"Deepening democracy! - a strategy for improving the quality of democracy in school context" is a project of 24 months duration coordinated by YUPI organization in Famalicão, Portugal, in close partnership with other portuguese partner (Agrupamento de Escolas Camilo Castelo Branco), Poland (EPI and Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace w Kielcach) and Romania (Asociatia feedback PM-Brasov and Colegiul National de Informatica Grigore Moisil), for a total number of 1700 young pupils and more then 140 youth workers and teachers in the 3 European countries involved (140 teachers and youth workers and over 60 students will have the chance to engage in international learning experiences). The partners are schools and non governmental organizations already experienced in working in close cooperation for a better integrated system of education for young people, combining formal and non formal learning. "Deepening democracy!" aims at contributing to the recognition of the importance of cooperation between non formal and formal education systems in order to offer the young pupils a more integrated education and allow more adequate strategies to integrate young people in the society. The partners are coming from disadvantaged areas of their countries, where geographical, social and economic obstacles are conditioning the development of young people and the mobility experience for learning, especially for young girls. The two topics chosen by the partners for the local activities in close cooperation between the non formal and formal sectors are 1) method of sociocracy for a more engaged decision-making in schools; 2) Sustainable development goals for a more sustainable strategy of the school. These topics are channels on how to involve young pupils in activities supported by youth workers and teachers inside classrooms and schools. Our main goal is to create an international network of partners interested and cooperating for the recognition of combining non formal and formal educational for a more comprehensive education alternative for young pupils, therefore contributing for a better development of the local community. We act at different levels to achieve this goal: local activities under the topics, coordinators meetings, staff training events for youth workers and teachers and short term exchanges of groups of pupils and multiplier events at every country involved in order to disseminate the outcomes and output presentations, as well as the 2 intellectual outputs developed, reaching a higher number of local partners interested in mainstreaming the tools. The outputs created during the implementation and closing stage of this project are: a Guide on Sociocracy with results of the research on in each school on how decision-making is happening and what can be done for improving the quality of democracy and an Educational game on Sustainable Development Goals created in collaboration between teachers, students and youth workers to inform and explore the strategy of SDG's in a more youth friendly and interactive way. All these tools will allow the improvement of quality of practices from all professionals involved and also contribute to the sustainability of this project after the funding ends and the dissemination of results towards other interested partners.
1. Strengthen Cooperation Between Formal and Non-Formal Sectors: enhance collaboration between educational institutions and establish a more democratic and participative environment within schools by leveraging the expertise and innovative methods of the non-formal sector. 2. Empowerment of Young People: empower our students by motivating them to actively engage in problem-solving 3. Development of International and regional Network and Strategies: create a platform for cross-border collaboration and knowledge exchange. 4. Support Disadvantaged Youth Participation: facilitate their involvement in decision-making and create a more inclusive and equitable educational experience 5. Enhance Staff capacity: identify gaps in the training of youth workers and teachers in addressing democratic life and SDGs and enhance their capacity. 6. Promote Mobility Learning Experiences: provide young people with enriching learning experiences The objective was to bring about positive changes in the educational landscape by bridging formal and non-formal education, empowering young individuals, and nurturing active citizenship at local and international level.
We noticed that the participation of students in the democratic life and the decision-making process had significantly decreased and were concerned about the lack of active engagement and wanted to nurture responsible and proactive citizenship among students. We were actively seeking methods to involve and motivate students to take a more active role in school life. The tools offered by the project appeared to be perfect solutions for our challenges and would work effectively in empowering and motivating our students to actively participate in the process of problem-solving and decision-making. Additionally, we identified the importance of SDGs, either not addressed or in a very theoretical way. We were already aware of environmental issues, their knowledge about SDGs and the measures taken by EU countries to address these concerns was limited. The project's alignment with our needs, its focus on participatory methodologies, and its potential to educate on SDGs and active citizenship were the key factors that motivated us to apply. We were determined to reverse the decline in student engagement, encourage responsible citizenship, and promote a more participatory and sustainable school environment.