The current generation of European youth faces a multitude of questions and complex challenges, ranging from increasing nationalism, extremism and hate-crime to growing concerns about climate change and sustainable development. Many young Europeans are perturbed by these developments. They have a desire to understand the causes, explore solutions and take civic action. Being a youth-led organisation, AYUDH is constituted of aspiring young change makers, who embody these very sentiments. Globally, many high level organisations have reaffirmed the role of non-formal education to promote young people’s civic engagement for democracy, human rights and peace, e.g. through UNSCR 2250, SDG 4.7 and the Paris Declaration 2015. As a member of civil society and an actor of non-formal education, AYUDH Europe is taking responsibility and answering this urgent call to educate, engage and empower young people to be part of a generation of peacebuilders. The aim of this project is to foster young people’s active citizenship for peacebuilding and sustainable development. It is aligned to SDG 4.7 and will inform, empower and engage youth to affect change on the personal, community and policy level. Objectives: 1. Personal: To invite participants to reflect on the attitudes, values and habits needed to create change, first within themselves and consequently in their peer group and broader environment. This includes the development of competences such as critical (self-)enquiry, mindfulness, empathy and compassion. 2. Community: To encourage participants for social participation, advocacy and action. Participants will learn about social and environmental challenges as well as innovative solutions, receive training and a toolkit to collaboratively design and implement local follow-up actions. 3. Policy: To create an opportunity for participants to articulate their concerns, develop policy recommendations and present them to decision makers. 4. Networking: To provide a platform for community building and exchange amongst youth activists from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. This will nurture an informal learning environment, foster their intercultural understanding and increase their motivation for collective action. The project has a duration of 9 months. A team of 30 youth volunteers design, prepare and implement and evaluate the project collaboratively. Approximately 600 young people will be actively involved in the different activities of the project. The three activities are: 1. Pre-Summit activities: Local activities, carried out across Europe by National Youth Leaders and local youth. Examples include activities for refugee integration, working with the homeless, tree planting, activities for the inclusion of youth with disabilities, etc. These activities are hands-on, and will follow an experiential learning cycle, inviting participants to reflect and draw conclusions from the experiences they gained. This will also serve as a preparation and invitation for youth activists with a fitting profile to join the summit in July. 2. A weeklong youth summit at M.A. Center Germany, Brombachtal, taking place from 14 - 22 July 2018. This is the core of the project. Youth will enjoy a comprehensive learning experience which empowers them with the knowledge, skills, and attitude needed for active citizenship while building a mutually-supportive peer network that will support them in implementing Follow-Up activities in the next phase of the project. All sessions at the summit will be learner-centered and participatory. Methods include group work, creative workshops, role play, peer sharing, etc. Throughout the week, a group of participants will also prepare talking points for an intergenerational dialogue with policy makers, on 20 July 2018. They will also present a statement reaffirming the importance of involving youth in peacebuilding and calling for concrete political measures to implement UNSCR 2250 on all levels. 3. Follow-Up activities: On September 21st (International Peace Day) the Youth Leaders will facilitate seminars/workshops in schools in their respective countries, in alignment with the No Hate Speech Movement (NHSM). Workshops will be based on the Council of Europe’s ‘Bookmarks’ manual and be facilitated through non-formal learning methodologies. Participants: The project involves 600 youth from 8 partner countries and Germany, aged 15 - 30 years, regardless of nationality, religion, gender or ability. Youth who are marginalised - with disabilities, economic or social obstacles, are specifically encouraged to apply. Partner countries are: Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the UK. Through the knowledge, skills and attitudes developed during this project, participants will be encouraged and empowered to be part of a generation of youth who take peace in Europe not for granted - but see it as their responsibility and call to actively defend and maintain this peace.
The current generation of European youth faces a multitude of questions and complex challenges, ranging from increasing nationalism, extremism and hate-crime to growing concerns about climate change and sustainable development. Many young Europeans are perturbed by these developments. They have a desire to understand the causes, explore solutions and take civic action. This project was designed and implemented by, with and for young people, who want to be part of a generation of youth who do not take peace in Europe for granted but see it as their responsibility and call to actively defend and maintain this peace. The aim of this project was to foster young people’s active citizenship for peacebuilding and sustainable development. It was aligned to SDG 4.7 and informed, empowered and engaged youth to affect change on the personal, community and policy level. Objectives were: 1. Personal: To invite participants (pax) to reflect on the attitudes, values and habits needed to create change, first within themselves and consequently in their peer group and broader environment. This includes the development of competences such as critical (self-)enquiry, mindfulness, empathy and compassion. 2. Community: To encourage pax for social participation, advocacy and action. Pax will learn about social and environmental challenges as well as innovative solutions, receive training and a toolkit to collaboratively design and implement local Follow-up actions. 3. Policy: To create an opportunity for pax to articulate their concerns, develop policy recommendations and present them to decision makers. 4. Networking: To provide a platform for community building and exchange amongst youth activists from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. This will nurture an informal learning environment, foster their intercultural understanding and increase their motivation for collective action. The project had a duration of 9 months. A team of 37 youth volunteers designed, prepared, implemented and evaluated the project collaboratively. The activities were: 1. Pre-Summit activities: Designed and carried out by National Youth Leaders and local youth in our partner countries. Pax developed activities in line with the aim and objectives of the project to address specific local issues they were concerned about. This approach resulted in a diversity of grassroot initiatives, ranging from activities for refugee integration and working with the homeless to sustainability campaigns like plastic cleanups or the www.trees4peace.eu initiative. 2. The Summit: This was the core of the project. 250 youth from the partner countries enjoyed a comprehensive learning experience which empowered them with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for active citizenship. Three sub-themes were introduced: 1) Peace with the environment (ecological sustainability as a requirement for stability and peace); 2) Peace with others (social participation, advocacy and engagement in society); 3) Peace within (encouraging self-reflection and development of critical self enquiry, mindfulness, empathy and compassion). These themes were explored through talks by experts and practitioners, working groups, creative workshops, peer sharing, etc. Methods followed the principles of experiential learning, were participatory and learner-centered. The concluding event of the Summit was ‘The Science of Happiness’ panel between pax and experts from the fields of policy, science, media and culture. They discussed the topic of mental health amongst young people in Europe and explored strategies to foster ‘inner peace’, emotional intelligence and resilience to radical ideas. A ‘Statement on Mental Health’ was developed by the youth, which was disseminated to policy and decision makers in the Follow-Up phase. 3. Follow-up activities: Workshops on the No Hate Speech Movement took place in schools in France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and the UK and one refugee shelter in DK, reaching 425 youth between the ages 14 and 18. In addition, 19 more local activities (similar to the Pre-Summit activities) were carried out. The project involved 568 youth (aged 15 - 30) from 8 partner countries and Germany, regardless of nationality, religion, gender or ability. Support schemes were in place for youth with fewer opportunities. Partner countries were Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. A Multimedia Campaign on the digital platforms of the partners disseminated results to a total audience of over 220,000 people. A PR campaign led to 32 on- and offline publications, generating over 800,000 views. The project impacted pax mainly on a personal level, by fostering their knowledge, skills and attitudes in order to take civic action, promote peace and sustainability. 90.9% of pax stated that the project “motivated me to create change through taking action”. In total, 1300 local community members, policy makers and other stakeholders were reach