The Commission proposes a new framework for cooperation on youth over the period 2019-2027, to bring the EU closer to young people and to help address issues of concern to them. In this relation, needs analyses confirm that vulnerable young people face additional obstacles in the integration process, such as discrimination, lack of networking, mismatching job needs and qualifications, community-related commitments. In order to improve their social inclusion, they need support and guidance through their integration process, they need to be informed of their rights and obligations in the host society, they must be empowered, they should have access to trainings and be able to take full advantage of their skills. In this context the current project aims to apply a comprehensive approach providing networking opportunities, practical and transversal skills, and exchange of methodologies for the empowerment of young people in disadvantaged situation, assisting and facilitating their inclusion into the EU societies. The Youth Power project will be based on the practices that using the civics and culture, and especially the benefits of group coaching, could help to bring people from various cultural and ethnic backgrounds together and can contribute to the integration and inclusion of disadvantaged young people and therefore to the community cohesion. Youth Power aims to: - Support disadvantaged young people by providing non-formal education on leadership skills and empowerment, as a way of preventing social exclusion; - Empower and strengthen the role of youth workers/mentors/coaches, exchanging best practices on empowerment pedagogical approaches, making them able to deal with diversity in non-formal learning environment; - Build close cooperation between civil society, youth and local authorities to ensure the active participation of all members of the learning community in empowerment of the youth at risk of exclusion; - Involve the wider community in the promotion of EU strategies for LLL (life-long learning) and social inclusion of disadvantaged young learners. Main target groups will be the youth education providers (social workers, trainers, coaches, mentors, etc.) working with vulnerable young learners, and the disadvantaged young people in 4 EU countries themselves, where their social inclusion was identified as a challenge by the partners' experts. The consortium brings together 4 organisations from Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany and Spain, each of them with specific expertise in the youth education field. The transnational cooperation between public & private sectors is strengthen through the involvement of associated partners, where public institutions will ensure sustainability of the Youth Power outputs. The project duration is 18 months, calculated in order to implement correctly the planned action and achieve the project objectives. Main activities will be the development of Training Programme “Culture, Civics & Group Coaching for Disadvantaged Youth Empowerment” for youth educators in 5 languages; blended mobility where 24 young participants and youth workers from the partners' countries will exchange knowledge and jointly work to develop the planned training units; pilot tests with 120 vulnerable young people in 4 EU Member States; local/regional dissemination events, where total of 120 representatives of the target groups are expected to assist; creation of Youth Power cross-border cooperation Network, website & project social page, expected to reach around 4000 indirect beneficiaries. The methodological approach taken by Youth Power is based on common decision making, adopting the initiative of regular exchange of practices, aiming to ensure that all consortium members are involved in the project’s progress, being aware of specific strengths of particular partners. The working methodology establishes an organic approach where the local and transnational activities are in constant interexchange and nourish each other at the various stages of the project, while dissemination ensures its success and sustainability. By building a common training programme, addressing the needs of the target groups in 4 countries, provided in 5 languages, with the use of art, civics and group coaching, along with a training component on transversal skills, the Youth Power project answers the needs of disadvantaged youth integration, while countering for gender equality and civic awareness at European level. At long-term will be achieved improved independence, self-esteem and self-confidence of the vulnerable young people through empowerment sessions and civic engagement; better relationship between disadvantaged youth and the host EU societies; promotion of new tools in the youth education field for social inclusión of vulnerable learners; transfer of knowledge and best practices between youth educators in the partner countries and the rest of the EU, thanks to the planned Youth Power follow-up activities.
El partenariado del proyecto Youth Power ha unido fuerzas para conseguir los siguientes objetivos: - Apoyar a los jóvenes desfavorecidos proporcionandoles educación no formal sobre habilidades de liderazgo y empoderamiento, como una forma de prevenir la exclusión social; - Empoderar y fortalecer el papel de los trabajadores/mentores/formadores juveniles, intercambiando mejores prácticas sobre enfoques pedagógicos de empoderamiento, haciéndolos capaces de lidiar con la diversidad en un entorno de aprendizaje no formal; - Construir una estrecha cooperación entre la sociedad civil, la juventud y las autoridades locales para asegurar la participación activa de todos los miembros de la comunidad educativa en el empoderamiento de la juventud en riesgo de exclusión; - Involucrar a la comunidad en general en la promoción de estrategias de la Unión Europea para aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida y la inclusión social de jóvenes en situación de desventaja social. Los principales grupos objetivo erán los trabajadores juveniles (formadores, mentores, etc.) que trabajan con jóvenes vulnerables y los jóvenes con menos oportunidades en 4 países de la UE, donde su inclusión social fue identificada como un desafío social por expertos en el campo.
La Comisión Europea ha propuesto un nuevo marco para la cooperación en materia de juventud durante el período 2019-2027, para acercar la UE a los jóvenes y ayudar a abordar las cuestiones que les preocupan. En esta relación, el análisis de necesidades en los 4 paises socios del proyecto confirmaron que los jóvenes vulnerables se enfrentan a obstáculos adicionales en el proceso de integración, como la discriminación, la falta de trabajo, el desajuste laboral entre necesidades del mercado y calificaciones, y falta de compromisos relacionados con la comunidad. Para mejorar su inclusión social, los jovenes con menos oportunidades necesitan apoyo y orientación a lo largo de su proceso de integración, necesitan ser informados de sus derechos y obligaciones en la sociedad, necesitan empoderarse con conocimientos, tener acceso a formaciones y poder aprovechar al máximo sus habilidades. En este contexto, el proyecto Youth Power tuvo como objetivo principal aplicar un enfoque integral que brinde oportunidades de trabajo en red, desarrollo de habilidades prácticas y transversales, e intercambio de metodologías para el empoderamiento de los jóvenes en situación desfavorecida, asistiendo y facilitando su inclusión en las sociedades europeas.