PADIGE’s goal is to increase democratic legitimacy by promoting the possibilities and the initiatives that the European Union offers to partake in the decision making process. More specifically, PADIGE focuses on the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), aiming to facilitate the initial phases of ECI proposals preparation through the development of a platform that allows young people to share ideas and get in contact with peers that share the same ideas. PADIGE also goes further than that, by establishing a shared platform in which proposals can be co-written and implemented. Furthermore, PADIGE will create a Guide for Youth Workers which will contain a blended learning course, combining asynchronous and synchronous learning (through webinars) which will aim at training youths on how to apply participatory design methodology into preparing a European Citizens Initiative on the topic of Gender Equality. Additionally, it will create guidelines, methods and advice on how Youth Workers can successfully transfer this knowledge to their youth pupils. The project aims to involve young Europeans (aged 18-29) through the innovative methodology for Participatory Design of European Citizens Initiative. Special attention will be given to the involvement of NEETs and young people with limited opportunities (30% representation) as well as to the 50-50 gender balance of participating youths. The specific objectives of the project are: - To raise the awareness about the European Citizens Initiative as an instrument of European “direct democracy”; - To provide high quality trainings and tools for Participatory Design of ECIs by using an innovative approach, such as the creation of a blended learning programme and the development of a wiki platform; - To raise awareness among young people about the importance of Gender Equality - To provide civic engagement opportunities to disadvantaged young people - To have an impact on the EU law creation by presenting a new proposal based on the concept of Participatory Design. PADIGE has 2 main Intellectual outputs: IO1 Online platform for Participatory Design of European Citizens Initiative The platform will be based on a wiki tool and will allow the creation of an ECI proposal by youths, on the topic of gender equality, by using participatory design methodology. IO2 Guide for Youth Workers A Guide aimed at Youth professionals that will contain a course which will include synchronous learning with webinars. The course will be divided into modules and will focus on participatory design methodology, ECI and gender equality. A research report on good practices in participatory design and ECI design will also be included. Apart from the course, the Guide will also contain guidelines and methods on how to successfully implement this course with youths. Other outputs of the project include: - Youth focus groups to access their opinions about the structure of the platform - Awareness raising campaigns (social media, participation in youth festivals) targeting youths in order to recruit participants in the IO1 platform The partnership is composed by 6 partners from 5 different European countries, namely France, Greece, Latvia, Spain and Italy, all active in the fields of youth work, training, equal rights/ gender equality promotion and digital tools development. PADIGE aims to have significant impact at many levels, which may fall into two main macro-categories reflecting the objectives of the project. The first one is related to the ECI initiative. As the data showed since its establishment in 2012, the impact of the initiative hasn’t been as wide as expected and its intrinsic potentiality not yet fully exploited. This is particularly true for young people: less than 30% of the individuals that participated in the ECIs were under 28. Not only will the project raise awareness on the initiative, but it will also prompt a more active participation from youths. In fact, through the project outputs, the awareness raising campaigns and the learning activities, the project aims at facilitating the whole process, by providing young people and youth workers with information as well as helping them in the development of the required skills for the design of ECI proposals. The use of participatory design as a method to collaborate is expected to engage and motivate young people and create long term impact on their involvement in public policy. Youth workers and trainees will have the chance to apply it all in the creation of an ECI proposal focused on gender equality. By actively working on a specific topic, the youth participants will go in depth into gender equality and awareness on the status quo while developing important skills.
Notre principal objectif dans la mise en œuvre du projet PADIGE était de stimuler la participation démocratique aux initiatives citoyennes européennes (ICE) et de mettre l'accent sur l'égalité entre les hommes et les femmes. Nous avons cherché à combler le manque de ressources disponibles pour la participation publique, en particulier pour les jeunes marginalisés, en créant un guide et une plateforme en ligne. Ces outils ont été conçus pour faciliter un processus plus inclusif et compréhensible pour la participation des ICE. Notre objectif était de démocratiser le processus de création des ICE et de permettre ainsi aux citoyens de contribuer de manière significative à l'élaboration des politiques de l'UE. En somme, nous voulions utiliser ce projet comme une plateforme pour mettre l'accent sur l'égalité entre les hommes et les femmes, étant donné qu'elle est essentielle pour garantir des processus démocratiques équilibrés. L'objectif était de veiller à ce que les ICE élaborées à l'aide de nos outils tiennent compte de la dimension de genre et favorisent une représentation égale.
Nous avons posé notre candidature pour le projet PADIGE afin de répondre à un besoin important, celui de favoriser un processus plus participatif dans la conception des initiatives citoyennes européennes (ICE). Nous avons identifié des lacunes dans la connaissance, la compréhension et l'utilisation des ICE en tant qu'outils démocratiques, en particulier parmi les jeunes marginalisés et diverses organisations à travers l'Europe. Notre objectif était de doter les individus, les organisations, et en particulier les jeunes, des connaissances et des compétences nécessaires pour participer efficacement aux processus démocratiques de l'Union européenne et en tirer profit. Plus précisément, le but était de développer des ressources qui pourraient permettre à tous les citoyens, en particulier les jeunes et les groupes marginalisés, de contribuer activement aux ICE. Nous nous sommes attachés à favoriser un processus de conception participatif intégrant l'égalité des sexes comme thème central. Le projet visait à élaborer un guide et une plateforme en ligne qui permettraient une plus grande accessibilité, une compréhension et une participation faciles à la conception des ICE, ainsi que la possibilité d'aborder les questions de genre.