"Youth worker in debate" is an Erasmus + K2 Strategic partnership project - Exchange of good practices in the youth sector. The project has a duration of 24 months with the start date of June 2019. The participating organisations belong to three countries - Italy, Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia - which well represent the basic value of the European Union: "United in diversity" (including in this concept the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as a candidate country) and represent a set of heterogeneous realities whose competences are completed and enriched. The project has two main priorities: to promote, through the methodology of the Debate, the quality of youth work and the empowerment of young people. The flow of project activities and the work plan outlined have been planned in relation to and in line with these two priorities, with the aim of promoting, through a process of non-formal education and through youth work, the ability of young people to develop their own critical thinking, increasing their participation and their sense of belonging to the values of global citizenship. In line with the priorities and objectives of the project, the participants (about 40 in total) are young people aged18 to 30 who will participate, during the two years of the project, to a series of common activities, both at local and transnational level. In short, the activities envisaged by the project are divided into three phases. The first phase is focussed on training activities on the Debate methodology for the young workers that will start through a joint training activity of five days in Italy. The second phase foresees, in all three partner countries, at local level, the implementation of a non formal educational path to the Debate methodology for a group of 8 young people (for a total of 24 people). The activities will last approximately 12 months and will be implemented through three workshops managed by the youth workers who will have taken part to the first phase of activity and to the joint training activity staff; the workshops will be supported by the use of Google Classroom, Finally, during the third phase, at the end of the training workshops, the young and the participating youth workers, together, will take part to the final blended mobilities in Greece during which transnational Debate activities will be organised. During this phase of activity the participants will be invited to elaborate proposals on the chosen theme (immigration) to be presented to the local authorities of each individual country. The topic has been selected in relation to the analysis of the national contexts of the three countries and in relation to the relevance of the topic within the European and global context. The project path will allow the reading of the phenomenon from an extended point of view with the aim of assessing the phenomenon from a historical perspective at national, European and international level. This approach will allows the analysis of the phenomenon in a broader context: internal migrations, intra-European migration and extra-European migration. The expected results are related to a progressive improvement of the competence and skills of the young workers and young participants, as well as of the participating and associated organisations. As anticipated, within the project the use of the Google classroom platform is envisaged, as a supporting tool; the implementation of a project site; the drafting of guidelines for the use of the Debate methodology in the field of non-formal youth education; the drafting of a series of proposals to improve immigration policies. The project represents an opportunity for growth for all participants and was designed with a view to future development and transfer of experience, in different contexts and on different topics.
The outlined work plan was planned in line with the priorities identified (promoting, through the Debate methodology, the quality of youth work and youth empowerment) and with the aim of promoting, through a process of non-formal education and through youth work, the ability of young people to develop their own critical thinking, increasing their participation and their sense of belonging to global citizenship. By deciding to work on the project idea, we wanted to respond to two main needs identified within our organisations and in the local contexts of reference: the need to use methodologies to promote young people's thinking through a structured dialogue; the lack of knowledge among young people on the topic of migration. These needs led us to the identification of the Debate methodology and the choice of the topic: a choice that allowed us to carry out an experimentation process together with youth workers and young participants and to define a replicable process, both within the partner organisations, including the associated partners, and by other youth organisations.
The reference context of the project is the one outlined by the Council of Europe: "Work Plan for Youth 2016/2018", through which the Council has set the objective for Member States to increase the participation of young people in democratic and civic life in Europe, inviting them to promote the themes of active citizenship and participation. The EU promotes in particular the instrument of structured dialogue, the Open Method of Coordination and public consultations, but also invites to look for other forms of participation, considering it crucial that young people participate in political life, knowing the context and the rules and then act actively by acquiring crucial transversal skills. In this context and through the application of the Debate methodology, the partners intended to contribute to the promotion of a replicable pathway for the experimentation of conscious and shared forms of participation. The needs to which the project responded are, in brief, the following: 1. to promote, through the Debate methodology, the empowerment of young people, 2. to promote the quality of youth work, also through the creation of tools for social innovation.