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Building Europe Together - BE YOUTH

2019-2-DE04-KA105-0181122019Youth mobilityfinalized
Countries: DE|BG|CZ|EL|SK|ES|RO|IT · Grant: €12,110
Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)Rural development and urbanisationReaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers

Objectives

"Building Europe Together – BE YOUTH" will be a Partnership Building Activity which will involve 20 participants from Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece, Spain and Italy. The event will take place in Berlin (Germany) from 09 to 14 December 2019 (6 activity days + 1 travel day) and its addressed to youth workers, social workers and local administrators, who have developed a special interest in urban sustainability and have already worked on social inclusion of young people in urban marginalized areas. According to The Objectives for 2014-2020 set by the European Commission, during the 2014-2020 programming period, European cities will benefit even more from the EU's Regional Policy: Urban areas are directly targeted by several of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) investment priorities. This means greater opportunity for sustainable urban mobility, regeneration of deprived communities and improved research and innovation capacity. In each EU Member State, a minimum 5 % of the ERDF is earmarked for integrated sustainable urban development; its on-the-ground deployment will be decided and directed by urban authorities. Due to the social media invasion and the increase of the online presence of people, the urban centres are losing their historical characteristics. The city centre doesn't seem to be anymore the beating heart of the city, and this causes serious consequences at the economical and social level. Taking into account Eurostat studies as a landmark for our project, more than 80% of the young people have been using the internet and social media on a daily basis. This leads to some concerns over the use of the internet centre on the safety of children and young people and their behaviour, for example, increasing solitude as young people withdraw to a private place to go online. This fact is related to other urban problems that are spreading more and more: - city fragmentation: the new meeting points are the big shopping centres (malls), which are really crowded and it appears as a social melting pot and a meeting point of youngsters; - social exclusion of people who live at the peripheral areas or slums provoking a sense of frustration and isolation; - young deviance: city centre sites and parks as a meeting point for fights among gangs from neighbouring areas, vandals or pickpocketing; - state of abandonment and decay of the historical city centre and closure of traditional shops which are losing their attractiveness; - abuse of the car as a means of transportation, lack of cycling lanes, pedestrian zones, and, as a result, lack of respect for pedestrians, for the environment and for people with disabilities. Young people (especially the generation between 18 and 30) seem to have no interest in living in the city centre. Historical shops are just crowded with tourists. For the youngster, this means increasing social marginalization, apathy, loss of cultural identity, reducing job opportunities and socialization. The purpose of the meeting is to begin a reflection leading to the creation of concrete projects, in order to contribute the resolution of the problems exposed in Berlin, to be then transferred in the contexts of all the cities involved. The project is an opportunity for the exchange of ideas and best practices among social workers and youth in order to raise awareness on urban social issues and to stimulate active participation of youth in society strengthening their civic competences. Furthermore, the development of this network and designing a sustainable strategy for the development of projects at local, national and European levels offer the partners the possibility to collaboratively develop methods, projects, learn, implement and revive the urban areas with the active support of young people. And by doing so, touching indirectly on several priorities of the Erasmus+ programme: intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, common values of freedom, tolerance and respect of human rights as well as a sense of initiative of young people. Specifically, partner promoters seek to achieve the following objectives: - to develop a sensitivity to urban problems supporting the development of initiatives aimed at promoting active citizenship; - to create a thematic network of partners promoting cooperation through the exchange of good practices, youth mobility through exchange programmes, social inclusion through initiatives and local events; - to explore the concrete opportunity of implementation future project ideas within the Erasmus + Programme Youth Chapter, considering several actions and elaborating contributions in the form of future projects, especially in the field of non-formal and intercultural exchange.

Project partners (8)