This project is called European Youth Health Champions, and is a strategic partnership supporting innovation and exchange of good practice in peer education of young people in health and physical activity. In particular, the project will focus on non-formal learning in peer health education that uses community sport and physical activity as the primary method of initial engagement with young people with fewer opportunities. European Youth Health Champions will create an innovative training and learning resource adaptable for different national settings that can be rolled out Europe-wide. This project will focus on young people with fewer opportunities, aged 14-25. In times of austerity and high youth unemployment across Europe, this project is timely as it will focus specifically on disadvantaged youth. The project will boost the skills of young people and increase their employability. The project will also improve and modernise youth work education and training. This project incorporates an experienced group of eight partners from six countries, which are UK, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy, and Malta. European Youth Health Champions is innovative because our genuine and adequate needs assessment has indicated there is a limited evidence base within the EU of the impact of peer education on the health and physical activity levels of young people. This project will create that evidence base. This project will create significant added value. It will pool the existing good practice occurring within the participating countries. By bringing together eight experienced and high caliber partners from six countries, the project will achieve a higher standard of outputs and results than could be produced in any one country alone. All of the project partners are experienced in using grassroots sport and physical activity to engage young people with fewer opportunities. Because the eight partners are well known to each other, having worked together effectively in the past and spent time developing this project, they will form a dynamic and coherent partnership. We have created a robust cross-sectoral approach to achieve the highest impact for this project. Project partners represent the youth sector, the training sector, the public health sector, the grassroots sport sector, and the local authority sector. The inclusion of ISCA (International Sport and Culture Association based in Denmark) as a project partner will ensure the project results receive intensive dissemination and exploitation using their extensive networks across Europe. The project will last for 24 months, which is the right amount of time to conduct a robust evaluation of all existing peer health and physical activity education programmes for young people, pool knowledge into new resources and internationalise them, test the resources by training up a new cohort of European Youth Health Champions from each country, refine the resources, and develop an innovative online learning portal for the finished project resources. Our comprehensive needs analysis has involved extensive desk based research, inquiries to governments and NGO’s, and concluded that there is a need for a new accredited qualification to train young peer educators in health and physical activity in the participating countries. Our needs analysis also indicates a wider need across Europe. The UK partners, which are StreetGames , Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), and Birmingham City Council, all offer valuable expertise in peer education by young people with fewer opportunities in the field of health and physical activity. Two qualifications have been developed in recent years in the UK by RSPH called ‘Youth Health Champions Level 1’ and ‘Youth Health Champions Level 2’. This project will test and improve the UK qualifications, as well as internationalise the qualifications for validation in other European countries. The project is realistic and is well designed to achieve its objectives. The project timetable has been carefully planned to ensure appropriate phases for preparation, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and dissemination. The project activities clearly contribute to the project objectives. This project will develop innovative outputs. There will be a new competencies framework for peer health and physical activity educators aged 14-25, and new evidenced based training materials that can be used to train European Youth Health Champions. As part of the internationalisation process each partner will ensure that the training materials will be designed to meet all the necessary criteria for accreditation and validation in their country. The Youth Health Champions qualification is already accredited in the UK. There will be a new, high quality European Youth Health Champions online learning portal including MOOC that will have well prepared materials to develop a national qualification, as well as enable a young person to experience the content directly.
European Youth Health Champions (EYHC) was a strategic partnership between 8 organisations from 6 European countries. Project objectives: 1. To convert knowledge & experience from cross-sector stakeholders in youth peer education in health enhancing physical activity into learning resources that can be used transnationally by organisations in youth work, health, & community sport. 2. To create an online learning portal of project resources, open & accessible for all. 3. To ensure that young people with fewer opportunities are integral to the design & testing of the resources. 4. To drive the impact of European Youth Health Champions by advocating & disseminating to policy stakeholders in each participating country & Europe-wide at local, regional, national, & European levels. Participating organisations: StreetGames UK (Lead coordinating partner) The leading UK charity committed to ensuring disadvantaged young people & communities lead healthy active lifestyles. With an Alliance of over 1,000 locally trusted organisations, StreetGames engages over 30,000 young people aged 12-25 each year. Royal Society for Public Health UK (RSPH) The organisation is dedicated to the promotion & protection of collective human health & wellbeing. They advise on policy development, provide education, encourage research, disseminate information & accredit health improvement programmes. With over 6000 members, they represent a broad range of organisations across the UK. Birmingham City Council UK (BCC). BCC’s Health & Wellbeing Service provides a range of programmes promoting & improving the health & wellbeing of the residents of Birmingham. BCC engage with residents through participation, education & volunteering programmes, & collaborate with a range of organisations. International Sport & Culture Association, Denmark (ISCA) With over 230 member organisations, ISCA is a democratic, not-for-profit umbrella organisation who’s tag line is MOVING PEOPLE. The organisation develops capacity building projects & promotes cross-sector collaboration to increase citizens’ involvement in community sport & physical activity. Vlaams Instituut voor Sportbeheer en Recreatiebeleid vzw, BELGIUM (ISB) The Flemish institute for sport administration & recreation management is a non-profit institution specialised in local & regional recreation management. ISB is a member organisation & a knowledge centre. ISB promote sport & exercise on a local level through a ‘sport for all’ policy. BG BE ACTIVE, BULGARIA (BGBA) The purpose of the organisation is to increase the popularity of sport & physical activity. BGBA work on a local, national & international level & use sport as a tool to decrease physical inactivity across all ages. A key priority of the organisation is to use sport & physical activity as a tool to build a socially responsible society, particularly working with young people. Aġenzija Żgħażagħ, MALTA (AZ) As the National Youth Agency of Malta, the mission is to promote the interests of young people & help them to achieve their potential. AZ work collaboratively to address the needs & aspirations of young people. They do this by providing community spaces, advocating young peoples’ voices, developing engagement & empowerment programmes & conducting research. Mine Vaganti NGO, ITALY (MVNGO) The mission of the organisation is to promote intercultural dialogue, social inclusion through sport & environmental protection using non-formal education. MVNGO is an educational training provider at local & European levels & has a consultant role for public & private bodies in order to promote & develop international projects. Project activities: 3 intellectual outputs (IOs) (evidence review, online training course & online portal); 5 transnational project meetings (TPMs); 6 multiplier events (MEs); 1 learning/teaching/training Blended Mobility (BM) event. The project has achieved the following impact: EYHC has created high quality research & leaning resources that are relevant & fit for purpose. 246 young people have supported the research & design & testing of the training which will enable others to develop the skills required to be an effective peer educator within their community. 55 participants have become peer educators themselves. 13 Young people have travelled abroad, as a direct result of EYHC, since the BM event. 263 people attended multiplier events in 6 countries. Over 550,000 people have been reached through online media, events, & dissemination of open-access resources. Longer Term Benefits: The resources are available online via open access. SG will maintain this platform for at least 10 years. Continued promotion, & inclusion in ongoing projects will ensure that the resources continue to be used. As a result of EYHC & the research, there is a commitment from all partners to continue to advocate & disseminate ‘Peer Education’ at a European level, to bring about sector recognition.