Youth social inclusion through Digital Art Erasmus Project

Project Title

Youth social inclusion through Digital Art

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

CONTEXT AND PRIORITIES
In Europe, NEETs rate (young people unemployed and not studying) is very high, reaching a 16.5% in 2018. As the EU is facing this rather alarming situation, in their political agenda has set as one of the pillars of its youth policies the aims of reducing the youth unemployment rate in order to make this sector of society as involved as possible with the world of work and with its community in general. Moreover, given the current pandemic situation, it is expected that this situation will worsen again and that not only will youth employment decline, but also their motivation to be active citizens and their feeling of belonging in the society.

Although it is the youth themselves who are too commonly blamed for this situation, in reality there are many other issues that have an influence on it: the lack of options and opportunities, the lack of training or resources, or the demotivation of young people, for instance. As the current situation has also shown, young people are strongly attached to new technologies, and are able to make the most of them and use them in a wide range of fields. In the same way, art has proven to have an essential role in our society, being a form of cultural expression, of personal expression and even an essential tool for mental health. Merging these two fields results in the concept of digital art, is still an undiscovered terrain, an artistic discipline with a promising future that, without fear of being mistaken, we could say is very close to the everyday habits of young people. This project wants to emphasise motivation, active citizenship, belief in oneself and the empowerment of youth work as engines to improve the social inclusion for the youth.
ArteD, seeks to fit into the priorities of the Erasmus+ program as well as contribute to create INCLUSIVE and UNITED communities. To do this, special attention will be paid to young people and youth workers to help them feel integrated into society. Due to the great need to have workers able to deal with NEETs, this project has prioritized EXTENDING and DEVELOPING YOUTH WORKERS’ COMPETENCIES, including their digital skills and knowledge of ICT tools, to create an INCLUSIVE environment in their daily practice.
ArteD will also contribute to the generation of more positive feelings and attitudes towards the youth –specially NEETs -, often victims of stereotypes that lead to social exclusion, by European societies. Priority will thus be given to promoting social inclusion and building a Europe that is more aware of the situation in this sector. Policies and actions by any person, entity or institution active in the youth field must be prioritised: Europe needs competent youth workers, who are capable of creating learning opportunities tailored to the needs of young people, using modern methods and digital tools.

OBJECTIVES
The objectives of ArteD are mainly the training of youth workers in new techniques and strategies to work with NEETs to promote their social inclusion and access to the world of work through artistic expression with new digital formats. With this project, we intend to revalue the artistic and creative potential of young people, in a context in which educational trends, leisure and work of new generations go hand in hand with a technological and digital revolution.
Thus, the abilities and competences of youth workers to work with NEETs will be improved through a tailor-made and quality training offer. Also, the educational and labour obstacles encountered by NEETs will be reduced by promoting their creativity and artistic expression through the use of digital techniques and tools.
In addition to improving their artistic and digital skills and abilities, with this project we intend that young people discover different European social and cultural realities, and create links and generate new networks of contact with other communities of young people.
TARGET GROUPS
This project targets two main target groups:
– Youth workers: monitors, social workers, etc.
– Young people –especially NEETs.

RESULTS
Two main products will be developed within the project:
1) An online Training KIT for youth workers – which will be based on a set of Open Badges for the validation of competencies of youth workers in non- formal and informal contexts.
2) An online training game for Young Digital Artists – with a pedagogical structure adapted to the target group and based on the results of the first intellectual product.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 50915 Eur

Project Coordinator

Associacio Programes Educatius Open Europe & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Zdruzenie za volonterizam VOLONTERSKI CENTAR BITOLA – Bitola
• Foundation for Education and Innovation “Zini”