Addressing Youth Skills and Community Youth Inclusion processes to Facilitate the Next Generation of Young Community Leaders

<< Background >>Ballyhoura Development and the project partners applied for support for this project to explore and address challenges for (i) young people living in rural areas in accessing volunteer opportunities within local community groups and (ii) community organisations in rural areas that are struggling with succession planning and transitioning of the volunteer base of the group to drive on with the next generation of community-led local development. The project took place in the Context of: (i) Rural Change - Understanding rural change and identifying the needs of communities, particularly young people living in rural areas, to ensure a sustained rural community. (ii) Rural Young People - An inclusive and youth-centred approach is required to address challenges in rural areas such as inclusion, social services, economy, and climate change. (iii) Community Led Local Development - Local actors are considered best placed to identify challenges and maximise the benefit of local assets by working collectively to implement local development strategies (iv) Covid-19 Impact - The crisis highlighted the vulnerabilities of rural areas and a larger impact on young people in terms of inclusion in local food, education and social inclusion.<< Objectives >>The project prioritises Inclusion and Diversity and Participation in Democratic Life as strategic outcomes..General Objectives: Enhance through lifelong learning the awareness, interest, knowledge and participation of young people living in rural and remote areas and facing socio-economic difficulties, in civic participation and community-led local development activities, thereby contributing to community inclusion, social innovation, sustainability growth and quality economic opportunities. Specific Objectives • Promote informal learning and mobility and create key tools to facilitate 32 Young Rural Leaders, to develop skills to effectively engage with local community development groups around topics such as group succession planning and continuity, climate change, digital transition, growth and jobs and good governance. • Create key tools to facilitate community groups, to develop skills to effectively engage with young people to facilitate collaboration, inclusion and innovation at the level of local community organisations. • Strengthen young people's professional and personal development and ability to engage with and contribute effectively to rural community resilience to future civic, social, cultural, and environmental.<< Implementation >>Project Activities 1. Project Management Project & partner preparation, partnership agreements and governance. 2. 4- Transnational Meetings. 3. Teach, Train, Learn Activities Mobility activities - Train the Trainer - Youth training and exchange workshops 4. Project Results (i) Research report. (ii) Design and development of youth engagement and training materials, trainer materials and e-learning portal. (iii) Pilot Training (iv) Design and development of community inclusion toolkits. 5. Multiplier Events and Dissemination. 6: Communication Plan and delivery of the ongoing communication and dissemination of project activities and learning 7. Monitoring & Evaluation activities to assess progress against the objectives of the project to optimise the impact. 8. A Community Youth Inclusion Toolkit and group engagement to support the facilitation of young people in local community development planning, design and delivery.. 9. A series of online and in-person International training and networking events with the young people across Europe involved in the project and creation of a network of the young people and the project partners to future policy development and inclusion of young people. 10. 4- Recorded Podcasts where innovative recommendations from young people for future strategies in EU rural areas are discussed. 11. A Policy paper which will include innovative youth-led recommendations for addressing future community-led local development. It is envisaged that the training courses and toolkits developed through the project will be available to groups across Europe to adapt to their local needs to support greater inclusion of young people in community-led development activities. The project partners implemented the project through the combined experience and expertise of the partners across the disciplines of community-led local development and youth engagement and development. << Results >>The project aimed to increase the involvement of young people living in rural and remote areas, especially those facing socio-economic challenges, in community participation and local development activities. The project collaborated with existing community organisations to address issues related to volunteer recruitment, succession planning, and the integration of young people into community-led initiatives. One of the main objectives was to develop a toolkit, in collaboration with various groups, to promote best practices for involving young people in community-led local development initiatives.The main goal of the piloting of the Toolkit was to evaluate the policy toolkit’s quality and effectiveness by collecting feedback from the participants and community groups. This aimed to identify the strengths, weaknesses, and areas requiring improvement in the toolkit. Subsequently, all the data collected during the piloting sessions was used to improve both the content and usability of the Toolkit. This procedure brought the toolkit into line with the needs of its audience. 31 young participants are now Young future leaders with an increased capacity & competence to understand and contribute to community-led local development and influence other young people to become involved. To strengthen young voices within their communities through a more diverse and better-balanced approach. They are empowered & skilled to address Community-led local development policies at EU, national & regional levels. There is a greater understanding and awareness within the local community groups that took part in the piloting. They have engaged more young people and value the inclusion of the young people's engagement. The project's results included the below - 1 Transnational Research Report4 Training modules developed1 Manual for trainers 1 Pilot course implemented 1 Youth Inclusion Toolkit 1 Piloting of Toolkit results report1 Policy paper.32 young people engaged in piloting & mobility training 5 Multiplier Events 31 Youth Pass delivered