The right to participation is a universally recognized right, as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes that every human being "has the right to participate in the government of his country, directly or through representatives freely chosen. " Participation must be understood as a civic means to intervene and transform the social environment, taking different forms. The Associationism is a form of participation that has some fundamental characteristics: group of people with common objectives, immersed in an organizational model and with the will to develop a collective action. The associations are called to deploy a series of social functions within their community.On the other hand, the EU Youth Strategy (based on the Council Resolution of 26 November 2018) establishes the momentum of the participation of young people in democratic life, in addition to supporting social and civic commitment, guaranteeing that all young people have the necessary resources to participate in society. The Empoweryouth project wants to respond to these problems through the empowerment of young people. The main objective of our project is to empower youth at the local, regional, national and European level, through the promotion of participation, entrepreneurship and interaction, with a European perspective; all this through the youth workers, monitors, and youth leaders who will be the ones who help young people in the process of empowerment. We will achieve this through the following operational objectives: - Train workers and youth leaders to inform, motivate, train, accompany and advise young people for the development of their life projects through youth participation in its different aspects: associations, personal projects, European programs , meetings, among others. - Share the innovative products that we will develop in the project at an international level (Training manual on youth participation and the online collaborative platform) through different multiplying events to give them visibility and that more young people can benefit from it. - Increase the number of associations, activities and projects at European level in the countries of the consortium. The project will have two target groups: - Workers and youth leaders, to train them about the mechanisms and tools that help foster social and civic participation of young people. - Young people between 14 and 30 years to involve them in the process of empowerment that encourages participation through associations. The project includes a training course on youth participation in which 16 workers and youth leaders of the project partners will participate. Subsequently, workshops will be organized in which youth workers will motivate and teach young people the different forms of participation and social entrepreneurship. The project will include the following intellectual products: O1.- Training manual on youth participation. O2.- Collaborative platform on line about participation and youth social entrepreneurship. The project has the following partners: Consejo de la Juventud de Ciudad Real (Spain), project leader. INNETICA (Spain) ASSOCIACAO JUVENIL DE DEAO - AJD (Portugal) Asociatia Centrul de Copii si Tineret Sfantul Sebastian (Romania). The results of the project will be disseminated in all the countries of the partnership through workshops on the intellectual results. A fundamental pillar for developing solidarity, entrepreneurship and cooperation among young Europeans that form part of the essence of the Erasmus + Youth program is the training of young people to carry out their projects. For this it is necessary to have a structure of information, training and continuous counseling, motivated young people with experience in this field who want to share their experiences and continue to grow through a more European dimension and knowledge of the possibilities offered by Europe in this sense. Empoweryouth will use the new technologies (through a collaborative on line platform) to create a community of youth and youth workers at European level that share knowledge and experiences on participation, associationism and social entrepreneurship that will help to promote the participation of young people in society.
The main goal of our project was to empower youth at a local, regional, national and European level, through the promotion of participation, entrepreneurship and interaction in European environment; all of these activities were realized with youth workers, youth activity managers, youth activity leaders who were going to be the ones to help young people in the empowerment process. We wanted to achieve these goals through the following operational objectives: - Training youth workers and leaders to better inform, motivate, tutor, lead and advise young people in the development of their life projects through youth participation in different ways: associations, personal projects, European programs, meetings, among others. - Sharing the innovative products planned (Training Manual about youth participation and the Online Collaborative Platform), through different multiplier events, giving them visibility and investigating the best that young people can take from these products. - Increasing the amount of European associations, activities and European-wide projects in the consortium countries. The project was created for two target groups: - Youth workers and youth leaders, to inform them about mechanisms, tools and methodologies that help improve and promote social and civic youth participation. - Young people aged between 14 and 30, to involve them in the empowerment process that facilitates their participation, through associations and / or other forms of participation. The fundamental pillar of solidarity, entrepreneurship and cooperation development among young Europeans, is the youth training on how to manage personal projects. For this we need a structured net of information, training and permanent counseling; plus we need motivated and experienced young people wanting to share their thoughts and continue to grow in a European environment, enriching their knowledge of European possibilities. Initially our project aimed to strengthen this base and then expand actions at the European level, which are the basis for achieving the objectives of the Erasmus + Youth program. For all these reasons, we believed that our training project for youth workers and young people from the base was fundamental for the successful use of the programs and projects offered by the different administrations, in order to direct ourselves to the formation of youth and therefore have a more committed, competent and supportive society, from the local and regional to the European level.
We decided to write this project because we felt the need to address a major problem that young people are facing in recent years: their low participation and involvement in society, in politics and in their communities. Moreover, the lack of some key competences needed to enter the job market, worsens their chances for a professional development, contributing to high rates of youth unemployment and lower quality of life.Our project idea was also based on the fact that the right to Participation is a universally recognized right, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes that every human being "has the right to participate in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives” Participation must be understood as a civic means of intervening and transforming the social environment, which can take different forms. Associationism is a form of participation that is commonly represented by a group of people with common objectives, immersed in an organizational model and with the will to develop a collective action. Associations are called to perform a number of social functions within their community. Thus, the Youth Council of Ciudad Real, composed of all the youth associations of the City, is committed to their development. According to the European Commission: "Despite economic recovery and reduced unemployment, inequalities persist, including between generations. There is a real risk that the current generation of young people will end up with worse living conditions than their parents. 29% of young people aged 16-29 are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, and 11.6% of those aged 15-24 do not study, work or receive training (Neet), while 15.9% of young people in this age group, is unemployed, a rate that is twice the one of the mean population” At the 1st State Meeting of Youth Professionals held in Alicante, a series of proposals were developed in order to promote the empowerment and participation of young people. These included the drafting of a Youth Participation Act that will allow for the incorporation of new forms of youth representation as informal groups or youth entities of other types. That is why we wanted to respond to these problems through the empowerment of young people.
The right to participation is a universally recognized right, as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes that every human being "has the right to participate in the government of his country, directly or through representatives freely chosen. " Participation must be understood as a civic means to intervene and transform the social environment, taking different forms. The Associationism is a form of participation that has some fundamental characteristics: group of people with common objectives, immersed in an organizational model and with the will to develop a collective action. The associations are called to deploy a series of social functions within their community.On the other hand, the EU Youth Strategy (based on the Council Resolution of 26 November 2018) establishes the momentum of the participation of young people in democratic life, in addition to supporting social and civic commitment, guaranteeing that all young people have the necessary resources to participate in society. The Empoweryouth project wants to respond to these problems through the empowerment of young people. The main objective of our project is to empower youth at the local, regional, national and European level, through the promotion of participation, entrepreneurship and interaction, with a European perspective; all this through the youth workers, monitors, and youth leaders who will be the ones who help young people in the process of empowerment. We will achieve this through the following operational objectives: - Train workers and youth leaders to inform, motivate, train, accompany and advise young people for the development of their life projects through youth participation in its different aspects: associations, personal projects, European programs , meetings, among others. - Share the innovative products that we will develop in the project at an international level (Training manual on youth participation and the online collaborative platform) through different multiplying events to give them visibility and that more young people can benefit from it. - Increase the number of associations, activities and projects at European level in the countries of the consortium. The project will have two target groups: - Workers and youth leaders, to train them about the mechanisms and tools that help foster social and civic participation of young people. - Young people between 14 and 30 years to involve them in the process of empowerment that encourages participation through associations. The project includes a training course on youth participation in which 16 workers and youth leaders of the project partners will participate. Subsequently, workshops will be organized in which youth workers will motivate and teach young people the different forms of participation and social entrepreneurship. The project will include the following intellectual products: O1.- Training manual on youth participation. O2.- Collaborative platform on line about participation and youth social entrepreneurship. The project has the following partners: Consejo de la Juventud de Ciudad Real (Spain), project leader. INNETICA (Spain) ASSOCIACAO JUVENIL DE DEAO - AJD (Portugal) Asociatia Centrul de Copii si Tineret Sfantul Sebastian (Romania). The results of the project will be disseminated in all the countries of the partnership through workshops on the intellectual results. A fundamental pillar for developing solidarity, entrepreneurship and cooperation among young Europeans that form part of the essence of the Erasmus + Youth program is the training of young people to carry out their projects. For this it is necessary to have a structure of information, training and continuous counseling, motivated young people with experience in this field who want to share their experiences and continue to grow through a more European dimension and knowledge of the possibilities offered by Europe in this sense. Empoweryouth will use the new technologies (through a collaborative on line platform) to create a community of youth and youth workers at European level that share knowledge and experiences on participation, associationism and social entrepreneurship that will help to promote the participation of young people in society.