CONTEXT Citizenship has become yet another area of exclusion, especially for youngsters with fewer opportunities. And as highlighted in the recent past, the lack of social inclusion among youth has tragic consequences: the low turnout of young people in elections, experienced at both the EU and national levels, has for instance played a key role in the Brexit referendum outcome. Active citizenship, Political awareness, and Social inclusion are closely intertwined issues in the field of youth: as shown by European data, the older a youngster is when leaving education, the more likely he is to be active in politics and the civil society as a whole. And what goes for educational inequalities is also valid for geographical disparities, ethnical background or other exclusion factors. While these issues can only be tackled altogether, youngsters with fewer opportunities are still underrepresented in initiatives promoting political participation and political awareness. This is even more striking in the specific case of political simulations, a powerful tool designed to involve youngsters in “make-believe” politics to teach them how political institutions work while promoting their civic participation. A lot of public and private initiatives offer young people such opportunities, but numerous obstacles make it difficult – if not impossible – for youngsters with fewer opportunities to participate: - Youngsters with fewer opportunities lack information and awareness about such opportunities; - Most events are designed for students, de facto excluding young people out of higher education; - Participating fees – 150€ for MEUS (Model European Union Strasbourg), not including travel expenses – prevent youngsters with financial difficulties to participate; - The required level of English to take part in such events is systematically too high for youngsters with fewer opportunities. - The organisation itself of these events, its complexity, and the level of knowledge required to take part, also make them inaccessible for disadvantaged youngsters. OBJECTIVES YourEP will therefore consist of several Transnational Project Meetings and Blended Mobility activities aimed at developing and implementing a political simulation of the European Parliament (EP) specifically designed for youngsters with fewer opportunities, who are particularly underrepresented in such initiatives, even though they can benefit the most from these powerful educational tools. To better suit their needs, the EP simulation method will be designed with the active involvement of 24 youngsters with fewer opportunities from 7 different EU countries . They will be accompanied by experienced youth workers from the partner organisations, while the whole process will be supported by the European expertise of JEF Europe (Young European Federalists). All activities will take place in Brussels, Strasbourg, Stuttgart and in partner countries in 2017 and 2018. METHODOLOGY The YourEP project will unfold into three phases. Phase 1 will be focused on the preparation of the youngsters, thus giving them the relevant skills and knowledge to design a simulation method of the EP specifically adapted to their needs. Online activities and local meetings will empower them to fully engage in a 5-days Blended Mobility meeting in Brussels, where they will get in-depth training on the EU and the European Parliament, and eventually design their very own EP simulation method. Phase 2 will afterward prepare and carry out the test of the EP simulation itself. After online preparations, the young participants will gather during a week in Strasbourg to implement the EP simulation they will have developed. During a week, they will act as MEPs to get a real political European experience. Phase 3 will then build upon the EP simulation method and its implementation to advocate for more inclusive political simulations in Europe in the future. The YourEP project results will be promoted as living proof that it is possible to organise qualitative political simulations while better representing the youth diversity. IMPACT Thus the young participants will improve transversal skills such as: - Social, civic, intercultural, interpersonal and communicational competences; - Leadership and entrepreneurial skills thanks to their active role in the project; - Improved EU and general political awareness. Moreover, the project results will enable the partners to achieve a greater impact in youth formal and non-formal education: - The EP simulation method specifically designed for youngsters with fewer opportunities will be spread to other youth organisations to help them promoting the Active citizenship of youngsters with fewer opportunities. - Dissemination will also include advocacy work targeting organisations carrying out such simulations on a regular basis in order to advocate for a better inclusion of disadvantaged youngsters by providing a concrete, successful example.
CONTEXT Citizenship has become yet another area of exclusion, especially for youngsters with fewer opportunities, with tragic consequences: for instance, the low turnout of young people in elections, experienced both at EU and national levels, played a key role in the Brexit referendum outcome. Active citizenship, EU and political awareness, and Social inclusion are intertwined issues in the field of youth, and yet young people facing more difficulties than their peers (e.g. financial, educational, geographical, health issues, discrimination etc) are still underrepresented in initiatives fostering Political Education in general and EU Education in particular. This gap between youth with “more” or “fewer” opportunities is even more striking in one specific case: political simulations, a powerful tool involving young people in “make-believe” politics to teach them how political institutions work while promoting their civic participation. A lot of public and private initiatives offer such opportunities, but many obstacles make it more difficult for disadvantaged youngsters to participate (e.g. lack of information and awareness, participating fees, needed knowledge, language requirements, application process etc). OBJECTIVES & PROCESS That is why YES Forum and its 9 partners, through the YourEP project, explored and promoted solutions to open political simulations in particular and political education in general to a wider audience. To do so, in 2017-2018, YourEP consisted of a mix of online, local and international activities which developed and implemented a political simulation of the European Parliament (EP) specifically designed to be Inclusive and Accessible, and therefore open to young people regardless of their personal background and potential difficulties. Later on, it shared lessons drawn from this experiment with all interested stakeholders. To better suit their needs, the #YourEPsimulation was designed with the active involvement of youngsters with fewer opportunities from 7 EU countries. They were accompanied by experienced youth & social workers, while the whole process was supported by the EU expertise of JEF Europe (Young European Federalists). METHODOLOGY & RESULTS YourEP unfolded into 3 phases. Phase 1 focused on the preparation of young participants, giving them the skills and knowledge to design a simulation method of the EP specifically adapted to their needs. Online activities and local meetings in each partner country empowered them to fully engage in a 5-days Blended Mobility meeting: in Brussels in November 2017, they received in-depth training on the EU and the EP, helping them to start co-designing their very own #YourEPsimulation (Report: goo.gl/v51K7e). Phase 2 finalized the design of and carried out the #YourEPsimulation. After online preparations, the young participants met once again in Strasbourg in May-June 2018: in the EP itself, they roleplayed as MEPs, journalists and lobbyists to get a real political European experience. It was a test for the method they developed: a successfully inclusive test, as all participants engaged in the simulation regardless of their diverse needs! (Report: goo.gl/BM4fbR) Phase 3 built upon this #YourEPsimulation experiment to advocate for more inclusive political education. To do so, "Key Lessons for Inclusive & Accessible Political Simulations" (Publication 1: goo.gl/P4S769) were widely shared across the EU youth field in general, as these lessons are easily transferable to other political education methods. “Recommendations to Unleash the full potential of political simulations” (Publication 2: goo.gl/fr8ZF3) targeted political simulations organisers in particular to help them opening their own events thanks to hands-on, experience-based solutions. Dissemination culminated in November 2018 with a Final Conference in Brussels (Report: goo.gl/6ekDjf). IMPACT Young participants improved transversal skills such as: - Social, civic, intercultural, interpersonal and communicational competences; - Leadership and entrepreneurial skills thanks to their active role in the project; - Improved EU and general political awareness. Through the exchange of good practices underlying the whole process, partners and their youth & social workers learned new tools for inclusive political education, the main outcome being the #YourEPsimulation itself. And they also improved their own EU knowledge! Project results achieved a greater impact in youth formal and non-formal education through its main publications (cf. above): - The #YourEPsimulation method itself and its key lessons for inclusion were spread to other youth organisations to help them promoting the Active citizenship of youngsters with fewer opportunities. - Concrete recommendations based on the #YourEPsimulation were shared with organisations carrying out political simulations on a regular basis in order to advocate for a better inclusion of disadvantaged youngsters.