Partibridges is an initiative led by four Universities, three of which have led the Horizon 2020 research project Partispace conducted between 2015 and 2018 about styles and spaces of participation of young people from 15 to 30 years-old in eight European cities. The results show that participation is to be understood in a broad and evolving view. Young people mainly participate to develop skills, to become part of a group, of an environment, to be able to act on it and find a place in an anxiety-inducing society. The need to support the learning spaces of young people in their diversity, to recognize and integrate the practices and various experiences of youth participation, but also those of public and associative actors is tangible. There is also a growing interest of students for active or inverted pedagogies and the need for dialogue with actors from the field in addition to more theoretical approaches. The proactive approach of youth actors and emerging associations led by young people in our territories is an opportunity for the further development of general improvement of education. Taking into account the above mentioned issues, and placing higher education as a tool of participatory and inclusive process, Partibridges brings together universities and youth associations in four cities: Rennes (France), Eskisehir (Turkey), Lisbon (Portugal) and Manchester (UK). The general objective is to develop closer cooperation between higher education, youth workers and young people with low educational background. In the frame of the project, the participants are teacher-researchers from the Universities, volunteer students in each of them, youth professionals representing the associations and young volunteers who are part of the associations. The first production will lead to the development of a pedagogical module on social and civic participation of young people in Europe. This module will firstly be developed at national level and then developed at transnational level for ECTS certification. The second production aims to develop and support action-research project in each of the cities. This process will lead to a collective production of a web-documentary and a methodological guide on action-research with young people. The project methodologies are part of the active education field and collaborative research practices that might play an active role, particularly in dialogue with the least integrated and heard young people. The productions will be developed by youth professionals, researchers and young students or volunteers. The expected impact of Partibrigdes is at different levels: -to develop the training offer for students and professionals - to develop skills to support participation processes - to strengthen cooperation between formal and non-formal education - to develop collaborative approach as a teaching tool to support participation of young people - disseminate / enhance the diversity of young people participation
Since 2018, the Partibridges project has been addressing the issue of youth participation in Europe through the exchange of knowledge among multiple actors. This project was led by the French School of Public Health (EHESP), in partnership with nine French, English, Portuguese and Turkish universities and associations. Historically, three of the universities conducted the Partispace Horizon 2020 research between 2015 and 2018 on the participation styles and spaces of 15-30 year olds in 8 European cities. The results show that participation is to be understood in a broad and evolving sense. It is mobilised by young people mainly to develop skills, to become part of a group, to be able to act on their environnent and to find a place in society. The need to support learning spaces and participatory practices of young people in their diversity is tangible. There is also a growing interest among students for active pedagogies and the need to interact with field actors to complement theoretical approaches. The objective of Partibridges is therefore to establish a cooperation between higher education, youth actors and young people, especially those who are far away from the education systems. The aim is to feed existing educational resources while promoting different knowledge, forms and spaces of participation. It is aimed at anyone interested in participation and youth issues, and particularly at youth workers, academics, associations, public decision-makers and young people (students and non-students). Each production was co-constructed by associations and universities, involving young people at each stage, using active and participatory methodologies: The first production consists of face-to-face training courses offered to both students and young people who are far from the training circuits. These modules were then transformed into a European e-training on youth participation. It consists of one unit per country to integrate local contexts. The second output is the experimentation of collaborative research projects, reclassified as participatory action research (PAR), in each country. These experiments resulted in the production of a web documentary to show the PAR process in an accessible form to wide public. A methodological guide was also produced to facilitate future similar experiments (points of vigilance, ethical advices, etc.). We carried out learning activities to achieve our objectives, to increase the transversal knowledge and skills of each person and to encourage the exchange of European practices: During the first week we were trained to design production 1 (face-to-face and online training modules) as well as production 2 (participatory action research). The second week (online) focused on the main theme of implementing participatory projects with young people in times of pandemic. As the Covid19 pandemic had impacted the process halfway through the project, this theme allowed us to train ourselves to ensure the continuity of our activities. The third week (online) was dedicated to the specificities social and cultural diversity and the intercultural approach in youth work. This week focused on the sustainability of the project's methodologies, to allow the members of the consortium to continue their engagement to promote the multiplicity of young people's initiatives in Europe. In order to promote our intellectual productions, 3 dissemination events were organised: a virtual event at the European level, targeting a large audience, and two face-to-face events at the local level in Rennes (France) and Eskisehir (Turkey), targeting a local audience. These events allowed us to increase the visibility of our productions, and to disseminate to a large audience the collaborative and co-constructive methodologies that we used and transferable to their activities. A real exchange of skills and knowledge between the different actors of the 4 countries was allowed by the length and nature of the project. This strong cooperation will continue to exist at the end of Partibridges. The productions are attractive and innovative resources, with free access. They promote the collaborative approach as a pedagogical tool to support the participation of young people and transform the training offer to match better students' and professionals' needs. Thus, Partibridges has helped to develop skills to support participation processes, both for its members and for a wider public.