YOU-TOPIA Erasmus Project

Project Title

YOU-TOPIA

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 Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Creativity and culture; Research and innovation

Project Summary

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT:Our project You-Topia was started with the objective of bringing young people from many parts of Europe together and at the same time making them think about the future they want to live in: “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” (assigned to Abraham
Lincoln). We decided on this huge topic because it has utmost relevance for our future. With every day the project gained more relevance and the topic itself more media attention. “Fridays for Future” is just one catchy phrase to be mentioned in this context which arouses the students’ interest and attention enormously. Additionally, many institutions organised events and presentations exactly on the issues we dealt with (environment, digitalization and alike).

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT:
Our initial idea to start this project took shape in our six FOCUS AREAS we chose to work on:
(1) communication
(2) work/education
(3) energy/environment combining those elements in a model of a
(4) smart community/city adding elements of
(5) smart life and thus reaching our ideal
(6) smart world.
Back in 2016 signs of a European Union being threatened from falling apart (referendum in the UK, etc.) and also a significant menace by climate change and the chances and risks coming along with digitalisation were visible. Those were key issues forming the context for this project.
Students were made sensitive towards taking up responsibility and also taking action for their own future, according to Abraham Lincoln’s words: “The best way to predict your future is to create it.”

OBJECTIVES
We wanted to raise students’ attention and bring them into action to form a future worth living for. We followed the principle “Small changes, big impact.”
They were invited to follow the media more attentively as well as the offers made by many organisations in this area (e.g. Green City, Oekonom, offers by universities). Next to just following the news we wanted them to take action by founding Eco-Groups at the participating schools, thus disseminating the results of the project work within You-Topia.
Apart from working on the issues themselves, another major goal was to connect young people all over Europe in order to fight stereotypes but also to learn collaboration in an intercultural context which will most certainly be helpful for their future. English being the working language would also be of significance for their private and professional lives. We also included Sign Language (see tutorials on our website) and thus promoted this interesting and different way of communication.

PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS
By focussing on seven schools from different parts of Europe we were given the opportunity to look into different kinds of culture and their ways of addressing an issue. Next to regional differences we also wanted to bring together students from different social backgrounds (students of “elite schools” – students with special needs).

MAIN ACTIVITIES
The main activities were

intercultural workshops when meeting at LTAs focussing on the FOCUS AREAS mentioned above

creating eMagazines,

writing and performing theatrical plays under surveillance of a deaf actor,

doing creative writing sessions, creating models (of a smart future city and barrier-free architecture),

visiting places of interest (e.g. Verba Voice showing how communication for deaf people can be fostered all around the world, the interactive museum Cool Planet focussing on climate change, an eco-farm and eco-resort showing sustainable ways of farming and tourism)

doing experiments in professional laboratories (examining the quality of water at the University of Riga)

doing workshops (e.g. tracing one’s ecological footprint, doing simulations on sustainable economics)

making short videos at local schools focussing on the relevant FOCUS AREAS (preparatory work for the upcoming LTAs) and – depending on the FOCUS AREAS – creating presentations and posters showing the content at surveillance

RESULTS/IMPACT
All the results (as far as copyright issues allowed) were uploaded on the website www.you-topia.eu.

We compiled “Our Charter of the Future” which we handed over to persons of interest at our last meeting in Brussels. Due to the election to the EP shortly before our meeting, we could not get hold of a politician. However, we got in touch with one of our MEP here in Munich who shows interest in the Charter and our project.

A photo competition entitled “Beauty in Nature”:
Students were invited to hand in pictures and captions for a photo exhibition and competition conducted during our LTA in Martano expressing what “Beauty in Nature” means to them.

We created a Smart World of You-Topia board game compiling aspects of and insights in all FOCUS AREAS.

We could compile visible results (see MAIN ACTIVITIES above) but also invisible ones, encouraging the participants in our project to take action in a local as well as intercultural context for more environmental justice.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 178970 Eur

Project Coordinator

Samuel-Heinicke-Fachoberschule & Country: DE

Project Partners

• I Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace z Oddzialami Dwujezycznymi im. Mikolaja Kopernika w Krosnie
• Mean Scoil Mhuire
• I.I.S.S. “S. Trinchese”
• Gislaveds Gymnasium
• Rigas Valsts 2. gimnazija
• lycée Jean Zay
• Spojena skola internatna