OBJECTIVES TO:DAY will develop an engagement and participation tool co-designed by young people (YP) and youth workers to create ‘Takeover Days’ - events that enable YP to ‘take over’ a service in a local authority or other public institution for one day. Their purpose is to engage young people and raise their awareness of the roles that these institutions play in EU democracy as well as in their own lives as active citizens. Led by a UK local authority, partners from IT, ES and RO will introduce the concept of Takeover Days to their countries as an informal learning tool to promote youth empowerment. As actors within the fields of youth, public policy, culture, education and social welfare, all partners have long term development strategies to widen the participation of young people. The project will: 1. Develop a framework and materials (TO:DAY Toolkit) for 40 youth workers and 100 YP (aged 16-24) to co-design ‘Takeover Days 2. Create an informal learning materials for active citizenship and supporting competences 3. Embed a virtual mobility to learn about active citizenship and the role of public institutions 4. Hold a ‘Take Over Camp’ for one week in RO for 40 YP and 8 youthworkers 5. Create Takeover Days for each partner 6. Create a transferable, participatory impact assessment modelt 7. Validate the experience of the YP using Youthpass 7. Disseminate and exploit the concept of the Takeover Day widely CONTEXT AND NEED Many young people feel remote from their communities, civil institutions and policies that affect their daily and future lives. 26+ million of the 90 million YP aged 15-29 in the EU, are at risk of poverty and social exclusion when rated on the AROPE scale. This project addresses needs reported by YP consulted for this application which include lack of motivation and direction and uncertainty about their role in the world. Most of the project’s target group of young people have fewer opportunities because they are NEET, in poverty and lack key skills and competences. Many are marginalised which can lead to loss motivation, to mental ill-health and sometimes extremism. The project offers youth workers new tools and informal learning materials to provide inspiration and practical activities for youth workers. METHODS This is a highly collaborative project with youth workers and young people.YP and youth workers will co-design the informal learning programme and materials used to support the planning and implementation of the Takeover Days and also participatory impact assessment tools – these elements will comprise the ‘TO:DAY Toolkit'. As the UK is the only partner with experience of Takeover Days, it will provide the initial model for partners to explore. This will be supported by research and mapping of activities promoting youth empowerment and participation in each partner country to inform the development of the TODAY kit. A series of participatory workshops combining critical thinking and the ‘mango tree’ approach will be held with young people to create the Toolkit. Intellectual outputs have been carefully planned to cover different elements of the TO:Day Kit with the 4th and final IO a substantial document detailing the experiences and lessons learned and policy recommendations. INNOVATION The project provides youth workers with an innovative, in 3 of the 4 partner countries, tool - the Takeover Day Toolkit, to use informal, experiential learning to encourage the participation and empowerment of young people .It will develop a participatory evaluation framework (which is an innovation for all 4 partners) to help youth workers and YP assess the impact of the 'Takeover day' on their lives. YP will be involved in co-creating the project's intellectual outputs and have been involved in the preparation of this application through Wandsworth's Youth Forum. IMPACT YOUNG PEOPLE will become empowered through an improved understanding and awareness of civil and other institutions and active citizenship. YOUTH WORKERS will improve professional development and skills and gain access to new learning methods. PARTNERS will enhance their widening participation of young people strategies. LOCAL authorities, policy makers and other relevant stakeholders will be shown the potential to exploit Takeover Days as another measure for promoting youth participation and contributing to social and economic cohesion, particularly through the project’s Roadmap Paper. TRANSNATIONAL organisations will have access to the TO:DAY Kit etc available freely over the Internet; contribution made to the development of participation tools and methods which partners will promote own countries and they have great potential to become common across the EU. PARTICIPANT PROFILE Participants are aged 16-24, 70% have fewer opportunities, 10% special needs, including: • Care leavers • NEET • learning disabilities • mental health problems • Migrants • isolated rural areas
CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND Many young people feel remote from their communities, civil institutions and policies that affect their daily and future lives. 26+ million of the 90 million YP aged 15-29 in the EU, are at risk of poverty and social exclusion when rated on the AROPE scale. This project addressed the needs reported by YP that were consulted in preparing the project application and throughout the project. About 70% of the project’s target group of young people were from backgrounds with fewer opportunities and many lacked confidence and key skills. The project developed new tools and informal learning materials to provide inspiration and practical activities for youth workers, related practitioners and young people themselves, to help motivate young people to engage in active citizenship, the wider society and the world of work. Led by Wandsworth Council, UK, partners from NGO and school sectors in IT, ES and RO successfully introduced the concept of the Takeover Day to their countries as an informal learning and engagement tool to promote youth engagement, active citizenship, empowerment and build bridges to employers. OBJECTIVES The project created an engagement and participation toolkit co-designed with young people (YP) and youth workers to create ‘Takeover Days’ are events where YP ‘take over’ a service/function in a public institution or private enterprise for one day. Their is to engage young people and give them a practical opportunity to experience high-level decision-making in a real work environment and to raise their awareness of the role of public and private enterprise in EU democracy. PARTICIPANT PROFILE The 126 young people taking part were aged 16-24, 70% had fewer opportunities or special needs.Their backgrounds included: • Migrants and BAME • Deprived inner city areas • Isolated rural areas • Learning disabilities/mental health problems • Poverty • In care & care leavers ACTIVITIES As the UK was the only partner with experience of Takeover Days, it provided an initial model for partners to explore. The project’s needs analysis researched and mapped activities promoting youth empowerment and participation in each partner country to inform the development of the Toolkit. Participatory workshops were also held with young people to inform the needs analysis and development of the intellectual outputs. Based on this information, partners created a 'Takeover Day Toolkit' in two parts: 1) an online Guide to creating a Takeover Day (IO1) and 2) a set of supporting skills activities (IO2). These were discussed and tested at the project’s transnational camp – (5 x days of indoor/outdoor informal workshops) and virtual mobility. Following this, the toolkit was tested by partners through a programme of workshops and Takeover Days with a range of public institutions including museums, schools and local authority services. In addition to these, private enterprises were also added to the programme as many young people, particularly in RO, expressed an interest in exploring these environments. The toolkit and other materials are freely available on the project website. The project was affected in its last months by the Covid 19 crisis. This meant that not all the planned Takeover Days and workshops could be carried out – although each partner was able to carry out at least two before the lockdown. Two multiplier events took place online - in RO and IT - and the final TPM was also held online. RESULTS AND IMPACT • 126 young people and 28 youthworkers took part in the project, including 39 YP and 8 youthworkers in the international mobility • 11 institutions/employers hosted a Takeover Day • Online Toolkit consisting of a Guide to creating a Takeover Day with 40+ supporting skills activities translated into partner languages. • An audience of 11500+ was reached via publicity on partners’ websites, newsletters and the project’s social media. • Young people improved: their self-confidence, leadership and communications skills; their understanding of the institutions/enterprises they ‘took over’ and knowledge of Erasmus+ and the EU. • Youthworkers have fresh engagement tools and and improved knowledge of E+ • Partners strengthened their widening participation strategies • LOCAL authorities, policy makers and other stakeholders have access ro fresh tools to promote youth participation, contributing to social and economic cohesion. TRANSNATIONAL The toolkit and case studies are available freely over the Internet for 3+ years; the toolkit has been adopted by partners and the concept is already being transferred to other countries: e.g. a KA2 VET application is being prepared by XANO and WCLL to transfer the Takeover concept to Portugal, Netherlands and Lithuania; the Ministry of Work in Peru has expressed interest in the concept following presentations of the project to meetings at the ministry and regional governments by XANO in its advisory role to the government on youth participation.