“YOUth on AIR – developing active participation and intercultural dialogue among youth through online media tools” Erasmus Project

Project Title

“YOUth on AIR – developing active participation and intercultural dialogue among youth through online media tools”

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: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

“YOUth on AIR – developing active participation and intercultural dialogue among youth through online media tools” – is a 12 month strategic partnership project aimed at developing the quality of support systems for youth activities and the capabilities of civil society organisations in the youth field through using digital radio as the main tool. The project intends to strengthen and build – through training and exchange of good practices – competences of young people in digital media and practice their right for freedom of expression by providing space for youngsters from different ethnic and religious backgrounds to jointly partake in a learning activity that will enhance their digital skills, knowledge and capacities. The participants will explore the power of digital radio and its ability to significantly advance the position of youth, as it is a medium which is not yet being used to its full potential in most communities. The radio reaches a wide range of people and addresses the realities of local life, and it is still the second most popular medium accessed at least once a week by Europeans. Community radio often speaks in languages ignored by mainstream media and shares vital information with hard-to-reach audiences. This emphasizes the need for the transnational aspect of this project as the participants will get an insight into the extent to which the potential of community radio is and has been used in both member and non-member EU states.
The project aims to explore the concept of community radio as a medium which is the voice of the voiceless, the mouthpiece of oppressed people (be it on racial, religious or class grounds) and generally as a tool for development in the youth sector, hence the name of the project radio–YOUth on AIR. This project offers 15 young people from four countries the chance to get empowered through direct media access and use this power to address some of the most urging questions around Europe. The idea is to allow them to engage in intercultural dialogue to address questions such as growing radicalisation amongst youth (right wings, populism, hate speech) and use radio as a tool to enhance the position of young people in their communities, for example effectively support social inclusion of youth from disadvantaged backgrounds which constitute a special target group of this project.
The learning activity will gather 15 youngsters with different profiles for 5 days: radio professionals, youth activists and youth from disadvantaged backgrounds, namely displaced youth. The main idea is to eventually develop integrated and adaptable methodology (approach and tools) for using radio in making the voices of young people heard. The final outcomes of this training will be: a Toolkit for using radio on the youth sector, as a kind of manual to be used not only by youth workers but also by radio practitioners Europe-wide. The manual will be tested in a form of a pilot series of 10 broadcasts devised by mutual cooperation of the participants called ”Around Europe in 60 minutes”. The participants will have the chance to multiply projects’ results by delivering workshops to youth workers in their communities at local and national level and continue producing youth–oriented content “on air”. Projects outcomes will also be disseminated through two conference type of events (in the UK and Brussels) which will serve to disseminate results at institutional level and to present the relevant stakeholders with the project outcomes and engage them in the discussion of the perspectives of using radio in quality youth work, esp. as a tool for social inclusion of youth with disadvantaged background as well as to generate different recommendations for policy makers on how to enhance and support innovative approaches in youth work.

The objectives of the project are:
• Showcasing the power of radio as a medium, esp. in fostering active participation of young people by providing safe and creative spaces where they can work productively
• Highlighting the contribution of young people as creators of radio content and improving their participation
• Eliminating stereotypes and promoting multidimensional portrayal in radio; connecting youth from different ethnic/religious backgrounds through the universal language of music
• Building radio skills for youth radio production through cross sectoral and transnational cooperation
• Promoting European cooperation in the youth field

The idea behind the project is developing guidelines for using radio in youth work to improve its quality, promote synergies and transnational non-formal learning mobility through cross sectoral cooperation between youth and international/EU organizations and radio practitioners across Europe, thus showing that radio can transcend a menu of repetitive popular music towards richer youthful scheduling and increased participatory radio shows made for and with young people.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 90525 Eur

Project Coordinator

Art of the Box & Country: BE

Project Partners

• CENTER FOR INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE ASSOCIATION
• Centar za Socijalne Inovacije Centrifuga
• PESHKAR PRODUCTIONS LIMITED
• OUT OF THE BOX INTERNATIONAL