The aim of the project is to give effective tools to young women living in rural areas to take up their lives thanks to specific entrepreneurial training in sustainable development, to foster their employability, socio-educational and personal development. Through the promotion of green thinking, raising awareness of sustainability, promoting the development in rural and/or isolated areas, exchanging good practices, providing expertise and knowledge for women from rural areas, the project will considerably promote the entrepreneurship education and activities amongst young women. As stated in the European Green Deal for the European Union (2019), the future development of the EU must be green and sustainable, or it shouldn’t be at all. Offering young people and particularly young women, tools, to improve their potential in the labour market and, at the same time, find sustainable solutions to support the local development of their rural communities, is a good strategy to have a “greener” Europe. This is also in line with the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals and with what is called for in the UNESCO’s Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Addressing sustainability, development of rural areas and capacity building/training opportunities for young people is the key to make sure that younger generations, even in disadvantaged conditions, can be the real change-makers. In fact, YOU_WEEN! focuses on young women as they suffer from a particularly challenging set of educational barriers, due to cultural, political, social reasons that leave them out of education or job market: nearly 14% of world’s young women are unemployed (UNESCO, 2016) and are considered globally as a vulnerable youth category, having limited knowledge of their civic and political rights, including the capacity to express their political and social views (UN Interpeace). On the other hand, it has been shown by numerous studies and field researches that working with young women becomes particularly effective thanks to the social role played by women since when they have the opportunity and the skills to do it, women take the lead of the social change (UN Womenwatch Organization). YOU_WEEN! objectives are: - train the trainers about instruments for rural development, (social) entrepreneurship, women empowerment, and sustainable ideas - start rural development local grass-roots initiatives lead by young women - Inspire rural communities for agro-economic and social change - Share good practices of rural development and women empowerment in Consortium countries - develop 3 I.O.: 1- Set of educational videos 2- Virtual Interactive Network and platform 3- Exploitation roadmap and guidelines for policy influence - Strengthen Consortium partnership by developing common events and activities Therefore, at the end of the project, we’ll have: - 280 young women involved, that will have, as results: - empowered entrepreneurial and managerial skills; - discovered insights and knowledge about different rural life, hidden opportunities and organizational structures (in terms of business and entrepreneurship); - improved communication, interpersonal and foreign language skills; - refined and increased teamwork capacity, social skills, cultural awareness, acceptance of cultural diversity, increased tolerance to others and gender equality; - raised awareness and knowledge about environmental issues and good practices as well as sustainable solutions; - better ICT competences thanks to the use of the platform and the creation of innovative content; - increased self-confidence and self-worthiness; At the end of the project the 56+ Youth workers will have: - improved competences in non-formal training methodologies; - improved communication, interpersonal and foreign language skills; - improved ICT competences; - experience in leading youth groups in sustainable grass-roots projects. The intellectual outputs are all addressed to foster the long-term impact, as they will remain available for further training and bottom-up projects, as well as the Virtual Network that should become a reference for young women all over Europe. Moreover, each community will have trained youth workers that will continue applying the acquired competences with other young women willing to improve their entrepreneurial potential in the framework of sustainable development. At the same time, we hope and seek out that the young women that had participated to the project will continue their path in promoting sustainable development, as well as involving their peers and their communities. The effectiveness of the bottom-up approach is a fundamental pillar for guaranteeing the project sustainability over time, while the tools such as the educational videos will remain at disposal and eventually updated by the youth workers.
The project addressed the key competencies in the development of entrepreneurial skills, as identified by the EU as the capacity to act upon opportunities and ideas, and to transform them into values for others, working on both young women and youth workers. The project will reach out to young disadvantaged women and stimulate their active participation, reshaping the local communities by enhancing their entrepreneurial skills in a sustainable framework, thus addressing their social inclusion and well-being and their participation in democratic life. Youth workers will be trained in digital, entrepreneurial, and peacebuilding skills and will pilot good practices through grassroots projects and local engagement actions. Objectives: - train the trainers about instruments for rural development, (social) entrepreneurship, women empowerment, and sustainable ideas - start rural development local grass-roots initiatives led by young women - inspire rural communities for agroeconomic and social change - share good practices of rural development and women empowerment in Consortium countries - develop 3 IOs: 1- Set of educational videos 2- Virtual Interactive Network and platform 3- Exploitation roadmap and guidelines for policy influence - Strengthening Consortium partnerships by developing common events and activities YOU_WEEN! project's final beneficiaries are young women who live in rural areas, while young groups, youth leaders, and trainers who deal with rural affairs are the target group for training activities and they will be in charge of training young women in rural areas and involving them in grass-roots projects. There was be 1 LTTA aimed at training the trainers (short-term joint staff training event) followed by local activities and the set up of grass-roots projects. There will be a final blended mobility for young women that will lay the foundations of the European network.
The aim of the project was to give effective tools to young women living in rural areas to take up their lives thanks to specific entrepreneurial training in sustainable development, fostering their employability, and socio-educational and personal development. Through the promotion of green thinking, raising awareness of sustainability, promoting development in rural and/or isolated areas, exchanging good practices, and providing expertise and knowledge for women from rural areas, the project will considerably promote entrepreneurship education and activities amongst young women. In fact, young women with fewer opportunities coming from rural areas are the main target group of the project. Participating to the YOU_WEEN! the project, they will improve their level of key competencies and skills as well as have an effective strategy to enter the labor market, at the same time enhancing their social and intercultural skills. Putting emphasis on the social inclusion and training of women in less advantaged areas to plant seeds for their professional careers, business and community development, and well-being, will result in greater growth and economic activity in rural areas, as well as will motivate other youth to search for niches in these areas without moving out to urban areas. In fact, “Aging and out-migration of younger qualified people due to fewer education opportunities, poorer job opportunities, lower access to public services, transport or infrastructures, as well as the higher risk of poverty and social exclusion are the key reasons for the decline in local rural populations” (LUISA report, 2018: Territorial Facts and Trends in the EU Rural Areas within 2015-2030). As stated in the European Green Deal for the European Union (2019), the future development of the EU must be green and sustainable, or it shouldn’t be at all. Offering young people and particularly young women, tools, to improve their potential in the labor market and, at the same time, find sustainable solutions to support the local development of their rural communities, is a good strategy to have a “greener” Europe. As a horizontal priority, we aimed at "supporting individuals in acquiring basic skills and key competencies", since it stands as a pillar for the outcomes of the YOU_WEEN! project by means it will provide knowledge, and develop skills and competencies for participants, thanks to non-formal learning methodologies. Nevertheless, project implementation attracted attention and raised awareness about the importance and relevance of developing skills in rural areas and that there are unique opportunities in these regions that are often forgotten. Therefore, it's crucial to be proactive and take leadership in those areas. As the second youth priority, we choose “engaging, connecting and empowering young people”, as one of the project’s major outcomes has been the creation of a “European Network of Grassroots initiatives of Young Women green entrepreneurs”, thus fostering their civic participation, and creating a resource that will remain after the project’s end as a mean for connecting groups of young women in all Europe, that share as common values the idea of a “Greener Europe” and the importance of young people's sense of initiative. The project also fostered the creation of synergies across different areas of action that matter for young women in order to let them lead “grass-roots initiatives” involving and supporting their local communities. Addressing sustainability, development of rural areas and capacity building/training opportunities for young people is also in line with what is called for in the UNESCO’s Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), which is “a concrete response to the urgent need for a new way of living that respects the limits of our planet’s resources while enhancing our collective well-being” and where 2 priorities specifically tackle Youth Empowerment and Accelerating sustainable solutions at the local level. At the same time the project YOU_WEEN! responds to SDG 10 “Reduce inequalities” – since we involved young women from disadvantaged groups – and SDG 5 “Gender equality”. In fact, although gender disparity is higher in developing countries, compared to the developed countries (Ahmed et al., 2001), in the EU women are still a long way off from achieving full economic independence, with higher unemployment and under-employment rates (EU Equality Report, 2018). Likewise, the Global Sustainable Development Report 2019 emphasizes that “achieving the SDGs fundamentally requires decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation, while at the same time, reducing social and gender inequalities in wealth, income and access to opportunities”: this is way YOU_WEEN!’s challenge is to work at the same time on gender equality, sustainable development in rural areas while offering high-quality training and opportunities to young women.