Take Over Days for Young People In Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Take Over Days for Young People In Europe

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND
Many young people feel remote from their communities, civil institutions and policies that affect their daily and future lives. 26+ million of the 90 million YP aged 15-29 in the EU, are at risk of poverty and social exclusion when rated on the AROPE scale. This project addressed the needs reported by YP that were consulted in preparing the project application and throughout the project. About 70% of the project’s target group of young people were from backgrounds with fewer opportunities and many lacked confidence and key skills. The project developed new tools and informal learning materials to provide inspiration and practical activities for youth workers, related practitioners and young people themselves, to help motivate young people to engage in active citizenship, the wider society and the world of work. Led by Wandsworth Council, UK, partners from NGO and school sectors in IT, ES and RO successfully introduced the concept of the Takeover Day to their countries as an informal learning and engagement tool to promote youth engagement, active citizenship, empowerment and build bridges to employers.

OBJECTIVES
The project created an engagement and participation toolkit co-designed with young people (YP) and youth workers to create ‘Takeover Days’ are events where YP ‘take over’ a service/function in a public institution or private enterprise for one day. Their is to engage young people and give them a practical opportunity to experience high-level decision-making in a real work environment and to raise their awareness of the role of public and private enterprise in EU democracy.
PARTICIPANT PROFILE
The 126 young people taking part were aged 16-24, 70% had fewer opportunities or special needs.Their backgrounds included:
• Migrants and BAME
• Deprived inner city areas
• Isolated rural areas
• Learning disabilities/mental health problems
• Poverty
• In care & care leavers

ACTIVITIES
As the UK was the only partner with experience of Takeover Days, it provided an initial model for partners to explore. The project’s needs analysis researched and mapped activities promoting youth empowerment and participation in each partner country to inform the development of the Toolkit. Participatory workshops were also held with young people to inform the needs analysis and development of the intellectual outputs. Based on this information, partners created a ‘Takeover Day Toolkit’ in two parts: 1) an online Guide to creating a Takeover Day (IO1) and 2) a set of supporting skills activities (IO2). These were discussed and tested at the project’s transnational camp – (5 x days of indoor/outdoor informal workshops) and virtual mobility. Following this, the toolkit was tested by partners through a programme of workshops and Takeover Days with a range of public institutions including museums, schools and local authority services. In addition to these, private enterprises were also added to the programme as many young people, particularly in RO, expressed an interest in exploring these environments. The toolkit and other materials are freely available on the project website.

The project was affected in its last months by the Covid 19 crisis. This meant that not all the planned Takeover Days and workshops could be carried out – although each partner was able to carry out at least two before the lockdown. Two multiplier events took place online – in RO and IT – and the final TPM was also held online.

RESULTS AND IMPACT
• 126 young people and 28 youthworkers took part in the project, including 39 YP and 8 youthworkers in the international mobility
• 11 institutions/employers hosted a Takeover Day
• Online Toolkit consisting of a Guide to creating a Takeover Day with 40+ supporting skills activities translated into partner languages.
• An audience of 11500+ was reached via publicity on partners’ websites, newsletters and the project’s social media.
• Young people improved: their self-confidence, leadership and communications skills; their understanding of the institutions/enterprises they ‘took over’ and knowledge of Erasmus+ and the EU.
• Youthworkers have fresh engagement tools and and improved knowledge of E+
• Partners strengthened their widening participation strategies
• LOCAL authorities, policy makers and other stakeholders have access ro fresh tools to promote youth participation, contributing to social and economic cohesion.
TRANSNATIONAL The toolkit and case studies are available freely over the Internet for 3+ years; the toolkit has been adopted by partners and the concept is already being transferred to other countries: e.g. a KA2 VET application is being prepared by XANO and WCLL to transfer the Takeover concept to Portugal, Netherlands and Lithuania; the Ministry of Work in Peru has expressed interest in the concept following presentations of the project to meetings at the ministry and regional governments by XANO in its advisory role to the government on youth participation.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 189658,17 Eur

Project Coordinator

COUNCIL OF THE LONDON BOROUGH OF WANDSWORTH & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Fundatia Centrul Educational Spektrum
• Xano Channel asociación para el desarrollo comunitario
• Petit Pas