodologies that engage youth, particularly those with fewer opportunities, in urban transformation processes.

ParticipArt for Urban Youth is a laboratory for the development of innovative culture-fueled participatory methodologies that engage youth, particularly those with fewer opportunities, in the planning of our urban spaces. The result of our action-based research will be the development of a Participatory Arts Toolbox for Urban Youth. That is a set of artistic tools for focused on sharing methods and developing an expanded coalition of partners to jointly chart a way forward for sustainable action. That’s about creative youth collaboration in establishing a vision, generating ideas and communicating results through participatory arts. Our team represents north, south and east Europe, allowing us to develop & test our methodologies in a diversity of urban and cultural situations and then share the results widely through our European networks.

Whether you are a youth worker or a youth leader that works with marginalized youth, a youth NGO, an urban planner, an artist or a local municipality, you will benefit from our toolboxes. Follow us on www.participartforurbanyouth.eu and subscribe our newsletter to be always updated!

With our tools and your contribution, marginalised young people find their voice in urban transformation processes & are empowered to act and contribute to initiatives that improve their neighbourhood!

Project Website

http://urbanparticipart.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 57887 Eur

Project Coordinator

Stichting Home of Participation & Country: NL

Project Partners

• ASSOCIACIO DE XARXA INCA CATALUNYA – INTERNATIONAL NETWORK FOR CULTURE AND ARTS IN CATALUNYA
• PRO PROGRESSIONE KULTURALIS NONPROFIT KOZHASZNU KFT