Today we are facing a high level of unemployment among young people and an increasing amount of NEET’s in Portugal and Europe. With the southern countries leading the numbers on the amount of NEET’s, it is urgent to solve this critical problem with a critical approach. What are this NEET’s doing, what are their occupations, their hobbies and how are they involved in their local communities? According to Eurostat we have a percentage of youth unemployment of 48.9% in Greece, 30% in Portugal, 48.3% in Spain, 21.7% in Romania and 13.1% in Estonia. This indicates the range of the problem and how young people seems to be struggling to be included in their communities. The UN considers partnerships for the goals to be one of the objectives for sustainable development, stating that “A successful sustainable development agenda requires partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society. These inclusive partnerships built upon principles and values, a shared vision, and shared goals that place people and the planet at the centre, are needed at the global, regional, national and local level.” To create this partnerships, it is essential to create the right channels of communication between young people, institutions, organizations and the population. The UN and Europe are intending to tackle this goals and are aware of the following facts: - The number of Internet users in Africa almost doubled in the past four years - 30 per cent of the world’s youth are digital natives, active online for at least five years - But more four billion people do not use the Internet, and 90 per cent of them are from the developing world How can we create a common language of comprehension and enhancement of critical thinking ? To face this challenges, this project aims to develop communication and increase community involvement and critical thinking in low density urban areas, enhancing and capacitating youth workers, young people and the community itself, creating balance and avoiding the clear disadvantages of low density urban areas around the world. Thus, the objectives are: The development of youngsters’ critical thinking within low density urban areas. • The creation of an efficient communication for youngsters and tutors within rural areas. • The improvement of youngster’s involvement on local rural communities. • Raise of a young entrepreneurship and a sense of glocal belonging. • Share of good practices within rural areas and the creation of a bridge between areas with the same characteristics. • Use of non-formal methods of education as a way to improve critical thinking, and to avoid the growth of NEET’s especially on low density urban areas. • Raise of Intercultural and intergenerational awareness. • Use of social media and ICT apps as a tool for social and community development. • Enhance the skills of young people to promote and develop entrepreneurship in low density urban areas. • Create awareness and interest on youth policies. • Integration of refugees and other disadvantaged youngsters in local rural areas. Moreover this project contributes to the Europe 2020 strategy (75% of the 20-64 years old to be employed); the goals for sustainable development and the overall objectives for European cooperation in Youth Field. The project is targeting disadvantaged youth and Neet’s, especially those who live in low density urban areas and creates a relevant channel of communication between people, enhancing the community integration, confidence, critical thinking and comprehension of youth policies among young people. Comm.Comm is a bridge of understanding and communication in low density urban areas. A tool for sustainable human development and understanding throughout Europe and the world.
COMM COMM - Communities Communication was an Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Youth Partnership designed to create a bridge of understanding and human sustainability in low density urban areas, enhancing digital literacy and structuring the use of technology (ICT). This partnership started in 01.02.2017 and ended in 30.09.2019 and involved 5 European NGO's from Portugal, Spain, Romania, Greece and Estonia: Associação de Jovens Voluntários de Gaeiras (JVG), Diagonal España, Asociatia CFPC Constanta, Poliana and MTÜ Islander. The project produced the following outputs in order to tackle the aforementioned objectives: - a Needs analysis report; - a Toolbox for communities communication; - a Mobile APP - Learning resources and a online course on local communities development - a Manual for facilitators and youth workers. CommComm originated as a first step in approaching the problem of isolation and lack of communication skills in low density urban areas around europe. It has been implemented so as to create tools for youth workers and young people to thrive in their local communities? As analysed by the data gathered in the survey report, it is clear that the digital gap might be contributing significantly towards this excessive social inability to communicate with different generations at different given times. It also had, as a starting point, the objective to bring together the local government institutions and young people, which seem to be more and more distant over time. That had as an objective tackling the UN goal: “A successful sustainable development agenda requires partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society. These inclusive partnerships built upon principles and values, a shared vision, and shared goals that place people and the planet at the centre, are needed at the global, regional, national and local level.” To create this partnerships, we saw as essential creating the right channels of communication between young people, institutions, organizations and the population. In order to face this challenges, this project developed new communication strategies and tools and increase community involvement and critical thinking in low density urban areas, enhancing and capacitating youth workers, young people and the community itself, creating balance and avoiding the clear disadvantages of low density urban areas around the world. The following objectives were tackled:- The development of tools and strategies for youngsters’ to develop critical thinking within low density urban areas. - The creation of an efficient channel of communication for youngsters and tutors within rural areas. The improvement of youngster’s involvement in local rural communities. Raise and maintenance of a strong sense of glocal belonging. Share and dissemination of good practices within rural areas and the creation of a bridge between areas with the same characteristics.Use of non-formal methods of education as a way to improve critical thinking, and to avoid the growth of NEET’s especially on low density urban areas. Documented these methods and shared them as good practices Raised intercultural and intergenerational awareness. Create ICT app as a tool for social and community development. Create awareness and interest on youth policies and spread the word about Erasmus + as a community tool for personal development.The project has targeted disadvantaged youth and Neet’s, especially those who live in low density urban areas and created a relevant channel of communication between people, enhancing community integration, confidence, critical thinking. In addition it boosted comprehension of youth policies amongst young people. Comm.Comm built tools for sustainable human development and understanding throughout Europe and the world.