To broaden and deepen the political and social participation of young people on local, regional, national and also European level is a huge challenge. Statistics show very clearly that the participation will and rate of young people in political decision making as well as societal discourse are both low. Studies show e.g. around the last elections for the European parliament that nearly 80% of young people asked stated, that they would never consider for their life to stand as a candidate for any political election. The divide between the democratic institutions in Europe, their representatives and political parties and Europe’s young citizens seems to be growing. The fact that about 1/5 of young people would prefer an autocratic leader in Europe opens a considerable door and ground for fundamentalism and worrying developments. Moreover, research does also very clearly show two core issues: a) the situation, pereception and participation rate in democratic and political processes is actually much worse with young people at risk of social exclusion, marginalisation and suffering from social or socio-economic disadvantages and b) political participation starts with proximity, first and foremost at the local level. The local or regional level is where young people get a chance to see the direct impact of their involvement and participate in a small-scale democracy. The activation and use of social environmental resources is an important support factor to tackle social exclusion and socio-economic disadvantages and if we want to reach a broader and deeper participation of young people at social risk in political and social processes we need to aim at: 1) Identifying relevant social environmental resources of young people at risk 2) Identify social environments and spaces of young people in the society (on local or municipal level) 3) Find common interfaces between youth spaces / social environments and adult / political environments (e.g. also through the enlargement of social space and environments) 4) Provide youth workers, young people and political decision makers with methodologies to support this identification and interfacing process 5) Defining concrete local action projects in the common social environment interface to make the impact of political participation visible in proximity Participants of the projects are young people at risk of social exclusion or marginalisation out of socio-economic or other disadvantages aged 14-19 years in the partner countries AT, DE, DK, IT, UK and PT. Together with young people the youth workers supporting young peoples' integration processes are one main target and participant group. Moreover local political decision makers will be directly involved in the project activities as important participants realising the proximity impact which is necessary to achieve democratic participation of young people. The project will be developing 4 concrete intellectual outputs to achieve the set objectives: 1) Research report about methods and instruments for social environment and space analysis including the experiences of 10 social environment analysis processes implemented with young people in each partner country. 2) Training curriculum and materials for youth workers about how to implement social environment analysis and space description as well as how to set up, monitor and document local participation projects with young people. The training programme will be implemented in the course of a European learning and teaching activity with 3 youth workers from each partner country as well as be piloted on local level in each partner country with additional 10 youth workers 3) Local participation projects: in each partner country min. 3 local participation projects of young people at risk of social exclusion or marginalisation will be planned and implemented. Youth workers will facilitate and moderate the implementation process, the experiences and results gained will be documented for all partner countries. 4) Political action plan: opinions, needs and requirements for political action for improvement of democratic participation of young people at risk of social exclusion will be gathered in all partner countries and compiled into a political action plan for participation of young people at local, regional, national and European level. The partnership of the project consists of 7 experienced organisations from AT, DE, IT,DK, UK and PT. Partners have all experiences with the topic and the target group of the project. They will provide their experiences and expertise for the devlopment of the single intellectual outputs. The partnership reflects well the different stakeholders and interest groups in the subject and as well a sound European geographical balance which will allow for a clear European added value in the ouptuts. A comprehensive dissemination and sustainability strategy will ensure the achievement of the short and long term impact in the project.
BE PART - FEEL YOUR PART ("BPFYP") was a two-year Erasmus+ Key Action 2 Project, coordinated by Jugend am Werk Steiermark GmbH (Austria) and implemented in partnership with Municipo de Lousada (Portugal), FO-Aarhus (Denmark), Volunteering Matters (United Kingdom), Jugendförderverein Parchim-Lübz (Germany), A.R.E.S. scarl (Italy) and E.N.T.E.R. GmbH (Austria). The initiative was aimed at increasing the political and social participation of young people, especially those at risk of social exclusion, on local, regional, national and European levels. The partners engaged with youth workers, volunteers, trainers and other stakeholders, to support young people’s political and social participation as active citizens in their communities and on the regional, national and European levels. The project was based on statistical data that showed that the participation rate of young people in political decision-making and in societal discourse are low and on research that revealed that (a) the situation, pereception and participation rate in democratic and political processes is quite low amongst young people at risk of social exclusion, marginalisation and suffering from social or socio-economic disadvantages and (b) political participation starts with proximity, first and foremost at the local and regional levels, where young people get a chance to see the direct impact of their involvement and have the chance of participating in a small-scale democracy. The activation and use of social environmental resources was identified by the partners as an important support factor to tackle social exclusion and socio-economic disadvantages. Bearing in mind the aim to support a wider and deeper participation of young people (at risk of social exclusion), the BPFYP partnership decided to: (1) identify relevant social environmental resources of young people at risk; (2) identify social environments and spaces of young people in society (on local or municipal levels); (3) identify interfaces between the social environments of young people vs. the adults' environments; (4) provide youth workers, young people and political decision-makers with methodologies to support this identification and interfacing process; (5) define and carry out local action projects within the common social environment interface to make the impact of political/social participation visible. In order to achieve their objectives, the project partners developed and implemented four intellectual outputs: (IO1) BPFYP Research Report on methods and tools used in social spaces analysis. (IO2) BPFYP Training Curriculum for youth workers, a 40-hours' training programme to enable them to implement social environment analysis and local participation projects with young people (at risk of social exclusion). (IO3) BPFYP Local Participation Projects with young people (at risk of social exclusion) in all partner countries, including a transnational project reader. (IO4) BPFYP Political Action Plan, featuring opinions, needs and requirements for political action to improve democratic participation of young people (at risk of social exclusion) at local, regional, national and European levels. These outputs were supported by a multiplier event, a transnational learning/teaching/training activity and pilot courses in all partner countries. Furthermore, the partnership identified two main target groups: (1) Youth workers in the partner countries who support the integration processes of young people (at risk of social exclusion) and who work with this group on a daily basis. (2) Local political decision-makers who needed to be integrated in the project activities as the representatives of the adult environment and who were necessary to achieve democratic participation of the young people. In addition, the project was addressed towards the group of final beneficiaries: Young people who are at risk of social exclusion or marginalisation due to socio-economic or other disadvantages and aged between 14 and 19 years in the partner countries AT, DE, DK, IT, UK, and PT. The project partnership consisted of seven experienced organisations from AT, DE, IT, DK, UK, and PT. All partners are experienced in the work with the topic and the project target groups. Consisting of youth centre organisations, volunteering organisations, municipalities, and training organisations, the partners provided their experiences and expertise for the devlopment of the intellectual outputs and the practical implementation of the various activities within these outputs. The partnership reflected the different stakeholders and interest groups in the subject and represented a sound European geographical balance, which allowed for an added value from the point of view of the European dimension.