Europe has been marked in last decades by a reduction of participation in social life, above all among young people. According to official data about the 2014 European Parliament’s elections what comes out is that young European citizens have lost interest towards politics and related issues. A lower participation and activism will bring people to the flattening of a whole generation that will not be able to recognize their rights and call for their respect. The world, and consequently also Europe, is living a very difficult phase. The economic crisis, world security crisis, environmental issues and climate change, migration flows, rising of conservative and nationalist parties: they all represent worrying issues that the international community has to challenge and Europe has to act as a guidance since during its history many problems occurred, but have been overcome by acting together. #PlayEurope project aims to contribute to build a new generation of active citizens. The project’s main objective is to disseminate good practices and results of past projects – either financed under EU programmes and by private funds – in order to raise awareness among young people about current social issues through the use of an alternative approach, namely, the Edutainment approach that combines together education and entertainment, in order to be more attractive for the target group (young people 14-19 years). The consortium will exchange good practices and results and disseminate them through a strong communication campaign to be addressed not only towards young people living in partners countries, but also towards the higher number as possible of young people living in Europe. The exchange of good practices is the core of the project. Each partner will present a series of examples of EduGames and other innovative tools developed in the field of active citizenship within its organisation. Then they will collect at least 5 good practices developed in their own countries and 5 developed in other countries out of the consortium. All the collected material will be strongly disseminated through the project website, social media, newsletter and press release. The consortium is composed of 9 partners from Italy, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Romania and Estonia, representing different types of organizations: 3 SMEs, 2 Private Universities, 4 NGOs. All of them have long experience in EU projects and are deeply involved with young people, active citizenship issues, EduGames and innovative teaching methodologies. The results that the partners expect to produce are: increase of motivation and self-confidence of young people in learning more about politics and citizenship, that are issues considered often as boring and unintelligible; promotion of the importance of learning different aspects of active citizenship. Once young people are in contact with the new edutainment approach, they could create network among them, exchange their experiences and suggest initiatives in the field of active citizenship; furthermore all these learning activities will help young people to improve their personal and social skills. The partners will work to inform a wide number of young people about the EU and its activities related to active citizenship and youth policies; they will also promote the concept of active citizenship as a mean to find solutions to the problems and involve as much people as possible; finally, the partners will engage youth associations that operate in the EU countries, to promote among them the use of edu-games as tools to make people aware about problems existing and the possible solutions, in order to develop a better society. The expected results will have impact on several beneficiaries. As the main beneficiaries are young European citizens, the project dissemination activities will aim to impact on them by stimulating their attention towards social issues, involving them in EduGames and engaging them in active citizenship actions. Partners aim to empower young people to participate more actively in the communities’ life and, at the same time, stimulate their curiosity towards these issues by the use of innovative edutainment approaches. The project will also engage indirect beneficiaries, above all the civil society, schools and Universities, local and national public Authorities. They will benefit from a more aware generation of young people as they will take action to address current social issues contributing to the welfare of the community; schools and teachers will benefit of more laborious students and dedicated to social issues, and, at the same time, also teachers can enhance their digital skills by approaching the EduGames. Finally, local Authorities can take benefit from the positive of the project, as, thanks to the exchange of good practices, they may learn how other communities have addressed similar problems and be inspired for possible solutions.
Europe has been marked in recent decades by a reduction of participation in social life, above all among young people. According to official data about the 2014 European Parliament elections, what comes out is that young European citizens have lost interest towards society and related issues. Furthermore, the unemployment rate, an important measure of a country or region’s economic health, is still high in the European Union countries, even though it is falling from the 2013 peak. In order to contrast this trend, European Union supports startups, social enterprises and entrepreneurial initiatives as long as they have a social impact and generate profit not only for entrepreneurs, but also for the entire community as well. Youth is the key to making the economy start over. #PlayEurope project aims to contribute to build a new generation of active citizens. The project’s main objective is to use the cooperative enterprise model and the social entrepreneurship education to raise awareness among young people about current social issues and democratic participation, using an alternative approach that combines education and entertainment, in order to be more attractive for the target group (university students & unemployed young people between 18‐30 years). The project – following an edutainment approach - provides young people with an innovative training programme to enhance and promote their competencies in order to become contributing entrepreneurs, responsible and critical citizens. The consortium is composed by 9 partners from Italy, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Romania and Estonia, representing different types of organizations: 3 SMEs, 2 Private Universities, 4 NGOs. All of them have long experience in EU projects and are deeply involved with young people, social issues, active citizenship aspects, EduGames and innovative teaching methodologies. #PlayEurope produces two main resources: - The Manual of Success Stories on Social Entrepreneurship collects 10 success stories of social entrepreneurs to motivate and inspire young people to set their own social business; - The Step-by-Step Guide “Become a Social Entrepreneur in 7 days” represents a smart and user-friendly journey across Social Entrepreneurship, made up of 8 steps including tips, key business elements, infographics, interesting videos and educative games to foster young entrepreneurs' hard & soft skills. In addition, a Workshop is organised in each partner’s country, with the participation of more than 100 young people to practically test and improve even more the resources developed. Through effective actions and tools, partners’ intention is to show young people how and to what extent social entrepreneurship can be a concrete pathway to become better citizens. The results that the partners want to produce are: - improvement of specific soft and hard skills of students and unemployed young people, through their involvement in the online #PlayEurope Step-by-Step Guide; - enhancement of digital integration through non-formal learning; - increased motivation of young people in setting up their business through demonstration of inspirational examples of successful social entrepreneurs; - increased interest in social issues and democratic participation. As the main beneficiaries of the project are young European citizens, the activities aim to impact on them by stimulating their attention towards social issues, showing them how to concretely apply the competencies acquired with #PlayEurope project in everyday life, for example by thinking of starting a social business. The project also engages indirect beneficiaries, above all civil societies, schools, training institutions, public Authorities and NGOs that work closely with young people, through a promotion of an alternative method, by inviting teachers and youth leaders to use #PlayEurope informal learning approach to promote civic participation among their students.